Notes, Comments, Quotes from "Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics" by A.A. Long

 

General Comments from Introduction

• Hellenistic philosophy begins around the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.) and ends with the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony at the battle of Actium (31 B.C.)
• The major figures of early Hellenistic philosophy all migrated to Athens from elsewhere
• "Philosophy, so many have said, responded to the unsettled age of the Hellenistic monarchs by turning away from disinterested speculation to the provision of security for the individual.  Stoicism has been described as 'a system put together hastily, violently, to meet a bewildered world'" p. 3
• "The needs of people in the Hellenistic world for a sense of identity and moral guidance can help explain why Stoicism and Epicureanism rapidly gained adherents at Athens and elsewhere." p. 3
• I sense that this is also why we are seeing a resurgence of modern interest in ancient Greek philosophy.  The change in science, politics and technology as well as the spread of information of history, has far outpaced the individual philosophies and religions of the post-modern citizen.  People are looking for solid ground on which to stand - to make sense of it all.
• "Alexander, Diogenes and Aristotle, all died within a year of two of each other (325-322), and this is worth mentioning because it emphasizes the need to take into account of continuity as well as change in the interpretation of Hellenistic philosophy." p. 3
• "'The reason for discovering philosophy is to allay that which causes disturbance in life'" - Xenocrates ... "the statement harmonizes well with the general aims of Hellenistic philosophy" p. 6
• Reiterates my comment above about the need to discover a solid philosophy in today's complex world.
• "philosophy advances by criticism." p. 11
• Agree!  Having been raised in a religion where criticism of the leaders was very taboo, what a breath of fresh air to be in a position to freely debate philosophy.  We help ourselves and the world by debate and dialogue.

Epicureanism

• 'live quietly' ... a prescription for attaining traquility; the highest good.  p. 16
• "He claimed to derive great pleasure from a subsistence diet which cheese would turn into a feast." p. 16
• "Epicurus has various ways of establishing his hedonism, none of which draws direct support from atoms and void.  In this he differs markedly from the Stoics whose moral theory is intrinsically related to their metaphysics.  But Epicurus thought he could show the validity of hedonism by appeal to immediate experience which, less directly, he held to support atomism." p. 21
• Another reason, for me, why Stoicism is preferable - it tries to be based in empiricism, not anecdotal data.
• the concept of 'the swerve' is interesting - never heard of this before!  "The movements of atoms, and therefore any consequences of its movement, are not entirely predictable ... It follows then that an atom, independently of any secondary motion which may result from collisions, has both a unidirectional movement and an unpredictable tendency to deviate from this." p. 38
• "Lucretius praises Epicurus for delivering mankind from 'the weight of religion'.  He means popular religion, superstitious beliefs in the gods as direct arbiters of human destiny and fears of divine anger as expressed in thunder and lightening." p. 40
• "There is no purpose which the world as a whole or things in particular are designed to fulfill.  For design is not a feature of the world; it is manifestly imperfect." p. 40
• Another strong feature that does not align with ancient/traditional Stoicism.  And I sometimes see this same sentiment in some moderns; they would embrace the atoms of Epicureanism.
• "Nothing disquieted Epicurus more profoundly than the notion that supernatural beings control phenomena or that they can affect human affairs.  That there are gods he did not deny.  But he repeatedly and vociferously rejected the belief that gods are responsible for any natural events." p. 41
• This was a bit surprising to me.  I did not know Epicurus believed in gods.  He just didn't believe they pulled strings and caused events.
• And I have to applaud him for this attempt in disabusing people from fear of fallible gods.
• "Epicurus thought he could remove the source of one basic human anxiety - fear of divine judgement and eternal punishment." p. 42
• "In his view happiness, whether human or divine, requires for its full realization a life of uninterrupted tranquility or freedom from pain." p. 44
• based on three assumptions 1) there are gods 2) the gods are sublimely happy and immortal 3) their happiness consists of uninterrupted tranquility
• all races and people believe in gods; therefore, there are gods
• gods enjoy existence free of toil; by virtue of their nature, they can preserve their existence; they dwell in no world but in the spaces which separate one world from another. p. 48
• This sounds like what Cooper experiences in Interstellar; but Cooper isn't exactly free of pain!
• "Epicurus hoped to show that beliefs in a system of rewards and punishments as recompense for life on earth were mere mythology." p. 49
• More on the swerve
• If all movements are causally related; no new movements are created by a swerve in atoms, then there could be no such thing as free will.
• Free will is a new movement at no fixed time or place
• But there is such a thing as free will
• Therefore the atoms sometimes create new beginnings by swerving. p. 58
• the swerve is some event which "presents itself to consciousness as 'free' will to initiate new movement" p. 59
• swerves help initiate new action in the pursuit of tranquility p. 60

Scepticism

• "As the name of a philosophical method or particular school Scepticism originates with Pyrrho.  But long before Pyrrho of course we can find philosophers expressing sceptical attitudes.  The fallibility of sense-perception as a source of knowledge was emphasized in different ways by Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles and Democritus in the Presocratic period." p. 78
• "The important point for this chapter is that certain problems of knowledge to which Pyrrho drew attention had already been recognized by earlier philosophers. ... Pyrrho's scepticism has its closest conceptual connexion with Protagoras among his predecessors ... Pyrrho's scepticism provides the basis for a penetrating criticism of such theories of knowledge, though there is no evidence that Pyrrho himself attacked Epicurus and Zeno specifically." p. 79
• Another goal of Scepticism is "freedom from disturbance" p. 79
• "Anecdotes about Pryyho suggest that he was sympathetic to the Cynic advocacy of a simple life in withdrawal from civic affairs." p. 79
• "His pupil Timon says that the man who means to be happy must consider these three questions: 1) what things are really like; 2) what attitude we should adopts towards them; 3) what the consequence of such an attitude will be.  According to Timon Pyrrho declared that things are equally indistinguishable, unmeasurable and indeterminable.  For this reason neither our acts of perception nor our judgements are true or false.  Therefore we should not rely on them but be without judgements, inclining neither this way nor that, but be steadfast saying concerning each individual thing that it is no more is that is not, or that it both is and is not, or that it neither is nor is not.  For those who adopt this attitude the consequence will be first a refusal to make assertions and second, freedom from disturbance." p. 80-81
• This sums up perfectly what I understand of Scepticism.  I agree with some of the assertions, but to live entirely like this, all the time?  I can see why it would create freedom from disturbance, but I don't think a life will flourish, nor would one attain eudaimonia.
• "There are no necessary truths about empirical objects, and David Hume was probably right to argue that no sufficient reasons can be given for inferring the nature of physical objects from sense-perception." p. 87
• "Like other Sceptics Carneades exploited differences of opinion between dogmatic schools.  Epicurus, as we have seen, argued that the world's obvious imperfections give clear evidence against its being under control of the gods.  The Stoics argued quite the opposite way: the world is manifestly the work of providences, the supreme example of which is man himself, a rational beings designed by the gods to live a virtuous life.  Carneades held that the sufferings of the virtuous and the flourishing of malefactors prove that the gods are quite indifferent to human affairs." p. 101
• Loved the contrast in points of view to the three schools on the point of the gods.

Stoicism

• "Many of the Christian fathers were more deeply affected by Stoicism than they themselves recognized ... the effect of Stoic moral teaching on Western culture has been pervasive.  Sometimes Stoic doctrines have reappeared in the work of major philosophers.  Spinoza, Bishop Butler and Kant were all indebted to the Stoics." p. 107
• Page 114 notes the debates between the Sceptics and the Stoics in the area of ethics related to the good and the preferred.  The Sceptics were successful in causing the Stoics to modify their ethics.  Later in the chapter, we learn later Stoics focused less on the theoretical sage and focused their efforts on practical ethics.  It would seem the Sceptics had a hand in this long-standing debate.
• Page 119 - reference to the egg, animal and garden analogies.  I had not heard of the animal analogy: bones/sinews = logic ... fleshy parts = ethics ... soul = physics
• Chrysippus advocated learning logic first, then ethics and finally physics. p. 120
• Page 134 ... some interesting ideas on the primary sounds of language; harsh and smooth words corresponding to harsh and smooth things.
• a good reminder: 'only the present is real' but the present is said to consist of past and future ... Time like lekta has no independent existence but is rather something which rational beings make use of in order to explain the movements of bodies." p. 138
• "Ancient critics of the Stoics found fault with them for their fussiness about logical form and rigorous analysis.  But it is these qualities which have earned the Stoics the admiration of modern logicians." p. 143
• personal commentary on myself and differing people.  I prefer 'high level' views and opinions and prefer not to "get into the weeds" but others embrace technicalities.  The more I study philosophy, the more I see the importance of "fussiness" and "rigor" and the need to embrace and have dialogue over technicalities.  It still bothers me a bit, but I'm trying to get use to it!
• Heraclitus "held that the world is a unity of opposites, a harmony of opposing forces which can be signified by such statements as: 'God is day night, winter summer, war peace'; 'The road up and down is one and the same' ... The Stoics did not make much use of Heraclitus' notion of unity in opposition, though we find traces of this.  But they took from him the concept of the logos which directs all things and which is shared by all men." p. 147
• "Many Stoic versions of the argument from design are also recorded, all of which seek to show that this is the best of all possible worlds with divine purpose immanent in it and working for the benefit of rational beings." p. 149
• "Stoic theology is pantheist" p. 150
• "the human soul as an 'offshoot' of God" p. 150
• Scott Adams God's Debris ... the god particle
• "You are peeved because you fail to realize how what is best for you is best for the universe as well as yourself." p. 151
• Prime Mover / artistic fire "pervades all things and accounts for their persistence and their change." "As advocates of a continuous and purposive universe Aristotle and the Stoics are at one against the Epicureans." p. 152
• "boldly asserted that justice and all moral qualities are bodies like anything else which exists." p. 153 ... explained by the concept of mixture  ... see page 154-159 and the section on Mixture beginning on p. 159
• This whole concept of mixture sounds a lot like the idea of the god particle in God's Debris.  And whenever I think of the concept of mixture, I think of the beginning scene in the movie Prometheus where the guy drinks the dark goo stuff and then dissolves and starts the chain of 'active fire' mixing with the passive matter on a planet and then life begins.
• "The universe itself is a sphere and all its constituents tend to move towards the centre." p. 156
• "The ultimate constituents of Epicurus' universe are empty space and atoms ... the Stoic universe sets this system on its head.  The movement and properties of individual bodies are a consequence of the dispositions of a single all-pervading dynamics substance." p. 157
• "pneuma may be compared with the notion of a 'field of force' activating matter." p. 158
• "Matter and energy are simply different aspects of the same fundamental reality and in all their manifestations obey ineluctable cosmic laws ... There exists a single unified system from one end of the cosmos to the other; in the last analysis, everything is energy [the Stoics would write 'pneumatic force'].  Its spirals are the galaxies, its smaller eddies suns and planets, its softest movement the atom and the gene. Under all forms of matter and manifestations of life there beats the unity of energy according to Einstein's law.  Yet this unified stuff of existence not only twists itself into the incredible variety of material things; it can also produce living patterns of ever greater complexity - from the gas bubble in the original plasma to ... the crowning complexity of the human brain." p. 158
• "In Stoicism, to be a good and happy man is to be related in a certain way to Nature or God.  The psychological need to relate - to oneself, to one's society, to the world - was sensed acutely by the Stoics.  Like William James, or Jung, or Fromm, they detected an all-inclusive desire to 'feel at home in the universe'. p. 163
• Another MAJOR theme and difference from other philosophies.  While the Sceptic and Epicurean will doubt everything and go off and eat cheese in a garden, the Stoic wishes to engage with the cosmos and everything therein.
• "Chance is simple a name for undiscovered causes." "Possibility exists to the extent that, but only to the extent that, men are ignorant of the causal connexion between events." p. 164
• "divine providence ... a capacity in God or Nature to bring about good works ... The Stoics held that this is the best of all possible worlds; ... harmony is present in the whole ... The psychological and moral implications of this notion are constantly invoke by Marcus Aurelius, and it seems to be a fact that many men have found considerable comfort in the belief that, come what may, their lives contribute to some grand universal scheme." ... this attitude "is not one of bling resignation" ... rather they believe there is creative reason at work in all our lives. p. 165
• The "test of human power is not freedom to act otherwise but acting deliberately." p. 168
• "The history of the universe is the harmony of one thing ... Uncreated and imperishable Nature, God, pneuma of universal logos, exercises its activity in a series of eternally recurrent world-cycles.  Beginning and ending as pure fire each world-cycle fulfils the goals of its active principle.  Within each cycle Nature disposes itself in different forms, animal, vegetable and mineral.  To one class of animals, men, Nature gives a share of its own essence, reason, in an imperfect but perfectible form.  Because Nature as a whole is perfect, rational being, all of its acts are ones which should commend themselves to other rational beings." p. 168
• Regarding moral evil: "nothing is strictly bad except moral weakness." p. 169
• "As Pope, following Shaftesbury, wrote: 'All discord, harmony not understood, all partial evil, universal good.'  But all the facts cannot be known and therefore the supposed value of much that happens must be taken on trust." p. 170
• In all my years of studying Stoicism, I've hardly ever encountered the word faith, but when it comes to all the acts of moral evil and violence created by humans over the centuries, my response to the above statement is that Stoics have to trust in the Cosmic Perspective, I tell myself that individual, rational people still make their own choices.  And while it most often will be out of ignorance, it therefore creates all the more urgency for Stoics and other moralists to propagate and share the philosophy of virtue being the sole good.  Just as an individual person may suffer from inner conflict about what to do, so too, perhaps may Nature be having an internal conflict (all of us possessors of god particles in us) and that virtue will win out in the end.
• "This optimistic attitude towards natural events, no matter how terrible they may seem, is one of the least palatable features of Stoicism.  It is one thing to say that human vision is limited, unable to grasp the full cosmic perspective.  But even at its noblest, in the writings of Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, there is something chilling and insensitive about the Stoic's faith that all will turn out well in the end.  They were the only Greek philosophers who tried to find a rationale for everything within their concept of a perfect, all-embracing Nature." p. 170
• "The soul of man is a portion of the vital, intelligent, warm breath with permeates the entire cosmos.  That which it pervades, in the case of man, is his body where body answers to matter." p. 171
• 'well-disposed' oikeios... oikeiosis determines an animal's relationship to its environment, but that to which is is primarily well-disposed is itself." p. 172
• "Reason, the late developer, is a faculty which shapes but does not destroy those faculties that precede its emergence.  In the Stoic view of human development, innate impulses are so transformed by the flowering of reason that they cease to exists as an independent faculty.  They are taken over by reason.  Human nature is so constituted that it develops from something non-rational and animal-like into a structure which is governed throughout by reason.  This conception is of greatest importance in Stoic ethics.  The development of rationality brings with itself a change in the direction of impulse.  New objects of desire take precedence over the satisfaction of basic bodily needs.  Virtue is found to be something which 'belongs to man' in a more fundamental sense than food, drink, shelter and so forth." p. 173-174
• I can't help but wonder if Nature goes through a similar phase and growth approach, growing from meeting basic needs to fully rational, in which all rational beings, living in Nature, become sages, at which point a new cycle begins.
• "The Stoics distinguished good men from others by reference to the consistency of their logos. ... absence of consistency with right reason marks us out as 'foolish' or bad men" while progress is increasing in consistency of right reason. p. 177
• All is good for Nature ... Hymn of Zeus ... "out of disharmony, Zeus creates harmony" p. 181-182
• "Man is naturally equipped with impulses to virtue or seeds of knowledge, and this equipment is sufficient to direct human reason in the right directions.  But Nature itself does not go further than this.  The achievement of a good character calls for the most arduous efforts from any man and, as we have seen, external influences can (and generally do) prevent him from developing a rational disposition perfectly harmonious with Nature itself.  In order that virtue shall be attainable the potentiality for vice must also be granted.  Nature has established these conditions and given man the status of moral agent by making him a conscious participant in the rational processes of the universe." "As the Stoics look at the world it is better to be viscous and to have the opportunity of virtue than to be denied the latter possibility" p. 182-183
• Freedom to choose is of the utmost importance for the development of humans.
• This freedom does not grant people to act passively.  Education and rigorous training are vitally important.
• Five Stages of Development in Stoic ethics p. 187-192
• appropriate function of a creature; maintain itself in it natural condition
• seize hold of the things which accord with Nature and banish those which are the opposite
• select appropriately; act with appropriate behavior
• be consistent at selecting appropriately; acting appropriately
• select consistently and absolutely act appropriately in total agreement with Nature; right action for the right reason
• "only virtue has absolute or intrinsic worth" p. 192
• "The Stoics claimed that virtue, the comprehensive goal of human nature, is wholly constitutive of eudaimonia, happiness, welfare or well-being: in order to fare well a man needs nothing by virtue, and as virtue is something absolute, welfare admits of no degrees." p. 197
• the goodness of intention must be evaluated independent of achievement of a result ... "The virtuous man, having done everything in his power, does not feel pity or regret.  He accepts what happens without reacting emotionally." p. 198
• "Nature ordains that a man can and should attain well-being solely through what is in his own power.  This means through virtue, the only good. ... virtue is something he can choose irrespective of circumstances." p. 199
• Virtue definition; p. 199-200
• a disposition and faculty of the governing principal of the soul, 'or rather: reason itself, consistent, firm and unwavering
• the goal which Nature has laid down for man
• pattern of appropriate behavior
• knowledge or art; "a unitary disposition of the soul which can be analysed into four primary virtues: practical wisdom, justice, moderation, courage ... each of these is defined in terms of knowledge ... i.e. courage is knowledge of things to be endured
• Virtue attainment; p. 200-205
• "Only he who has seen 'the good' know precisely what it is.  But we can conjecture what it entails.  To know 'the good' means discovering a principle of conduct which satisfies the general idea of 'accordance with Nature', formed by induction and introspection, and the particular facts of human nature - that man is a rational being with the capacity to understand and participate in the universal activities of Nature."
• "The antecedents of moral knowledge are 'observation' and 'comparison' of repeated acts."
• We observe acts of wisdom, justice, temperance and courage in people.  Perhaps they are acts in one sphere of their life, but not in others.  We but recognize the virtues.
• We observe other people who are more consistent in their acts of virtue and behavior.
• "This kind of man is 'always consistent with himself in every action, good not through policy but under the direction of a disposition such that he is able not only to act rightly but cannot act without acting rightly.  In him we recognize that virtue has been perfected.'" 
• To know how to act with virtue in orderliness, propriety, consistency and harmony.
• "If virtue is to be something supremely worthwhile it deserves every effort on the part of man, and the ideal sage persists as a standard to which we may seek to conform ourselves."
• Stoic Sage
• moral expert; know infallibly what should be done in each situation in life and takes every step to do it at the right time and in the right way. p. 205
• free from all passion; anger, anxiety, cupidity, dread, elation
• does not regard pleasure as something good, nor pain as something evil p. 206

Later Developments in Hellenistic Philosophy

• Panaetius
• His focus was on human nature over universal Nature
• rejected the idea of eternal recurrence
• focused on intermediate goals and duties
• his "readiness to admit 'likeness of virtue' represents a methodological concession which made Stoicism less rigid and more humane." p. 214
• justice: do no injury to another man; see public interest is maintained
• the cosmic dimension in his version virtually disappeared
• Posidonius
• devoted a great deal of energy to the collection and classification of factual data
• recommended various irrational procedures for curing emotional disturbance p. 220
• he showed that a Stoic could advance doctrines of Stoic physics on a very wide front p. 221
• Antiochus
• fundamentals according to him; are the criterion of truth and the chief good or object of desire. p. 224
• virtue will lead to a happy life, but not the happiest life; adding good health, riches, reputation, etc. will make one who has virtue, even happier. p. 225
• is he really a Stoic then??
• Cicero
• "If anyone wonders why I am entrusting these reflections to writing at this stage of my life, I can answer very easily.  With no public activity to occupy me and the political situation making a dictatorship inevitable, I thought that it was an act of patriotism to expound philosophy to my fellow-countrymen, judging it to be greatly to the honor and glory of the state to have such a lofty subject expressed in Latin literature." p. 230

Hellenistic Philosophy and the Classical Tradition

• "The Stoa continued to exist formally until 529 when Justinian closed the four philosophical schools at Athens." p. 235
• "But it was the Church which helped above all to keep Stoic ideas in circulation, and Stoicism in its turn had an important influence on Christian Fathers, in association with the still more notable influence on Platonism." p. 235
• "The answer to scepticism for Augustine was the Christian revelation." p. 237
• Enchiridion, 1495; first edition of Meditations; Heidelberg, 1558
• "The philosophical influence of Stoicism, as I have already mentioned (p. 208), is evident in Spinoza and Kant.  Two English philosophers whose work is worth studying from this point of view are the Earl of Shaftesbury and Bishop Butler." p. 241
• "The sceptic solved the problem of judging between Stoics, Epicureans and others by developing arguments designed to show that certainty and truth were unattainable by any system.  Later, as we have seen with Lactantius and Augustine, Christian thinkers asserted that the only adequate answer to scepticism lay in faith and revelation. ... scepticism was called upon, especially by Catholics, as a means of attacking the other side. ... Montaigne makes use of Pyrrhonism for its original purpose of casting doubt upon every objective criterion of judgement.  He 'defends' Sebond in an oblique way by seeking to show that faith, not rational demonstration, is the basis of the Christian religion.  Certainty is unattainable  ... stripped of human knowledge and all the more ready to accommodate the divine in himself, annihilating his own judgement to make greater room for faith." p. 244-245
• This whole line of thinking - be sceptical to all human knowledge, so that you can have faith in God - is actively used in my former religion.  I imagine many modern day religions would want skeptics in the pews on Sunday - have the congregants doubt everything, so that they can be re-programmed as good Christians who have faith in a Christian god; or any other religion for that matter.  One leader in my former religion said to people who had doubts about the truth claims of the church, told them, to "doubt your doubts."
• "The Stoics defended their system on rational grounds, but part of its attraction was aesthetic and emotional.  The idea or ideal of an orderly universe to which men contribute as rational beings is one of its most important legacies to western culture." p. 247