A Critical History of Greek Philosophy by W. T. Stace (the false prince series .txt) 📕

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of Plato, physics and astronomy were included as parts of philosophy, whereas now they constitute separate sciences. This, however, is not an insurmountable difficulty. What chiefly militates against the effort to frame a definition is that the precise content of philosophy is differently viewed by different schools of thought. Thus a definition of {2} philosophy which a follower of Herbert Spencer might frame would be unacceptable to an Hegelian, and the Hegelian definition would be rejected by the Spencerian. If we were to include in our definition some such phrase as "the knowledge of the Absolute," while this might suit some philosophers, others would deny that there is any Absolute at all. Another school would say that there may be an Absolute, but that it is unknowable, so that philosophy cannot be the knowledge of it. Yet another school would tell us that, whether there is or is not an Absolute, whether it is or is not knowable, the knowledge of it is in any case useless, and ought not to be sought. H

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the Nous, as second emanation, proceeds the world-soul. This is, in Erdmann's phrase, a sort of faded-out copy of the Nous, and it is outside time, incorporeal, and indivisible. It works rationally, but yet is not conscious. It has a two-fold aspect, inclining upwards to the Nous on the one hand, and downwards to the world of nature on the other. It produces out of itself the individual souls which inhabit the world.

The idea of emanation is essentially a poetical metaphor, and not a rational concept. It is conceived poetically by Plotinus as resembling light which radiates from a bright centre, and grows dimmer as it passes outwards, till it shades off at last into total darkness. This total darkness is matter. Matter, as negation of light, as the limit of being, is in itself not-being. Thus the crucial difficulty of all Greek philosophy, the problem of the whence of matter, the dualism of matter and thought, which we have seen Plato and Aristotle struggling in vain to subjugate, is loosely and lightly slurred over by Plotinus with poetic metaphors and roseate phrases.

Matter Plotinus considers to be the ground of plurality and the cause of all evil. Hence the object of life can {376} only be, as with Plato, to escape from the material world of the senses. The first step in this process of liberation is "katharsis," purification, the freeing of oneself from the dominion of the body and the senses. This includes all the ordinary ethical virtues. The second step is thought, reason, and philosophy. In the third stage the soul rises above thought to an intuition of the Nous. But all these are merely preparatory for the supreme and final stage of exaltation into the Absolute One, by means of trance, rapture, ecstasy. Here all thought is transcended, and the soul passes into a state of unconscious swoon, during which it is mystically united with God. It is not a thought of God, it is not even that the soul sees God, for all such conscious activities involve the separation of the subject from its object. In the ecstasy all such disunion and separation are annihilated. The soul does not look upon God from the outside. It becomes one with God. It is God. Such mystical raptures can, in the nature of the case, only be momentary, and the soul sinks back exhausted to the levels of ordinary consciousness. Plotinus claimed to have been exalted in this divine ecstasy several times during his life.

After Plotinus Neo-Platonism continues with modifications in his successors, Porphyry, Iamblicus, Syrianus, Proclus, and others.

The essential character of Neo-Platonism comes out in its theory of the mystical exaltation of the subject to God. It is the extremity of subjectivism, the forcing of the individual subject to the centre of the universe, to the position of the Absolute Being. And it follows naturally upon the heels of Scepticism. In the Sceptics all faith in the power of thought and reason had finally died out. They {377} took as their watchword the utter impotence of reason to reach the truth. From this it was but a step to the position that, if we cannot attain truth by the natural means of thought, we will do so by a miracle. If ordinary consciousness will not suffice, we will pass beyond ordinary consciousness altogether. Neo-Platonism is founded upon despair, the despair of reason. It is the last frantic struggle of the Greek spirit to reach, by desperate means, by force, the point which it felt it had failed to reach by reason. It seeks to take the Absolute by storm. It feels that where sobriety has failed, the violence of spiritual intoxication may succeed.

It was natural that philosophy should end here. For philosophy is founded upon reason. It is the effort to comprehend, to understand, to grasp the reality of things intellectually. Therefore it cannot admit anything higher than reason. To exalt intuition, ecstasy, or rapture, above thought--this is death to philosophy. Philosophy in making such an admission, lets out its own life-blood, which is thought. In Neo-Platonism, therefore, ancient philosophy commits suicide. This is the end. The place of philosophy is taken henceforth by religion. Christianity triumphs, and sweeps away all independent thought from its path. There is no more philosophy now till a new spirit of enquiry and wonder is breathed into man at the Renaissance and the Reformation. Then the new era begins, and gives birth to a new philosophic impulse, under the influence of which we are still living. But to reach that new era of philosophy, the human spirit had first to pass through the arid wastes of Scholasticism.

{378}

SUBJECT INDEX

A
Abortions, 291.
Absolute, The;

as many in one, 70-71, 197;

as reason, 240-1, 307;

as knowable, 299;

as form, 307. Actuality, 279. Air, as first principle, 28. Antinomy, 54. Appearance, 61. Aristocracy, 324. Asceticism, defect of, 317. Ataraxia, 363. Atoms, 88 et seq, 356. Aufklärung, 119-120.
B
Becoming;

Parmenides on, 44;

Heracleitus on, 73;

Empedocles on, 82;

Plato on, 192;

Aristotle on, 279-280 Being;

Parmenides on, 44 et seq;

Plato on, 191,197.
C
Causation, 6-7;

as explanation, 64;

Aristotle's doctrine of, 267-73. Classification, 199. Comedy, 330-1. Concepts;

defined, 143;

identified with definitions, 145;

Socrates's doctrine of, 143-6;

objectivity of, 183;

Stoics on, 345. Condensation, 28. Contract, the social, 323. Cosmopolitanism, 353. Counter-earth, 38. Criterion, The Stoic, 345-6.
D
Darwinism, 293. Death, problem of, 76-7. Democracy, 123, 325. Dialectic, 55, 183, 199, 204. Dichotomy, 200. Division, 199. Dualism;

defined, 63;

of Eleatics, 68-70;

of Anaxagoras, 105;

of Plato, 105;

of Aristotle, 334-5.
E
Eclipses, 103. Ecstasy, 376-7. Efficient cause, 269;

identified with final cause, 273-4. Elements, The Four, 83. Emanation, 371, 374-5. Empty Space, 47, 89, 291-2 Eros, 204. Evolution;

Anaximander and, 27;

Aristotle's doctrine of, 307-12, 307-12, 333, 336-7;

Spencer's doctrine of, 308 et seq. {379} Evil, problem of, 240-1. Explanation, scientific, 64-5. External goods, value of, 159, 31-6, 350, 359.
F
Faith, age of, 151. Family, The; Aristotle on, 324. Final cause, 269;

identified with formal cause, 273. Fire, as first principle, 78, 347. First Cause, 66. First Mover, 284-5. Form, Aristotle's doctrine of, 267, 274-8. Formal cause, 269;

identified with final cause, 273. Free Will, 320, 348, 355. Friendship, 225, 359.
G
Genius, artistic, 231. Geocentric hypothesis, 38, 211, 305. Geometry, 3-5, 275. God;

Xenophanes on, 41-2;

Socrates on, 132;

Plato on, 202-4;

Aristotle on, 283-8;

as first mover, 284-5;

as thought of thought, 285-6;

relation of, to the world, 282;

Plotinus on, 373. Gods, The;

Democritus on, 92;

Protagoras on, 112;

Socrates on, 132;

Epicurus on, 357. Good,

The Idea of, 198, 200-1, 244;

as God, 203. Gravitation, 294-5.
H
Habit, 7. Happiness;

Antisthenes on, 159;

Plato on, 220-1;

Aristotle on, 314-15;

Stoics on, 351;

Epicurus on, 358, 361;

distinguished from pleasure, 221. Heavenly bodies, The;

Anaximander on, 26;

Pythagoreans on, 38;

Xenophanes on, 43;

Anaxagoras on, 103;

Plato on, 211;

Aristotle on, 305-6. Heliocentric hypothesis, 38. Hinduism, 71, 197, 308, 312-13.
I
Idealism;

of Parmenides, 47 et seq;

essentials of, 48, 49, 235;

Plato as founder of, 235. Ideas,

Theory of, 174,183-207;

Aristotle on, 262-5. Imagination, 300. Immortality;

Atomists on, 92;

Plato on, 175, 212;

Aristotle on, 302-3;

Epicurus on, 357. Indian Thought, 14-16; see also Hinduism. Individualism, 323. Induction, 144, 146, 190, 206, 260. Infinite divisibility;

Zeno on, 56;

Anaxagoras on, 96;

Aristotle on, 292-3;

Hume on, 57-8;

Kant on, 57;

Hegel on, 58-60. Inorganic matter, 294-6. Insight, moral, 318. Intuition, 153, 375, 377. Irony, of Socrates, 130.
J
Judaism, 71. Justice;

Pythagoreans on, 37;

Plato on, 224;

Aristotle on, 319-20.
{380}
K
Knowledge;

of the Infinite, 7-8;

of the Absolute, 299;

through concepts, 146, 182;

Plato on, 177-82;

as recollection, 212-17;

necessary knowledge, 213-15.
L
Life; Aristotle's doctrine of, 296. Limit, The, 36. Love, Platonic, 204-6.
M
Marriage, 224. Material cause, 268. Materialism;

origin of, 9-11;

of Ionics, 23;

defect of, 66. Matter;

indestructibility of, 50;

Platonic, 208;

Aristotle's doctrine of, 275-9;

Plotinus on, 375. Mechanical theories, 88. Memory, 300. Monarchy, 324. Monism, 62-7. Monstrosities, 29l. Morality;

founded on reason, 118. Motion;

Zeno on, 54;

Aristotle on, 29l. Multiplicity;

Zeno on, 53. Mysticism, 12, 171, 371, 372, 374, 376. Myths, of Plato, 170-71, 208, 209, 210, 211.
N
Necessary Knowledge, 213-15;

necessary concepts, 242. Non-sensuous thought, 8-13. Not-being, 44, 75, 76, 77, 89, 191, 208, 279, 280. Nous;

of Anaxagoras, 97-105;

of Plotinus, 375. Numbers, as first principle, 36.
O
Object, the right of the, 122. Objectivity;

defined, 113;

of concepts, 183. Oligarchy, 324. Opinion, 181-2. Organic matter, organism, 294-6.
P
Pantheism, 312. Participation, 194, 236. Personality, 286. Pleasure, 161-2, 218-19, 350, 358;

distinguished from happiness, 221. Potentiality, 279. Pragmatism, 121. Protestantism, 123.
Q
Quality, mechanical explanation of, 87-8.
R
Rarefaction, 28. Reality;

distinguished from appearance, 61;

distinguished from existence, 60-1, 246-7. Reason;

distinguished from sense, 45, 79, 112, 113, 115, 239, 290;

distinguished from cause, 64, 76;

as universal, 113;

as concepts, 144;

supremacy of, 153-4;

as basis of love, 205-6;

as Absolute, 240-1;

passive and active, 300;

as basis of morals, 118, 317, 349-50. {381} Recollection;

knowledge as,