Hellenism and the Roman Period

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.E.) conquered many lands that became dominated by Greek culture. About 50 B.C.E. Rome conquered all of the Greek colonies and the three hundred years till then was known as the Hellenism.

§         National religions and country’s boarders disappeared as well as the boarders between religion and philosophy – In the cities one could find many things from far away.

§         People started to doubt some of their gods.

§         Hellenism’s philosophers were concerned with ethics, and how man can be the happiest he can be.

·        The Cynics: Happiness comes of not needing to depend on material things or good health and should not concern themselves with other people’s needs.

·        The Stoics: Everyone is a world unto themselves that reflect the greater world. There is a universal reason and natural laws govern the world. The soul and the natural body are one. Zeno of Cittium (334-262 B.C.E) believed that nature was material and that what needed to be found were useful answers to everyday moral problems of people. He thought that every man had a duty to his community and the people around him. Zeno also believed in apatheia – freedom from paths, suffering and passion; to him there was a spark of divine and natural reason ruling it all, which he called the “Cosompilous”.  Another Stoic, Epitius believed that one should leave their body and will untainted to avoid pain at all costs. Politics were a big part of Stoicism, for example the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (C.E. 121-180) was a Stoic. He composed a book called the Meditations that he wrote a little bit in every night about his reflections about life. Cicero (106-43 B.C.E) had the idea of “humanism” that had man at the center of the world, and Seneca (4 B.C.E. – C.E. 65) said; “to mankind, mankind is holy.” Believed in destiny, must except all things bad and good because you can’t escape fate.

·        The Epicureans: Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E) founded a school that was based on Democritus’s atom theory and something Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates, said: “The highest good is pleasure, the greatest evil is pain.” They thought the perfect, happy life would be free of pain. They conquered the fear of death, and thought that man was most happy if he withdraws himself from society. The Epicureans found most of their ways of life from Epecrus’ Epolalist, a book of letter of advice.

·        Neoplatonism: Their philosophy was based on Plato’s. Plotinus (205-270 B.C.E) thought that at one end of the world there was a light, the One, or God and the other end is complete darkness, the darkness is the absence of the One, and so it does not exist. Man’s body is in the darkness and his soul is near the One. 

§         The philosophy of the later Roman period was mainly synthetic of Greek philosophy and school traditions. The Romans would pick out only the best and clarify and expand on them.

Cicero (106-43 B.C.E) - Rome

·        He believed in practical philosophical insight and would talk to crowds about his thoughts – he was killed and his tongue and hands were cut off and nailed above a podium as a warning

·        Cicero was an Epercuristic Stoic. To him Epercurism meant what experience shows us actually works in a consistent manner.

·        He wrote a book in response to Plato’s Republic with his own Republic, which is a conversation about the most perfect government that could exist.

·        Cicero thought that there was an afterlife for those who are virtuous to the heroic degree, other than that when one dies her existence vanishes.

Skepticism

 The Skeptics tried to ground the pursuit of happiness in forgetting knowledge instead of figuring out how to achieve it.

Pyrrho of Ellyis (365-? B.C.E) Skeptic

·        Taught that one must neither trust nor reject what the senses tell him nor any other kind of apparent knowledge.

·        He thought that things can only be known that is apparent to facilities

·        Be Decent. Pyrrho believed that one cannot get to far in any direction if she isn’t decent in all aspects.

·        His discipline Timion wrote the first book on Pyrrho’s sayings and stories, there were many to follow

Arcus Alous (?-211 B.C.E) Skeptic

·        Said the he was not certain that he was uncertain

·        He was very critical of Stoic thought

·        Arcus Alous reincarnated Socratic thought and methods.

Carnedaes (213-128 B.C.E) Skeptic

·        Taught that knowledge is impossible to find; humans have no criteria of proof, any proof rests on assumptions that must be proved.

·        He thought that the best way to live was to be a hermit or silent; not a citizen of the world.

·        Even though he believed that one can never have knowledge one should still try to gain some.

·        Carnedaes was an atheist, like most skeptics.

Sextus Empricus (?) Skeptic

·        Many books by him survived, they were written in Greek. Among them are “The Outlines of Pyrrhism”, “Against the Mathematician” and “Against the Academics”

·        He started from the basics, not listening to other philosophies or traditions; he wanted to have a pure philosophy of his own.

·        Believed that experience is the closest one can get to the truth. He also believed that there was no knowledge, no certainty in the world, only probability.