Hellenic Thought

What is the good life?

 Classical Athens: Rational Humanism
◦ Power and stability of democratic city-state
◦ Critical assessment of individual & community
◦ Individual defined by capacity to reason
◦ Aim at good society, good life via reason

 Hellenistic Society: Cosmopolitanism

◦ Political instability, monarchy, cultural expansion
◦ Value of individual & community put into question
◦ Issues related to alienation, fatalism, and virtue

From Hellenism to Rome

Hellenistic Age (c. 323-30
BCE)
 Decline of Athens (c. 404)
 Rise of Macedon:
◦ Philip (d. 336) & Alexander
◦ Death of Alexander (323)
◦ [Aristotle dies 322]
 Hellenism
◦ Alexandria cultural center
◦ Fusion of peoples
◦ Stoicism & Epicureanism
◦ Mystery Religions
 Roman Ascension
◦ Roman Republic (509-133)
◦ Collapse of Republic (133-30)
◦ Roman Empire (30 BCE- 180
CE)
Epicureanism
 Epicurus (341-271 BCE)

 A life devoted to worldly

happiness based on materialist
account of nature.

 Encouraged withdrawal from

political life into communities of
like-minded individuals
(Gardens in Athens)

 Rational humanism, influence on

Romans, revived in 16th/17th
century with rise of science and
renaissance humanism.
 Materialism (Atomism)
◦ All things are atoms & void; shape & size
◦ Atoms are eternal (nothing from nothing), universe is
boundless

 Ethics
◦ Aim: eudaimonia = happiness is a mind free from
disturbance (ataraxia) and a body free from pain.
◦ Means: fear and ignorance cause disturbances in mind
and body, so ataraxia achievable by understanding the
true nature of things; removal of source of fear and
disturbance.

Epicureanism
 Pleasure and pain natural and necessary
sensations
◦ Can reduce pain by avoiding painful things
◦ Increase pleasure by pursuing pleasurable things.

 But, a prudent life (virtuous) tells us not all

pleasure is good, nor all pain bad.
◦ Moderation in pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain
◦ Friendship and other social/intellectual pleasures
included.

“Moderate Hedonism”

Body free from pain

 Fear punishment and arbitrary
interference
◦ a type of superstitious belief…

 But, gods are immortal and blessed,

◦ Not celestial bodies aiming to pass judgment;
◦ Not vengeful;
◦ Only concerned with their own domain, not
humans.

 So, no need to fear gods

What causes fear? The gods

 Fear the pain and misery of life after death.
◦ Either the punishment or dreary ‘life’ of death

 But, death is nothing but cessation of life.

◦ Atomism (death is separation of body and soul;
only through body is sensation possible; dissolution
of material components, including soul.

 So, in life there is no death; in death there is

no life to be concerned with.

What causes fear? Death

Hedonism
 To a considerable extent, Stoicism is a refutation
of the belief that happiness is determined by
means of pleasure and pain. This kind of
philosophy is called hedonism (from the Greek
root hedone, meaning pleasure).
 One of the earliest schools of hedonism was
started on the coast of North Africa by Aristippus
(c.430-350 B.C.E.), who felt that, because sensory
pleasures are more intense than mental or
emotional ones, they are the best of all.
 Also, actual pleasures in the present are more
desirable than potential pleasures in the future,
since the latter may or may not come and things
may be different for us then.
Stoicism
 Origins
◦ Zeno of Citium (333-264 BCE)
◦ Chrysippus (280-270 BCE)
◦ Epictetus* (~130-50 BCE)
◦ Seneca (3-65 CE)
◦ Marcus Aurelius* (121-180 CE)

 A life resigned to ‘fate’,

acknowledging limits of self-control
and obligations of duty. Aiming for
a tranquility of mind and evenness
of emotional life.

 Extremely influential in Roman era,

as well as in early Church doctrine.
Influence on Stoicism Cynicism
 Another influence on the origins of Stoicism was
Cynicism, a philosophic “school” in the loosest sense.
 Founded by Antisthenes (c.455-360 B.C.E.), who formed
a school called the Cynosarges (The Silver Dog), the
Cynics revolted against the rules and rigidity of Plato and
Aristotle (while admiring Socrates’ disdain for fashion).
 The Cynics believed that the very essence of civilization is
corrupt, and so lived austere, unconventional lives. They
distrusted luxury as a “hook” that always brought
complications and frustration into people’s lives.
 What happiness there is could only come from self-
discipline and rational control of all desires and appetites,
with minimal contact with conventional society.
  However, writes Epictetus, “In our power are opinion,
movement towards a thing, desire, aversion; and in a
word, whatever are our own acts.”
 What is in our power is our free will. We control our
feelings about things, because we control our thinking.
This frees us from depending on other people’s opinions
of us for our self-esteem or happiness.
 We suffer to the extent that we take our lives
personally. So, our status, good fortunes, mishaps, and
relationships should be evaluated with the same
disinterested detachment that we would give to
everything else.

Some Things Are in Our Control

  If this is true, then nothing that happens can be
“wrong” or “bad,” since everything that happens is part
of God’s rational plan.
 If your life is beyond your control, direct your efforts
toward what you can control – your attitude or will.
 Developing a disinterested rational will is a matter
of having no personal attachments or motives.
 For Stoics, wisdom consists in thinking of things that
happen to you as you would any other event in the
world, as a necessary part of the whole. And as
everyone else is in the same situation, we are all part of
a “universal city” – where each person is indifferent to
themselves, knowing that “Logos knows best.”

Stoic Wisdom
Stoicism
 Aim: to achieve a tranquility of mind (ataraxia)
and emotional stability (apathe)

 Means: to understand the nature of things

◦ Understand what is or isn’t under one’s control
◦ No control over the events of life, but one’s reaction to
those events
◦ So, reason-guided life in accord with the nature of things

 Precepts:
◦ Fatalism: world determined by divine providence
◦ Conventionalism in moral action and social responsibility,
including modesty
◦ Cosmopolitanism: reason is divine spark that unites
individuals
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE)
 Roman military and political leader
◦ Reigned 161-180 CE
◦ last of the “Five Good Emperors” who
governed the Roman Empire from 96 to
180, and is also considered one of the most
important stoic philosophers.

 Meditations are stoic maxims to

himself, a diary of a ruler
◦ written on campaign between 170-180, is
still revered as a literary monument to a
government of service and duty and has
been praised for its "exquisite accent and its
infinite tenderness."
 Another notable Stoic was the Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 C.E.). While their pay
scales varied, the philosophies of Epictetus and
Aurelius were very similar.
 By temperament a scholar and a recluse, Marcus
Aurelius lived surrounded by commotion,
deception, and crowds, and so told himself – in his
journal, known to us as his Meditations – to “look
within” and to “only attend to thyself” (the only
thing the Stoics believe we can control).
 The last truly great figure of Imperial Rome,
Marcus Aurelius was once described as “by nature
Philosopher-King
a saint and a sage, by profession a warrior and a
ruler” – a Stoic Philosopher-King.
 A wise man is like an archer who cares less about actually
hitting the target than about doing his best to hit it;
wisdom includes understanding the difference. (apathê)

 So, if a perfectly wise man saw his child in danger of

drowning he would try to save the child; but if he failed (or
succeeded) he would accept this without feeling distress or
pity (or pride or relief), and without his happiness being
diminished (or enhanced).

 Moral virtue is the only good, wickedness the only evil:

child’s death or survival is not a good or an evil; so long as
the wise man tried his best, he has nothing to regret.

Archer Simile
(apathe)
 Some Philosophy Comparisons
Aim Means Comments
A just or well-order Each part of the soul Knowledge of the
Plato soul doing its part well; good is paramount;
reason rules… wisdom

Eudaimonia: Virtues: character Hierarchy of goods

happiness as a well traits that are means and necessities of
Aristotle ordered life as a between extremes… good life; a whole life
whole
Eudaimonia: Moderate Hedonism: Materialism and
Ataraxia or mind and Prudent action and removal of irrational
Epicureanism body free from understanding of fear as cause of
disturbance nature; avoid pain, distrubances
moderate pleasure
Eudaimonia: Moderate Fatalism: Pantheistic, fatalistic,
Ataraxia or pathe: Knowing what is/is not moral
Stocisim rational constancy in within one’s control; conventionalism,
accord with nature adjusting desires to modesty;
nature of things. cosmopolitanism
 If you had to pick one of these, which
would you favor? Why?

 Are there any contemporary parallels with

any of these views?

Thoughts