Life Philosophies of Late Antiquity
- "Hellenism:" a modern name for the period from the death of Alexander (323B.C.E.) to Octavian's (later &quto;Augustus") triumph (the end of the Roman Republic, 31B.C.E.)
- During the Hellenistic Period Greek learning spread but the political and economic importance of individual Greek cities (including Athens) declined
- the citizen becomes a "cosmopolitan": citizen of the world
In a world that no longer has a political center, it is more important to conquer yourself than to try to conquer fate. These philosophers sought a new apporach in the light of a new order in the political world. Aristotle's argument that the good life depends upon a well-ordered city-state and power in the world no longer provided a useful guide in the Hellenistic world.
- the rise of philosophical schools (after Plato & Aristotle)
- Epicureans
- Cynics
- Stoics
- Skeptics
- Peripatetics
- these schools share a new model of philosophy. Greek philosophy had several different models, including:
- myth (Milesians)
- mathematics (Pythagoras & Plato)
- biology (Aristotle)
- NEW: medicine: what Martha Nussbaum calls the "therapeutic model"
- Common interest in these philosophies: tranquility or detachment (
ATARAXIA
- emphasis on overcoming the fear of death (which leads to acquisitiveness and competitiveness)
- Epicureans
- Stoics
- Skeptics
- Hegel on the dialectic of Stoicism, Skepticisim and the "Unhappy Consciousness"
- Stoics say that it makes no difference whether you are an Emperor or Slave. Therefore Stoics are really Skeptics
- Skeptics judge our understanding by the most stringent standard. Since we do not know absolutely, we do not know at all. Hence skeptics are really dualist: the judge this world by a perfect world we can never achieve.
- So the skeptic is the unhappy consciousness of the early Christian era: this world stands condemned in the light of the next.
- Transition to Christian philosophy: five significant new elements that Chirstian philosophy brings to the Western tradition:
- time as a straight line, and as the history of salvation
- the concept of creation (from nothing)
- a loving, personal god
- sin: the reality of evil, the importance of the will
- revelation as a source of special knowledge (faith)
revised November 10, 1996
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