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SCHOLASTICISM OLDAN INTRODUCTION TO

AND NEW

SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHYMEDIEVAL AND MODERNBY

M.

DE WULF

DOCTOR OP LAWS, DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND LETTERS, PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN

TRANSLATED BYP.

COFFEY, D.PH.

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, MAYNOOTH COLLEGE, IRtLAND

PRESS NOTICES.Dr. Coffey has conferred a service on all Catholics who are interested in philosophic questions, by translating Prof, de Wulf s work on Scholasticism. The book is a vindication of that important intellectual movement, the Neo-scholasticisrn of Louvain. It sets before us the aims of the leaders The Tablet (London). and the conditions they regard as essential to their attainment."

.

.

.

.

.

."

Readable, living, in close and direct contact with the currents of historical, scientific and philosophical movements at present swaying the minds of men, it cannot fail to impress its readers with the greatness of the work associated with the name of Cardinal Mercier and the Neoscholastic school of Louvain. There is not a page that does not teem with suggestive thoughts, and those who are interested to know how scholastic principles emerge from the contest with modern thought will find here much to their purpose. The only favour it asks is to be allowed to indicate its superiority in open intellectual discussions inheriting as it does the traditional spiritualism of a Plato, an Aristotle, a St. Augustine and a St. Thomas, it bases its claim neither on the tradition which it perpetuates, nor on argument from authority. ... On the contrary, it is after an examination of the facts that are engaging the attention of our contemporaries, after interpreting the results achieved by the sciences, after testing critically its own principles, that the New Scholasticism lays down its conclusions, and invites the philosopher of the 2Oth century to recognise them and deal with them on purely the same titles as they deal with those of Neo-Kantism and Positivism. The importance of the book to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, if they wish to do justice to scholastic thought, is evident." Dublin Review."

.

.

.

"

;

The great advantage of Professor de Wulf s introduction is its accuracy and simplicity. It is compressed into a short space, but nothing of the outline of scholastic philosophy is wanting. In The itself, with a little thought on the part of the reader, it will amply repay a perusal. scholastic system is presented as it really is. Misconceptions as to its meaning and teaching are brushed deftly aside. We certainly owe the translator a debt of gratitude for his having rendered de Wulf s scholarly book accessible to English readers. It is to be hoped that it will meet with the welcome it deserves, for it is one of our most valuable contributions to our growing stock of anti rationalistic and soundly rational literatures." The Rev. E. AVELING, D.D., in the Catholic Herald (London)."

.

.

.

.

.

.

The whole subject is well divided the treatment is full of detail, and in spite of the loftiness of the subject-matter the book is for the most part easy reading. From the beginning to the end there is no dearth of freshness or actuality. No one who takes an interest in the subject of scholastic philosophy, and its relations to other systems of thought or to science, can afford to be unacquainted with this valuable and unique monograph." Catholic Book Notes (London)."

;

There is no doubt that the work meets a distinct want. For Catholic students in our semi naries it will be of great value for two reasons. First, it will synthesise into a unity, and present as a comprehensive whole their course of studies, which is only too apt to be viewed piecemeal, without any perceived connection between part and part. Secondly, by presenting the matter in an English dress it will afford a bridge between the technical language of the schools and the untechnical language of ordinary life, and will thus help the student to render his doctrines into terms which the ordinary outsider will understand.""

"

Bombay Examiner.

LONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, &:

CO.

NEW

DUBLIN: M. H. GILL & SON BENZIGER YORK, CINCINNATI, AND CHICAGO

BROTHERS

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.SCHOLASTICISM OLD AND:

(La Philosophic Nto-Scolastique, tr. by P. Coffey, D.Ph.); an Introduction to Scholastic Philosophy, Medieval and Modern. Dublin Gill & Son. New York Benziger Brothers. 1907.:

NEW

HISTOIRE DE LA PHILOSOPHIE SCOLASTIOUE DANS LES PAYS-BAS ET LA PRINCIPAUTE" DE LlGE JUSQU A LA REVOLUTION FRANCouronne" par Acad. de Belgique). 1895. Louvain Paris, Alcan. CAISE ETUDES SUR HENRI DE GAND, extract from the preceding. TUDE SUR LA VIE, LES OEUVRES ET LTNFLUENCE DE GODEFROID(Me"m.1;

Courontu par Acad. de Belgique). Louvain, DE FONTAINES of LE TRAITE DES FORMES DE GILLES DE LESSINES (Vol.4(Me"m.1

I.

1904. the series,

L*s Philosophes

Itelges}.

Louvain, 1901.G.

LES QUATRE PREMIERS QUODLIBETS DEjunction with Dr. A. Pelzer;

DE FONTAINESLouvain, 1904.

(in

con

Vol. II. of

same

series).

LES QUODLIBETSseries).

V.-X.

DE GODEFROID DE FONTAINES

(Vol. III. of same [In preparation.

LE

MOUVEMENT PHILOSOPHIQUE EN BELGIQUE1909.

(Illustrated).vol.

Louvain,Edit, dethe press.

HISTOIRE DE LA PHILOSOPHIE EN BELGIQUEluxe.}

(One

gr.

8vo.[/

PRECIS D HISTOIRE DE PHILOSOPHIEby Louvain Professors,1892.vol. II.,

(in

the

Manue!

de

Phil>wf>hie,

publishedBrussels,

2nd

edit., 1909).

LA VALEUR ESTHETIQUE DE LA MORAL1TK DANS L AKT.

ETUDES HISTORIQUES SUR L ESTHETIQUE DE1899.

S.

THOMAS.

\Out of print. Louvain, {Out of print.

QU

EST-CE

QUE LA PHILOSOPHIE SCOLASTIQUE?ARTICLES IN REVIEWS.thiorie de

Louvain, 1899. [Out of print.

A. Revue n^o- scolastique (Louvain). / illumination spccialc dans lit thtiorie de Henri de (land. L enseignement de la philosophic en France. (1894.) Les theories (1904.) Tir a. part: Louvain et Paris; a saint Thomas. et 1896.) (1895 esthttiques propres 66 pages in Svo.L ensfifrnement de la philosophic en France et en Allemagnc. (1896.) Quelques formes contemporaincs du panoffice international df bibliographic. (1895.) I.es rfcents travaux sur I histoire de la philosophic mddievale. thtisme. (1897.) (189-.

L exemplarisme

ct

la

L

)

a part: Louvain et Paris; Qu est-ce que la philosophic scolastique i (1899 et 1900.) La philosophic scolastique an Congrh de r Exposition universelle de 75 pages in 8vo. Paris. Recent s travaux sur Fhisfoire de la philosophic medifcale en Occident. (1900.) s Cumment (1898-1899.) (1900.) Augustinisme et Aristotdlisme au XIII siecle. (1901.) Haurdau f (1901.) Kantisnu et nto-scolastique. (1902.) Rtcents travaux faut-il jiiger sur r histoire de la philoso-phie mtditvale. (1902, 1904, 1905 et 1907.) Mtthodes scolastiques d* autrejois et if aujourd hui. La decadence de la philosophic scolastiquc au moyen (1903.) Un preux de la parole au XJ I l e siecle. (1904.) Un scolastique inconnu de age. (1903.)la fin du XIII* siecle de Friburg. (1906.)- Premiere lecon tfesthe tique. (1907.) Thierry I.*e mouvenient La revanche de rintcllectualisnte. philosophique en lielgique. (1908.) Bulletin d histoire Je philosophic mSd uiale. L histoire de C EsthMique et (1909.) (1909.) de ses grandes orientations. ( 1 909. )Tire"

M

.

B.

Revue philosophique (M.(Juin 1902.)

Ribot).

La

notion de la scolastique.

C. Archivfur Geschichte der philosophic (M. Stein, Berlin). des universaux dans son Evolution historique du IX* au XIII* siecle. -Les lots organiq-ues de F histoire de la psychologie. (1896.) (1897.) histoire ct de litttrature religieuse. D. Revue d? histoire de la philosophic mddievale. Letat actuel de la science. (1900.) Chroniquc La doctrine de la pluralite" des formes dans Fancienne scolastique du XLfIe siecle. (1901.) Chronique d histoire de philosophic mddihiale. (1902, 1904, 1905 et 1907.)

Le probleme

)

the Mechanicist or Atomist theories of (a) Empedocles, of the Atomist School, (c) of Anaxagoras.(2)is

opposed to Mechanicism or Atomism. systems were, no doubt, contemporaneous with the

Dynamism

Bothearliest

speculations of Grecian philosophy, but as they regard the processes of things the exposition of their principles belongs rather to this second phase of Pre-Socratic Cosmology.

widest sense, physical dynamism embraces these two propositions (i) the things of nature develop under the influenceInits:

of one or more internal principles of activity (2] where these principles are manifold they differ among themselves qualitatively;

in

the various beings and their phenomena. The fundamental ideas of atomism can be also reduced to two(

principles:

\]

mass, and there

In the various things of nature there is material is motion. The parts of the material mass are

qualitatively homogeneous, and their differentiation in size and shape explains the diversity of the various beings and phenomena in the world. This differentiation of parts results from mechanical

motion.

(2)

The motionis

whole mass of matter8.

that animates the various parts of the communicated, that is to say, it is not theinert.B.C.),

product of any energy proper to the mass, this latter being

The Dynamism

of Heraclitus.

HKRACLITUS (535-4/5

sprung from a noble family of Kphesus, marks an epoch in the His system is an original history of Pre-Socratic Philosophy. blend Q{ Phenomenism, Dynamism and Pantheism. A contemporary of the Eleatics, he opposed their speculations or rather counteracted them by his own instead of placing the fundamental:

essence or being of things in it with the mutable as such.

some immutableAccording

reality,

he

identifies

to Parmenides, nothing

For Heraclitus everything changes. The whole world changes. is like a river which is never exactly identical with itself, because

new particles of water ever replace those that have passed by. This phenomenism has a cosmological, and not a psychological the phenomenon has an extra-mental reality. This signification:

perpetual flow of things

is

symbolizedthatfire isit

in

the mutable element;

par

excellence,

fire.

Not

a substance

an ever-changing something, for

is

it is simply nothing apart from its

PRE-SOCRATIC SCHOOLS

9

is fire

Every natural phenomenon perpetual change, Trdvra pelv elvai. at some stage or other of development, and what we believe"a

tion

to be the stable element in things is merely where various currents meet and divide".

point of intersec

To explain this incessant "fire evolution" Heraclitus adopts the two fundamental axioms of dynamism and accommodates them to his phenomenism. An internal principle of activity accounts for the perpetual flow of the fire phenomena whatever "becomes" or appears is itself the principle of its appearance and"

"

;

development. Since all change is transition from some definite an opposite one, the phenomenon modifies itself at every instant under the influence of the opposing positions of which itstate tois

the resultant.Finally, the:

dynamism of Heraclitusisit

is

a plain assertion of

unique, pantheism with intelligence and regulates the process of9.

the fire-principleof

is

Godits

;

it

is

endowed

TUM

Empedocles. embodies in his physics the two leading ideas (about 495-435) of atomism (i) The elements of material nature exist eternally, exempt from all change. Differing from earlier philosophers, he regarded as the original material not any one of the four elements:

The Atomism

own evolution. EMPEDOCLES OF AGRIGEN-

but all four together. Mutually irreducible, they decompose each into homogeneous parts which mingle together to form the What we call the pro various beings of the visible universe.duction or formation of a substanceis

of the particles of the four elements (/ufw) disappearance or dissolution of a substancethose

simply a new arrangement what we term the;

is

the separation of

form new alliances (&,aX\aft?). (2) particles Where does the motion of the mass of matter come from ? The

same

to

answer given by Empedocles is an enigmatic one attract and repel the particles of matter.10.

:

love and hatred

The Atomismis

of

the School

of

Abdera.

Democritus.

the founder, but DEMOCRITUS (about 460-370) is He himself the accredited representative of the atomist school.

LEUCIPPUStells

us that in his early youth he knew Anaxagoras as an old man. Democritus was a man of science as well as a philosopher he travelled in search of knowledge through Egypt and possiblyas far as Babylonia.

;

At Abdera,

his birthplace,

he knew Leucip-

pus and followed his lectures. Here are the fundamental principles of the teaching of Demo-

iocritus

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY:

(i)

Matter

is

composed of an unlimited multitude ofin

tiny

corpuscles qualitatively homogeneous but differingsize:

shape anditself inert,

these are the atoms (drofia).

The atom;

is

of

eternal, indivisible, solid,

continuous

it

encloses no vacant space

it, for vacuum is the principle of divisibility (Parmenides). Not merely are the formation and dissolution of bodies explained by the accumulation and separation of atoms, but all phenomena are reduced to more or less transitory atomic structures.

within

(2)

Democritus does not accept the;

fiction of love

and hatred

he attributes this phenomenon to as an explanation of motion the action of weight and the existence of vacuum or empty space.Thislatteris

essential for

motion

:

if all

space wereall

full

of matter,

as Parmenides had taught, the

packed together and no change would be possible (6). On the other hand, admit an interatomic vacant space and the atoms are free to move if there be any agency to move them. Weight draws the atoms downwards and thus sets them in motion and since they are of;

atoms would be

the larger, which are also the heavier, strike the the smaller ones and impress on them a non-vertical motion

unequal

sizes,

:

shocks due to those impulses provoke a constant eddying move ment and give rise to the formation of atomic combinations orworlds. Motion being eternal, space being without limits, and the multitude of the atoms being infinite, there are in existence

innumerable worlds.live

Democritus applies those general principles to the world we and especially to man himself. His psychology is in,;

without any special psychological method it is a mere chapter of his physical atomism. Man s soul, like his body, is an Sensation assemblage of atoms of a lighter and subtler order.

and thought are only vibrations of atoms they are stirred up in us by material emanations from outer objects, emanations which pass through the intervening space and enter our organs this is the famous theory of the atomic images or species (ei SwXa). These same images are fertile seeds of scepticism, for the medium;:

modifies the material emanations, which are accordingly incapable of giving us a knowledge of things as they are. The philosophy of Democritus is a clear and emphatic assertion of materialistic

atomism. n. The Atomism

Born 500 B.C. at Clazoof Anaxagoras. menae, a contemporary of Leucippus and Empedocles, ANAXA-

PRE-SOCRATIC SCHOOLSGORAS spent most of secured for him thetions,

u

Athens, where his great learning To friendship of many illustrious men. wards the end of his career, however, owing to political revoluhis life at

he was forced to leave Athens, and settling down at Lampsacus he died there in 428. The atomism of Democritus, more scientific in its tendencies

than that of Empedocles, had neglected the question of the To Anaxagoras belongs the notable efficient cause of movement.

movement in an The moving and guiding agency immaterial, intelligent being. is mind, endowed with simplicity and the power intelligence,merit of having sought the source of material

of knowledge. This is the agency which unites and separates the material particles with set purpose and design. Anaxagorasdid not passintelligence;

nor

beyond the cosmic point of view in studying this is it likely that he endowed it with the attributesis

of personality.

Not

less

remarkable

the difference between his notion of

the original matter and the view of his predecessors. He regards it as composed of constitutive of all possible substances. parts

But the portions in this primitive mixture are so exceedingly small that none of them can reveal any of its specific properties. Aristotle called them homceomeries (oyu-oto/uep;). Their various

Thebut

the different material beings of the universe. specific properties of a body appear when that body is com posed principally of particles corresponding to those properties,rise toit

motions give

sorts.

never possesses such particles to the exclusion of the other There are parts of all in all things," and hence the"

possibility of the

mutual transformation of bodies generally.

The significance of Anaxagoras in philosophy does not lie so much in his having felt and proclaimed the necessity of an intel lectual being in the universe Anaximenes had already donethis

but

in

material and the immaterial.

having so clearly asserted the irreducibility of the His philosophy marks the final

stage in the evolution of cosmological speculations in Greece anterior to Socrates. It is wholly physical yet, the study of a directive intelligence suggests considerations of a psychological;

nature.

Anaxagoras may be accordingly regarded as closing the period of formation and leading up to the Sophists andSocrates.

12

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY4.12.

THE

SOPHISTS.

Protagoras

and Gorgias.

The

nature-philosophers had

fixed their attention on the external world exclusively, paying no heed to the knowing subject, to the nature and working ofhis cognoscitive faculties. group of controversially minded thinkers seized on this popular physical philosophy for the purpose of proving that it really led to the destruction of all

A

Their scepticism knowledge they got the name of Sophists. has in it no independent or absolute value, for it is inspired by Rather it pre the philosophies of Heraclitus and Parmenides. pares the way for a fuller and richer dogmatism by convincing Socrates of the need to compare and complete cosmological:

researches by psychology. The leading sophists arethatall

PROTAGORAS born:

at

Abdera, aboutdeclared

480) and GORGIAS (about 480-375;.is

Heraclitus had

change. Protagoras now added this change itself on our subjective state. The external world is a crea depends tion of the mind and since two men may construct their world:

in

contradictory ways,

it

follows that truth

is

relative

and science

impossible.

Gorgias, a contemporary of Protagoras, followed the latter to

Athens,

where

his

oratorical

gifts

won him much

celebrity.

Starting from the Eleatic doctrines, he ended by asserting theutter bankruptcy of science.

a fixed standard for

all

The negation of absolute truth as should naturally lead to the denial of aProtagoras and Gorgias were only

uniform moral code.

And

logical when they taught that right and wrong depend on each man s own sweet will. The sophists exposed the weaknesses of the philosophy of their day, but they made no attempt to remedy them. It re

mained

for Socrates to rebuild the tottering fabric of science;

on

safer foundations

his teaching

both completes the work of the

nature-philosophers and refutes the theories of the sophists.

CHAPTER

II.

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY FROM SOCRATES TO ARISTOTLE.(Fifth

and fourthi.

century

B c-

-)

SOCRATES.

13.

The genius

Characteristics of Grecian Philosophy during this Period. of the Greeks attained to its full maturity in the fifth

Previously philosophers had studied (B.C.). Now and henceforth we the external world, the non-ego. only find them engrossed in the study of man, his activities, his nature,

and fourth centuries

his

destiny.

They do not indeedit

neglect the external world,s

but they explore

in

and through the investigation of man

cognoscitive faculties.Its leading Grecian philosophy remains, as before, dogmatic. never doubt the veracity of their faculties and representatives

the possibility of certain, scientific knowledge. As in all other philosophical cycles, the golden age of Grecian philosophy is filled rather by personalities than by schools : Socrates,

Plato and Aristotle are

among

the profoundest thinkers

the

race has ever produced. The figure of Life of Socrates. 14. rounded by a halo of moral grandeur. ings:

human

SOCRATES appears

sur

He

has

left

us no writ

his teaching

who

our acquaintance both with his personality and with we are indebted to his disciples, Plato and Xenophon, Born profess an enthusiastic admiration for their master.for

about 470, Socrates lived through that period of Athenian splen dour associated with the glorious name of Pericles. Scarcelyanythingis

known about

his

life.

Absolutely indifferent to that

external repute for which the Athenians were so sensitive, he set himself up as a moralist inspired from on high (the Socratic

AaLpwv), as one with a divine mission to teach men the way of righteousness. In the Athenian society of the fifth century,

i

4

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY

whose vices he scourged so relentlessly, belief in the gods was already in ruins their worship was regarded as a mere The unguarded official ceremony, devoid of all inner meaning.;

tent.

language of Socrates thereon aroused a deep, suspicious discon This finally was his undoing in 399 he was condemned drink the hemlock. to:

15.

and

Socratic Dialogue and Method. (i) The Sacra fie Dialogue has given its name to an original method Socrates Irony.

of research invented and utilized by him. He taught in the form of a dialogue. In the streets, squares and other public places,

he accosted whomsoever he happened to meet and asked their opinion on some philosophical question or other. Usually finding their replies to be inaccurate, he was wont to take them delicatelyto task,their answers,

explicit

show the inadmissible consequences that followed from and so gradually lead up the discussion to a more and emphatic assertion of his own opinion such was:

the procedure since known by the name of Socratic Irony. is in keeping with the method of his philosophy.(2)

It

on what

The Socratic Induction. Socrates methodic based altogether is termed Socratic Induction. The cardinal point of all

philosophy, nay, of all science whatever, is, he tells us, the forming of general intellectual representations of things. To attain to he scrutinizes the concrete experiences of ordinary daily life, this,

and by the aid of numerous comparisons draws out the universal lies hidden away under the various appearances of par ticular things and events. Simultaneously he establishes theidea that

against the sophists, whom he objectivity of human knowledge This induction of his is consistently and perseveringly opposes. a simple derivation of the general from the particular, a means

by which we formIt

for ourselves the notion

and

definition of ait it

has not yet the demonstrative character thing. later on with Aristotle. Socrates himself describes

assumedas the art

of delivering the mind of a universal idea (fjLaievriKrj re^vr}). Such is the method, or formal side, of his philosophy. What now is its content ?

Socrates is before all else a Philosophical Teaching. teacher of morals. He was convinced that his predecessors had followed a false track in neglecting the phenomena of the moral16.life.

The

virtue to

root principle of Socratic ethics knowledge to possess science, that:

isis,

the reduction ofuniversal notions,

SOCRATESis to act righteously.

15

Knowledge

is

not alone, as with Plato and;

the Aristotle, the prerequisite condition of all moral conduct possession of genuine universal ideas (as opposed to the common place and erroneous ideas of the crowd) actually constitutes the

His meaning is, according to Piat, 1 morality of our conduct. should rule supreme over human conduct and that that reasonfull and healthy development of the you? will always secure a righteous will. "Know Thyself" is the first practical precept all reasoning involves growth in self-knowledge, of conduct, for and this knowledge is the first and most potent factor of morality.

the

According to others, it is the knowledge itself of the good, as a thing known, an object of science, that Socrates identifies with virtue. He, then, would be good and just, who knows what is good and just. But behind this lies the further question what is the good? It is the universal notion regarded as end or aim to do good is to conform our conduct to this of our activity universal knowledge. He thus returns to his earlier formula identifying knowledge and virtue, but neither explains nor justi We find him formulating here and there, especially in fies it.:

2

;

Xenophon, another concept of goodness at variance with the preceding one he reduces both the good and the beautiful to in deference to the popular idea of virtue. the useful And it is on this idea that he bases his defence of the immortality of the:

soul.

The studyimportance

in the

of the external world occupies a place of minor He could not well philosophy of Socrates.isis

neglect it altogether, since man But it external surroundings.relations ofsideration,

in

constant touch with his

man

only on account of these to the visible world that he gives it any conto

and with a view

arriving

at

this

conclusion

:

by the order which reigns in it, gives manifest evidence of the intervention of a supreme guiding in telligence, which has appointed and destined the whole universe for the well-being of man. As regards the Divinity, he shows little or no anxiety to speculate about the nature of the Divinethat the external universe,

Being, but very much for the discovery of motives, in the con templation of the Divinity, to elevate man to a higher and loftier

moral plane.l

Socrate (Paris, 1901), pp. 97 sqq.

ZELLER,

op.

cit., ii.,

149.

16

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY17.

Influence of Socrates.

Socrates

made

a very profound

and

As the first fruit lasting impression on philosophic thought. of his teaching, there arose a number of lesser Socratic Schools,

which kept only part of his moral legacy, and even continued to draw from the Sophists whom their master had consistently The Schools of Megara and Elis (fourth and third opposed. formulated an abstract and Eleatic doctrine on the centuries)

Good

;

the Cynic school sought the realization of practical virtue

;

the Cyrenaic school returned to the sensualist ethics of Pro Socrates greatest influence was felt elsewhere. It tagoras. came from his dialectic of definition and from his original con

From this conception Plato and Aristotle ception of science. were destined to elaborate a complete philosophical synthesis.2.

PLATO.

Athens, of an aristocratic family, in 427. His meeting with Socrates definitely decided his vocation to philosophy. On the death of his master, Plato first went to Megara, then sailed for Kgypt, and later for18.at

His Life.

Plato

was born

Cyrene. After an eight years sojourn at Athens, he repaired to Italy (388), where he encountered the disciples of Pythagoras thence he went to Sicily to the court of Dionysius the Klder. The monarch, offended at the too severe language of the Set free by a philosopher, gave him over to a Spartan, who sold him as a slave.;

Cyrenean, Plato returned to Athens and founded a school in the gymnasium of the His teaching was interrupted by a second sojourn at the Sicilian court, after the death of Dionysius the Klder. Plato had hoped to become the tutor of

Academy.

Dionysius tlie Younger; deceived in this hope, he returned once more where he continued to teach till his death in 347.

to Athens,

Plato worked 19. General Characteristics of his Philosophy. on the principles of Socrates but completed the latter s philo

sophy. The universal idea, the fruit of Socratic induction and the basis of definition, is the keystone of Plato s system. Hecarriedit

into regions of research that Socrates

had never ex

plored.

He made

an attempt at philosophical systematization,

an attempt that was new and original in conception, and in which he touched on all the fundamental problems that an In this constructive effort integral philosophy can deal with. he utilized the various systems of his predecessors.virtue disappears. By a closer study of science, Plato got a juster notion of its true value.science

The confusion between

and

However, he was too deeply imbued with the teaching of Socratesnot to seekin

virtue

the necessary complement of science.

It

remainedto

for Aristotle to establish the independence of each,

and

show

forth their true relations.

PLATO

17

the extrinsic apparatus of Plato s philosophy, we must In the Platonic call attention to the use of dialogue and -myth.

Among

dialogue each speaker embodies and expresses a theory, and all the conversations converge and lead up to the opinion of the principal character, Socrates, under whose name Plato gives expression to his

use of dialogue in philosophy has disadvantages which Plato himself seems to have felt. Freely used in his earlier works, it appears in his later writings merelyviews.

own

The

as an introduction to an easier styleIt is of exposition. is the case in his

and a more pleasing form

as

sometimes even dispensed with altogether, Laws. In domains where he lacked data,Itis

Plato was fond of falling back upon myth.difficult to distinguish

often very

reasoning from fancy in his writings. His Conception of Philosophy. Philosophical Propedeutic. reach its Philosophy is science par excellence (eVto-T??/^).20.

We

heights only

by

a series of initiations,:

which are so many suc

knowledge in the domain of sense, and (1) The masses seek knowledge concrete sense-representations. virtue in conduct guided by those (2) But reflection soon convinces one that opinion, based on

cessive steps or stages in

mere sense-perception, cannot lead to truth. To be guided by sensation, according to the Theaetetus, is to say with Protagoras that man is the measure of truth and falsehood, and, therefore,also of rightis

and wrong

:

starting with such premisses, the Sophist

logical in his conclusions. (3) To arrive at true science or philosophy,false principle

we mustlife

cast overaction,

board the

which inspires

common

and

and seekis,

as

beyond the sense-world and outside it, that in the Idea, For opinion is only the shadow of science, just the sense-world is but a shadow of the Ideal world (Republic^for reality

vii.).

rise

An irresistible impulse of our nature (e/xw?) urges us to above and beyond perishable things to the only true reality.method(StaXe/crt/c?;yu,e

It is the dialectic

0o&o?) that leads us to

the contemplation of the Idea, by the process of forming and decomposing universal representations. Plato has traced and

mapped out

the lines of an education corresponding to this

ladder of knowledge. Education commences by putting young people into contact with the sense-world by teaching them thearts, especially

music and gymnastics.2

With the study of the

natural sciences and of mathematics, they next learn

how

to

1

8

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHYin

detach themselves from the sense-world

order to arrive at the

contemplation of the only truetheit

reality, the Idea.in

Philosophy

is

final

stage of education.art.is

Socrates,

the Euthydemus, calls

the royal

True morality"

based upon the knowledge of the Idea.

The

simply the Idea regarded as the term of the irresistible Virtue is the love of that confused of our being. tendency vision of the Absolute which in a former state we were con"

Good

is

templating face to face, and the insatiable desire to exchange this mortal life for immortality. Thus, philosophy, with Plato as withSocrates, embracestionlife

in

its

entirety

;

it

closely unites specula

and action without

at the

same time confounding them.

Philosophy. The works of Plato comprise thirty-five dialogues, fifteen letters, and a collec As he had no clear tion of definitions bearing chiefly on lithics.21.

Division of Plato s

Works and

conceptionbranches,it

of an exactis

division

hard to group

his works,

of the various philosophical embracing as they do the

Aristotle distinguishes, in the different questions. This of his master, dialectics, ethics, and physics. philosophy classification is not explicitly found in Plato, but it corresponds

most widely

with his thought. principles of esthetics.

We1

will therefore

adopts

it,

adding to

it

a few

The Idea

is

the corner-stone of Plato

philosophy

;

dialectic

studies the Idea in itself; physics, ethics, and esthetics consider its applications to nature, to human conduct and to works of art.7.

Dialectic.of

22. Existenceis

and Nature

the Ideas.

Dialectic

the word

the science of objective reality, and this latter is called the Idea (etSo?, t Sea). Dialectic is therefore taken in the Platosis

sense of metaphysics (and not in the1

more usual meaning,;

logic).

Strictly speaking, Plato has

no system of Formal Logic

this science is

one of

Aristotle s greatest achievements. Yet we find in Plato some notions on logic. Notably, he has dealt ex profcsso with the dialectic method, with its twofold process, induction

and deduction

(avvayurfr), Staiptvis).

By

the dialectic method,

we

learn

how

to free ourselves

from exterior things,

in order to rise to

Plato s preference is for deduction. of the Socratic induction it leads up to and ends in definition.of the Idea.2;

the contemplation His induction is the developmenthis

If

works,

we take account of the chief topics treated in the most important of we may classify as Physics the Timacns and the Phacd as Ethics,>

:

the

Republic, the Lairs, the Politics,aetctHS, Sophist

PhiUbns and Gorgias

:

as Dialectic, the The-

and Parmenides.

PLATOToestablish the existencesets out with a fact of consciousness

19

and the nature of those Ideas, Plato and with a postulate, both

^^0. fact of consciousness is of which he takes from Socrates. the presence in us of intellectual representations, whose object is both universal, necessary, and immutable. T\\Q postulate is thesincerity or validity of these mental representations, or, in other words, the thesis of dogmatic philosophy, that all or some of

our mental representations have an extra-mental objectivity. What is this reality which is the object of our conceptions

?

Whateverthing

it

be, the sense-world cannot containis

it,

because every

contingent, particular, changing and unstable we see the influence of Heraclitus) while real being, as (here we conceive it, must be endowed with the attributes of necessity,

there

;

universality, unity, and immutability (here we see the influence of Pannenides and Pythagoras). Plato infers, accordingly, that the real exists above and beyond

the sense-world: the Idea(6Wft>?

6V,

avra

/cad

absolutely stable and exists by itself its isolation avrd) (^tapurra) does notis;

permit ofthe

its

human

being considered either as the subjective product of understanding or as an operation of the Divine under

This latter interpretation of Plato, put forward by standing. the Neo-Platonic philosophers and taken up enthusiastically inthe Middledialecticconflicts

Ages by

all

those

who would

fain see in the Platonic

an adumbration of the exemplarism of St. Augustine, with the most formal declarations of the founder of theas indeed Aristotle

Academy,

had already pointedreal

out.

This

exaggerated Realism which invests

being with the attributes of thought, and proceeds to mould the real world according to the character of our mental representations, is at once the

guiding principle and the fundamental error of Plato of Ideas.

s

metaphysic

The Idea of the Good. Faithful 23. Multiplicity and Order. to this extreme realism, Plato gives a corresponding Idea-entity to each and every one of our abstract representations. Notonly natural kinds or species of things, but artificial works not only substances, but even properties, relations, grammatical forms;;

and, to complete theall1

list,

even negations and nothingness

itself:1

have their corresponding ideas

in the suprasensible world.

We have

it

from Aristotle that Plato suppressed, later on, the Ideas of nega

tions, relations,

and

artificial

works.2

*

20

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHYThereal

Ideas

are

world being modelled on the world of thought, the hierarchically arranged like our representations ofthe

them.

The Idea of

Good

is

enthroned at the apex of the

Plato lingers with an undeniable sense of complacency and delight in contemplating the Idea of the Good, the archetypal essence, "the sun of the ideal world".

ascending scale of essences.

1

an all-important one, for it is: (i) the Final Cause of the Universe the phenomena of the sense-world and the IdeasIts role is:

(2) especially the Formal All Ideas, even the Ideas of the True, the Just, the Beautiful, derive their intelligibility and their reality from the Idea of the Good, and have no being except from the

tend,

all

alike,

towards the Good

;

Cause of

all

things.

Good.24.

Logically followed out, Plato

s

realism

seems to end

necessarily in

of the Good. Plato s theodicy is intim connected with his metaphysics. In fact, since there is ately above the Idea of the Good, which is the sovereign essence, nothing

Monism. God and the Idea

important to determine what precisely are its relations to God, to the personal God, the intelligent Demiurge, the ruler ofit is

the lesser gods and of men, the provident director and guide of the world, as Plato describes Him in the Timacus, clothing his

thought withinspiration.

all

We

the rich phraseology of his exuberant poetic touch here on one of the most obscure pro

blems

in

We

the whole Platonic philosophy. must refuse either to make the Idea of the Good subor

dinate to

God

(Trendelenburg), or to

make God subordinate

to

the Idea of the

Good

(Orges), under pain of overthrowing the

supremacy of either. To identify the Idea of Good with God (Zeller), would be to admit the identity of the most impersonal of abstractions with the highest incarnation of personality, andto

endow

the

same being with contradictory

attributes.

It

seems preferable to maintain the coexistence of the Idea of the Good and of God (Hermann), the dyarchy of two independent This dual sovereigns, both alike free from the laws of change.-

may be rendered a little less unacceptable by determining somewhat more exactly the respective roles of these two con of the Good, and of God. While the Idea of the Good is cepts the final and formal cause of all things, God is regarded chieflyism1

See especially Republic, bookFor the

vi.

a

details of this controversy see

ZELLER,

op. cit., II.,

i.,

pp. 767 sqq.

PLATO

21

is the cause that as the prudent ruler of the visible world. the Idea to the phenomenon, i.e., the efficient subordinate applies Both being sovereigns of distinct kingdoms, we may cause.

He

This is not them, on different titles, the principles of things. the only example of unexplained dualism that Platonic philocall

sophy

offers us.//.

Physics.

Matter and World-Soul. Under the 25. General Principles. title of Physics we may group all the studies relating to the Before ex manifestations of the Idea in the visible universe.amining the structure of the corporeal world and of man in particular, we must first find out the general relations of the phenomenal world to the world of Ideas. Visible things, the objects of opinion, are a partial and incomplete manifestation ofthe Ideas:

for

which"

latter

Platois it

monopoly of reality. What down from the high estateworld, and to appear under

"

has jealously guarded the that compels the Idea to come which it occupies in the absolute

can

it

infold itself in ever-varyingits

losing thereby, eo ipso,

shadowy and contingent forms ? Or and perishable things without and immutability? Plato does unityhe assumes and he With a view to this, hedifficulties;;

not concern himself with either of theseexertsall his

the fact of a reflection of the Idea in the sense-worldefforts in

explaining

it.

appeals to matter and to world-soul. Matter accounts for all nature s imperfections

;

these, as such,

could not be ascribed by Plato to the Idea. While the Idea is 1 It is not a mass already reality, matter is non-being (/XT) oz/). formed, as one might be inclined to think from reading the

but the indeterminate descriptions of the Timaeus thing (aireipov), the shapeless and invisible element, the neces This sary condition for the visible materialization of the Idea.poetical" "

receptacle in

whose bosom are evolved

all

sense phenomena,

is

emptyPlato

space,is is

Aristotleit

or place devoid of all content. While matter for that from which all sensible things are made, forthat in which they appear.

In

this

way

sensible

mixture {^LKTOV} of being and But space is non-being, a projection of the Idea into space.things, the object of opinion, are a1

Historians are not agreed as to the proper interpretation of the term

"

matter

"

in

Plato s philosophy.

22

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY

latter reflected in

How is the only a condition for the appearance of the Idea. the agency of the worldphenomena? Byis

soul,

Plato

s

answer.

is the connecting-link between the Idea formed by the Demiurge of an alloy of two elements, the immutable and the mutable, which he calls the one and the other (TCLVTOV and Curepov), probably the Idea and

The

soul of the worldIt is

and matter.

(and cut through the centre into two parts that over At once divisible and lap each other surrounding the world). 2 incorporeal and harmoniously constituted in geometrical pro

Matter

l

portions, it accounts for the beauty of the visible world and for the continuous conservation of its order. Evidently influenced

by the constitution of man, Plato makes the world a huge animal The (tyoov] composed of a visible body and an invisible soul. soul sets the colossal machine in motion, circular motion, 3 which was considered by all antiquity as the most perfect of all motions. Finally, the soul of the world is endowed with knowledge, and the spherical movement by which it folds back on itself, as it were, and returns to the point from which it started, is at once the symbol and the sensible expression of conscious life. It is an original and poetical conception, this theory of aworld-soulinitial;

but

it

only emphasizes,of

withoutIt

explaining,

the

affirmation

Plato

s

physics.

does

not

show the

channel by which the Idea communicates itself to the pheno menon the Idea and the phenomenon still stay side by side in an irreconcilable dualism.:

26. Structure of the Corporeal World. Mechanicism. (i) In Corporeal substances consist of configurations of simple bodies. accordance with earlier scientific notions, Plato admits the exis

tence of four elementary bodies, water, air, fire, and earth all of the which, however, he reduces to regular geometrical figures tetrahedron is the fundamental form of fire, the regular regular;:

air, the regular icosahedron that of water, the regular cube that of earth. The plane surfaces which form the sides of these four regular solids have, as generating forms,

octahedron that of

triangles1

;

and these

triangles realize the

most

perfect

propor-

tr. by Fr. FINLAY, S.J., p. 84. Mathematics holds an intermediate place between vulgar knowledge and philosophical knowledge (20). With this conception, Plato connects his system of astronomy."

V. STOCKL,

PLATO:

23

the right-angled scalene triangle for fire, air, and water tions 1 Thus Plato seeks the right-angled isosceles triangle for earth. for the reason of the world s beauty in what he regards as the

;

deepest and ultimate elements of its constitution. It is important to bear in mind that these surfaces are only sections of space and do not form the boundaries of any material

mass.

Suppress these geometrical forms and you obtain as

a residue, not a formless substratum, but the //^ ov, i.e., void the elements of nature are not irreducible bodies, or vacuum:

but irreducible surfaces a conception that harmonizes with the Platonic notion of matter.

Natural bodies are compounds of simple bodies.

The pheno

mena ofoutcomeforms.

change, of increase and decrease, are the of a simple change in the disposition of the primarysubstantial

Since water,is

air,

and

fire

have the same scalene triangleof the polyhedric surfacesis

as their source, aall

new arrangement

needed to bring about an interchange of water, air, and 2 The earth, on the contrary, having as fire among themselves. base the isosceles triangle, which cannot be reduced to the scalene, may doubtless be mixed with the other elements, but cannot be changed into them, nor vice versa. In like manner, increase and diminution result from the union and separation of surfaces rethat3

spectively.

What?

growth and decay(2)

determines these phenomena of change, of Motion.the elementary bodiesin fact:

Motion

is extrinsic to

it

comes from

the world-soul.

This latter

surrounds the whole world of

sense (25) and exerts a mechanical pressure on all the bodies As these are of unequal dimensions owing to their within it.

and different degrees of cohesiveness and as on the other hand their plane surfaces give rise to projecting angles or corners by which they pierce one another in their never-ending motions these many-sided figures cleave to one another and arrange themselves in ever-varying forms.different shapes;:

1

The

equilateral triangle;

is

icosahedron

for, it

may be resolved intois

the basis of the regular tetrahedron, octahedron, and six right-angled scalene triangles (the hyposide).

tenuse of each of which

double the smallest

On

the other hand, the square

which is the base of the cube is resolvable into right-angled isosceles triangles. 2 For example, the unit of water (an icosahedron, i.e. with twenty sides) can be transformed into two units of air (octahedrons) together with one unit of fire(tetrahedron), 83

+

8

+

4

=i.,

20.

ZELLER,

op. cit., II.,

pp. 789 sqq.

24

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY

Thus, we find in Plato the two fundamental theses of Mechanicism (y). 1 The originality and weak point of his presentation of it is his geometrical conception of the simple body. For, thereal bodies in Nature around us are something very different from a mere collection of empty figures Platonism has no justi fication to offer for its unwarranted transition from an empty cir:

cumscription of space to

a.

positive, circumscribed content.

1

we encounterfacts

In no other part of Plato s writings do 27. Anthropology. a closer or more misleading mixture of myths and

His teaching on man may be anthropology. selfaround a theory of intellectual cognition And consciousness and will occupy a very secondary place. then, finally, his whole ideology is subordinate to, and inspiredthanin

his

said to centre

:

immanent in the sense-world, the mere consideration of sense phenomena can never give rise to a knowledge of immutable reality. Still, we do in fact possesssuch knowledge.in

by, his dialectic of the Ideas. Since the Ideas are not

Whence,

then, does

it

come?

Plato answers

soul previously enjoyed a term of existence apart from the body, and while in that state it could contemplate the world of Ideas face to face but it forgot them at the timethis wise:;

The

of

migration or banishment to earth and tions are required to awaken its memory ofits;

now

sense-percepto

them and thus

arouse the soul fromis

its

lethargic slumber.

Our knowledge,:

then,

only reminiscence ; sense-perception is the occasion of thought, but exerts no real causality in its genesis here we have the germ

of occasionalism.

is

is

knowledge is obscured and clouded, if sensation needed to arouse it from its lethargy, this is because the body Here bean obstacle to the free contemplation of the Idea.If the soul s

Wemove,

must, however,

in virtue of

latter differing for

make this reserve elementary bodies of the same kind an internal tendency (weight), towards a place of their own, the each kind.:

The universe is geocentric and spherical (which conflicts with the angular shape of the polyhedron) it includes the earth and seven concentric spheres surrounding the earth. The stars are beings endowed with life and intelligence, more perfect the nearer they are to the world-soul the rotation of each around an axis is the;

;

power of conscious self-reflection. Thus Plato descends gradually to the psychology of man and the animal kingdom. So the entire uni verse becomes a vast collection of living things, each one endowed with a soul of its own, a fact which does not seem to hinder the whole collection as such fromindex and correlative ofits

being jtself a perfect

fov or living thing.

PLATOlow, the soulis

25

It is like the an unnatural state of duress. to recognize under the grimy accre sea-god, Glaucus, impossible tion of sea-shells and creeping things that adhere to his monster

in

body

(Republic, x., 6 1its

1).

This

is

why

the soul longs to be freed

from the burden of Though the union of soul and body is considered artificial and extrinsic, Plato is forced to admit the evident mutual intercourse

bodily encumbrance.

between them, and more especially the influence of the merely organic functions on the intellectual and moral life of man. To explain this rather complex interaction Plato has re course to a division of the soul into two, or even three partsthereis:

the intelligent and immortal part, or vovs, and the perishable This latter comprises, in turn, the better element, or portion. #u/xo9, embracing all those appetitive and emotional factors that are summed up in the sentiment of personal dignity, and the

noble department of purely organic activities. The intellectual soul has its seat in the brain, the nobler part of the

lower or

less

mortal soulItis

in the breast,

andfirst

its

lower element in the abdomen.intelligent

mainly with

the

or

soul

that

Plato

s

dialogues deal. They aim at establishing its immortality by arguments drawn almost exclusively from metaphysics. and though one of In short, there are in man three souls;

them may conceivably predominate, still their coexistence one and the same being destroys unity of consciousness andfatal

inis

anthropology, like his dialectic and his general physics, leads him in the end to a selfcontradictory dualism.to

personality.

And

so,

Plato

s

III.

Ethics

and Esthetics

.

28. General Ethics.Politics.

As

a matter of

Plato does not use the word Ethics, but fact, however, he deals not merely with

social but also with

domestic and individual morality, and with

the principles of general Ethics.

As

a whole, his ethics, like his

anthropology, The end of

is

dependent on

his dialectic.

man

consists in the soul s contemplation of pure

Ideas in a state of complete separation from the body. The wise man longs for deliverance, and in this life tries to free himself

from the

fetters of bodily existence

by the earnest pursuit ofin the Philebus]

science (Theaetetus and Phaedd).

Occasionally (as

26sense-lifeis

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY

represented as capable of acquiring some degree of moral value, though this as a rule is denied it the knowledge of:

which the Idea is dimly shadowed forth, the phenomenal world, and even more so a moderate and well-regulated degree ofin

may become supplementary elements of happiness. For those two practically irreconcilable notions of the supreme good, Plato has two corresponding views on the nature of virtue.pleasure,

the disposition of a soul that acts in conformity with its end. Strictly speaking, that soul alone is virtuous which lives on theIt is

contemplation of the Idea (according to the

first

conception of

man

s

end).

In this sense, virtue

is

necessarily the

outcome or

But prolongation of science, and is its own reward (Socrates). again, later on, a plurality of virtues is admitted, corresponding to the various activities whose harmonious working togethergives rise to happiness (according to the second conception of happiness) but science always holds the place of honour above;

all

other virtues.

Plato merely touches, without going into, in 29. Politics. dividual and domestic ethics on the other hand, he compiles an;

exhaustive code of politics or public ethics (Republic]. He puts the individual above the multitude, though there he runs counterto the politics practised

by the Greek

states

:

furthermore,

it is

the moral formation of the individual that mainly occupiesattention.

his

The powerlessnesslife

vide for the wants of

of the isolated individual to pro (second book of the Republic] and to

attain to his moral end,

is the primordial fact which accounts for the origin, mission, and organization of the State. Men live in in order to promote and safeguard the silent and society only The State peaceful intercourse of the soul with eternal realities.

that true virtue which

should be a school of education and instruction for inculcating is the knowledge of the Ideas. This is

And

the mission that should inspire all political and social organization. to secure all this, Plato commits the government of the State

to the philosophers, that is to say, to an oligarchy composed of the most select of all aristocracies the aristocracy of intellect.

The

rulers are to be

guided not by theleft

will

but by the interestsfree

of the people.stitutions, the

They may beliberties

completelylives

to stir

revolutions, to rule despotically, to disregard the laws

up and con:

and even the veryis

of the people

even so;

if

only the true philosopher

invested with this absolute

PLATOand unlimited power,than wisely.

27

it will be impossible for him to act otherwise Since the State has also the secondary duty of providing for the material well-being of the people and looking after the national defences, it must maintain, along with the

philosophers, a class of agriculturists and a class of soldiers. It is manifest that esthetical considerations influenced

all

Plato

s

politico-social theories

:

they appear

in the

analogy he

draws between the threeStateis

social classes

in the State

and the

tripartite division of the soul

and of the

entire cosmos.

at

once an enlarged likeness of the individual

The man and

a miniature

image of the universe.

In virtue of their supreme

dominion, and to suppress all cause of discord in the State, the philosopher-rulers can decree public education, State-ownershipin

children,

the suppression ofit is,

all

family

life,

sexes,

community of women and goods,

etc.

equality of the Plato s State is

Utopian, reared, ashis dialectic. 1

on the narrow and exclusive principles ofPlatois

30. Art

and the

Beautiful.

the world

s first

greatleaves

theorist of the beautiful.

His

esthetics,

however, partake of theesthetics.

fragmentary characterin obscurity all

common

to

all

Greek

He

the subjective problems suggested by the psycho logical, fascinating element of the beautiful, and discusses by preference the various metaphysical questions regarding the

objective

elements of beauty. These latter are identified with order and the constituents of order, namely, proportion, symmetry,

and harmony. 2 In fact, arithmetical and geometrical relations are regarded by Plato as the very essence of beauty (25, 26). Moreover, the beautiful and the good are identical (fcaXoicayaOia), for the former is merely an aspect or manifestation of the latter in the physical, and more especially in the moral, orders. Art is simply the imitation of visible nature its value is in It is the shadow of a significant in comparison with dialectic.:

by the hand of

age and apparently retouched another theory of the State, which is incompatible with his earlier and better-known theory. He admits that his philo sophical State did not meet the needs of human nature, that it was made for gods and the children of gods. His second State is based, not on philosophical virtue or the science of Ideas, but on common virtue and the knowledge of the world of1

In his later work, the

Laws, written

in his old

some

disciple, Plato outlines

sense.*

See our Etudes historiques sur VEsthetique de S. Thomas d Aquin, Louvain,

1896, pp. 96 sqq.

28

GRECIAN PHILOSOPHYitself is

shadow, since physical nature

nothing more than a

faint

It is unworthy of being culti reflex of supra-material reality. words these in the mouth of a vated for its own sake. Strangeits educative and moraliz under State control. The falls, accordingly, all art innovations and is bound to see that art does not become an instrument of moral corruption. In laying down the fundamental principle of 31. Conclusion. his dialectic, Plato shows himself wanting both in moderation and

poet

!

The value ofit

art lies solely in

ing influence: State can veto

in largenessis

of view. And since the remainder of his philosophy of a piece with the dialectic, all alike is marred by a sort of narrow exclusiveness which leads him over and over again to the:

juxtaposition of extremes that are irreconcilable to the dualism of Gocl and the Good, of Matter and Idea, of the phenomenal and the Ideal worlds, of body and soul, of common virtue and

Nor are philosophical virtue, of the individual and the State. those reconciling or intermediary principles to which Plato has recourse (world-soul, composition of the soul in man, philosophi cal despotism) equal to the task of removing, diminishing or evensuccessfully concealing the inconsistencies of his system. Plato s philosophy found a long line of supportersearlierin

the

and succeeding Academicians

:

but these are as dwarfs

beside the giant figure of Aristotle.S3.

AKISTOTLK.at Stagira

32. Life and Works.

ARISTOTLK was born

(whence the name.

Stagirite) in the year 384 u.c. Coming to Athens, he studied philosophy for twenty From that time he conceived the plan of his own system while years under Plato.

continuing to profess a sincere respect for his master s teaching. After the death of the latter, Aristotle went to Atarneus and Mitylene but the second important event in his life is his sojourn at the Macedonian court, whither he was called;

in

peripatetic school in Athens.

342 to direct the education of Alexander. About the year 335 he opened the After the death of Alexander he was obliged to fly;

the city

he died

in

Chalcis in the year 322.

HisI.

literary activity

was prodigious.

works we

may

classify his scientific writings

Apart from apocryphal and less important under the following main headings:

Logic, collected later on under the title of the Organon : (i) The Categories (Kar-nyopiai) or classes of concepts (2) the treatise On Interpretation and propositions authenticity sometimes questioned (IT. fpwvfias) or on judgments; ;

Works on

Analytics (d//a\tmKa irp6repa and for-repa), the one on reasoning, the other on demonstration; (4) the Topics (roiriKa.) which deal with "probable" or(3)

the

Two

"

dialectical

"

Sophistical Reasonings

arguments, and to which he attaches his work on Rhetoric ; (5) the the ninth book of the (-repl t\tyx