~..o,.~. OXFOAD OPL'S \ HISTOR't OF\\ ESTER\ PHILOSOPH't: 1 CLASSICAL THOUGHT TERENCE IRWIN Spanning over a thousand years from Homer to Saint Augustine, Classical Thought encompasses a vast range of material, in succinct style, while remaining clear and lucid even to those with no philosophical or Classical background. The major philosophers and philosophical schools are examined-the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Neoplatonism; but other important thinkers, such as Greek tragedians, historians, medical writers, and early Christian writers, are also discussed. The emphasis is naturally on questions of philosophical interest (although the literary and historical background to Classical philosophy is not ignored), and again the scope is broad-ethics, the theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind, philosophical theology. All this is presented in a fully integrated, highly readable text which covers many of the most important areas of ancient thought and in which stress is laid on the variety and continuity of philosophical thinking after Aristotle. Ternnce Irwin Terence Irwin is Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University. His other books include Plato's Moral Theory, A Plato's Gorgias, andAristotle's First Principles, all published by OUP. 82 OPUS General Editors Keith Thomas Alan Ryan Walter Bodmer ISBN 0-19-289177-4 Oxford Paperbacks Oxford University Press £5.95 net in UK 9 780192 891778 Also available in hardback ti An OPUS book A History of Western Philosophy: 1 CLASSICAL THOUGHT A History of Western Philosophy: 1 OPUS General Editors Keith Thomas Classical Thought Alan Ryan Walter Bodmer TERENCE IRWIN OPUS books provide concise, original, and authoritative introductions to a wide range of subjects in the humanities and sciences. They are Cornell University written by experts for the general reader as well as for students. A History of Western Philosophy This series of OPUS books offers a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the history of philosophical ideas from earliest times. Its aim is not only to set those ideas in their immediate cultural context, but also to focus on their value and relevance to twentieth-century thinking. Classical Thought• The Empiricists• Terence Irwin R. S. Woolhouse Medieval Philosophy English-Language Philosophy 1750-1945 David Luscombe John Skorupski Renaissance Philosophy Continental Philosophy since 1750• C. B. Schmitt Robert C. Solomon The Rationalists• English-Language Philosophy since 1945 John Cottingham Barry Stroud •Already published Oxford New York OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford ox2 6op Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petalingjaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in To Gregory Vlastos Berlin lbadnn Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Copyright© Terence Irwin 1989 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior pennission of Oxford University Press. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the Sllbsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data lnvin, Terence Classical thought.-{O P US. A history of western philosophy). 1. Classical philosophy--Critical studies I. Title II. Series 180'.938 ISBN o-1g-219196-g ISBN 0-19-289177-4 Pbk Libra1y of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Irwin, Terence Classical thought I by Terence Irwin. p.cm.-{An OPUS book. A history of Western philosophy;/). Bibliograj1hy: p. Includes index. 1. Philosophy, Ancient. I. Title II. Series: OPUS. Hist01y of Western philosophy; I. 18o-dc19 B171.177 1989 99-12616 ISBN o-1g-219196-g ISBN o-ig-289177-4 (pbk.) Set by Oxford Text System Printed in Great Britain by The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd. Guernsey, Channel Islands Preface This book is intended for readers who have little or no previous knowledge of the philosophers of the Greek and Roman world, or of their literary and historical background. Naturally, I hope it may be useful to students and teachers in courses on Greek philosophy; these readers will get both Jess and more than they might expect. Chapters 2 to 4 by no means cover all 'the Pre socratics', as they are normally conceived; on the other hand, they cover some authors and questions that deserve to be studied more often than (as far as I know) they are usually studied by students being introduced to early Greek philosophy. In Chapters 5 to 7 I devote a good bit of space to Plato and Aristotle; but I have tried to prevent them from dominating the picture, and in Chapters 8 to I I I have sought to give some idea of both the variety and the continuity in philosophy after Aristotle. Some passages from Classical authors are quoted in translation in the text. Readers should be warned that a mark of omission may sometimes indicate a considerable gap in the original. I use angle brackets, < . . . >, to supply words left unexpressed, but clearly intended, in the original. I use square brackets,[ ... ], for explanatory interpolations that are not meant to be part of the translation. Square brackets sometimes appear around authors' names in the Notes, to indicate spurious or doubtful works. I do not provide a systematic historical outline; but I have tried to give the dates of major philosophers at reasonable intervals in the text, and they are repeated, together with the dates of other authors cited, in the index. It will be obvious that many dates of philosophers are imprecise, or unreliable, or both ('fl.' ( = jioruit) indicates some specific evidence of the person's being active in the year or years given). I have usually added BC or AD to dates only where there seemed to be some danger of confusion. Since this book results partly from my own attempts at teach ing in this area, I have benefited from the stimulating and thought ful questions and comments of many undergraduates, and from viii Prefa ce helpful discussions with people who have shared the teaching Jennifer Whiting, Henry Newell, David Brink, and Susan Sauve. Successive drafts of the book have been greatly improved as a Contents result of numerous and persistent criticisms and suggestions by Gail Fine. The Press's readers have made useful comments on later versions. It gives me special pleasure to dedicate this book to Gregory Vlastos. Introduction I. Scope T. H. IRWIN ii. Periods 2 Cornell University iii. Questions 3 Ithaca, New York IV. Sources 5 January 1988 2 Homer 6 i. The importance of Homer 6 II. The ideal person and the ideal life 7 Ill. Self and others 8 iv. Priorities IO v. Difficulties in Homeric ethics I I VI. Gods and the world 13 vii. Gods and moral ideals 15 viii. Zeus and the world order 16 IX. The main difficulties in Homer 17 3 The Naturalist Movement 20 I. The naturalist outlook 20 ii. Nature as matter 20 iii. Conceptions of nature 22 IV. Change and stability 23 v. Nature and history 26 VJ. Nature and medicine 28 vii. The problems of method 29 viii. General laws 32 IX. Reason and argument 33 x. Ethics 35 XI. The gods 38 4 Doubts about Naturalism 43 i. Tendencies 43 ii. Tragedy and naturalism 44 iii. Beyond naturalism 46 x Contents Contents XI iv. Appearance and nature 47 V. Nature and purpose xv. Virtue and philosophy 104 50 vi. Nature and cosmic justice XVI. Knowledge, morals, and politics 106 52 vii. Naturalism and human nature xvii. Knowledge and freedom 109 Vlll. Questions about naturalist history 53 XVlll. The cosmos I I I IX. Some effects of naturalism 55 xix. Misunderstandings of Plato I 13 x. Radical doubt 56 xx. The significance of Plato I 16 58 XI. Convention, truth, and reality 7 Aristotle 118 59 xii. Scepticism, conventionalism, and morality 60 i. Aristotle and his predecessors I 18 xiii. Political tensions 61 11. Observation and experience I 19 xiv. The growth of political debate 62 lll. Philosophical argument 12 I XV. Practical results 64 IV. Nature and change 122 XVI. The unsettled questions v. Form and matter 125 65 vi. Causes 126 5. Socrates I. Socrates' trial 6688 Vil. Nature and form 128 viii. Soul and body 130 II. Socrates' defence 70 ix. Dualism and materialism 131 iii. Socratic assumptions 72 x. The human good 133 iv. Socratic argument v. Morality and religion 74 XI. Happiness and virtue 136 75 xii. Virtue and the good of others 137 VI. The unity of morality 78 xiii. Ethics and society 139 vii. The problem of justice 79 xiv. Ethics and self-sufficiency 140 Vil!. Intelligible misunderstandings of Socrates 81 xv. The significance of Aristotle 142 6. Plato __..8 85 Epicureanism 145 I. Socrates and Plato ii. The theory of Socratic argument 8865 iiI.. TEhpiec uHreulsle: ngiesntiecr awl oarilmd s 114457 Ill. Inquiry and recollection 88 iii. The challenge of Scepticism 148 IV. Knowledge and belief 88 iv. The appeal to the senses 150 V. The theory of Socratic definition 90 v. Sense and science 152 VI. The senses 91 vi. Atomism and the soul 153 VII. Questions about Forms viii. The theory of Socratic knowledge 92 Vil. The gods 155 94 viii. Necessity and freedom 156 ix. Plato's reply to scepticism x. Soul and body 97 IX. Pleasure, happiness, and virtue 158 98 x. Questions about Epicurean ethics 160 XI. The soul and the self xii. The problem of justice 99 XI. The coherence of the system 162 IOI xiii. Reason and desire ~ Stoicism 164 102 xiv. The defence of justice i. The Stoic system 164 103 I.. ·-- ii. The problem of the criterion 164 • ) XII Contents 111. Nature, form, and matter 167 IV. Nature and the world order 168 v. Determinism and freedom 170 VI. Nature, happiness, and virtue '73 I Vil. Self and society '75 Vlll. Stoic detachment 177 Introduction IX. The self and the cosmos 179 x. Conclusion 180 IO Plotinus 185 i. Scope I. The revival of Platonism 185 This book introduces some of the issues of philosophical interest II. Plotinus' universe 185 in Classical thought, in the 1, 100 years or so from Homer to Ill. Form and matter 187 Saint Augustine. It is therefore concerned primarily with Greek iv. Soul 189 philosophy- that is, philosophical thought expressed in the Greek v. Intellect 190 language- and its immediate descendants. VI. The One 191 The choice of a starting-point for this book is not arbitrary, Vil. Emanation from the One 194 since Homer's poems are among the earliest works of Greek VIII. Matter and evil 195 literature, and had a profound influence on later Classical IX. The soul and the self 196 thought. The choice of a place to stop is far more arbitrary. The x. The significance of Plotinus 199 death of Augustine in AD 430 falls in the period when the Western I I Christianity and Greek Thought 202 (Latin-speaking) Roman Empire collapsed. The Classical tra I. Introduction 202 dition in philosophy continued in the Eastern (Greek-speaking) Empire and in the Arab states, before being reintroduced into II. Early Christianity 203 Western Europe; and it is in some ways regrettable to suggest Ill. Christian moral teaching 205 iv. Human nature 206 that the fall of part of the Empire marks an important break in V. The work of Christ 208 the history of philosophy. Still, it is not completely wrong to regard Augustine as the beginning of mediaeval philosophy; and VI. The person of Christ IO if we stop with him, we have a reasonable idea of the direction in vii. The doctrine of God 212 which philosophy went in the later centuries.1 VIII. Augustine and his environment 214 To give a sketch of all the main philosophers and philosophical IX. Manichean dualism 215 issues in Classical thought would require either a long book or a x. Criticisms of the Manicheans 216 very compressed one; and I have not tried to be comprehensive. I XI. Neoplatonism 217 have omitted some of the major Presocratics, most of Plato's XII. Neoplatonism and Christianity 218 later dialogues, much of Scepticism, the more technical aspects of XIII. Augustine's final outlook 219 Stoicism, the whole of ancient logic. 2 On the other hand, I have Notes 222 discussed some writers who are not philosophers. In the first three Bibliography 250 chapters I have done this to illustrate the problems and arguments from which philosophy arose. In the last chapter I have said Index 257 something about Christian thought to indicate one important 2 Introduction Introduction 3 effect of Classical philosophy. In these cases I have kept in mind construct self-consciously integrated philosophical systems, ap the readers who approach Classical philosophers without a back plying a single set of principles to questions about knowledge, ground in Classical history and literature. However, I have given nature, and morality. a very incomplete picture of the aspects of Classical thought that Transcendent philosophy (Chapters IO-11 ). The revival of Pla are not strictly phil0sophical. Medicine, mathematics, astronomy, tonism in the later Classical world turns philosophers' attention dynamics, geography, history, grammar, literary criticism- all from the understanding of observable reality to the search for these developed in the Classical world, often in close connexion knowledge of the unobservable and super-sensible. Such an out with the development of philosophy. The mutual influence- good look makes later Platonism a natural companion to Christian and bad-between philosophy and these other disciplines receives theology. only occasional glances in this book. 3 These divisions are too crude to be taken very seriously. None Instead of trying to cover all these topics and philosophers, I of them has any explicit ancient authority except for the division have tried to discuss some questions in enough detail to bring out between the first and second periods; Aristotle insists on this some of their interest and significance. I have picked topics that a division, and (as we will see later) we have good reason to agree reader can usefully consider without extensive reading of difficult with him. The other divisions are much less sharp; but they give texts. The best way to introduce the right questions is often to a general impression of the attitudes and assumptions of philo raise objections and criticisms. I have done this in order to suggest sophers in different periods. directions for readers to follow, not to tell them what to think, or even to tell them what can be said on each side of a particular issue. Comments are meant to be provocative rather than iii. Questions conclusive. This book would fail in its purpose if its themes were very closely connected. For part of the interest of Greek philosophy is the relative independence of some philosophers from their pre ii. Periods decessors, and the wide range of questions that came within the With the appropriate cautions about arbitrary divisions between scope of philosophy at different times. Plato and Aristotle, in periods, it may be useful to mark a preliminary division into four particular, are important primarily because they raise new philo \ periods: sophical questions and find new areas of philosophical inquiry; it Speculative philosophy (Chapters 2-4). Before Socrates philo is true, but less important, that they also answer old questions. sophy develops through the successive speculative systems of the For this reason among others, it would be a mistake to try to Presocratic naturalists. Many of these thinkers put forward very define a philosophical question or argument at this stage; it is best general views about the nature and origin of the world; sometimes to watch the growth of philosophical thinking to see what became they recall the myths about the gods, sometimes they seem to be characteristic of it, and why. Still, I have picked some major primitive natural scientists. themes and to some degree concentrated on them, in order to Critical philosophy {Chapters 5-7). Socrates, Plato, and Ar display some of the connected and continuous arguments that istotle construct philosophy as a discipline distinct from myth run through the whole history of Classical thought. ology and empirical science, concerned with the foundations of Epistemology. The first philosophers seek to know and un knowledge and morality. derstand the world, and they soon raise questions about our Systematic philosophy (Chapters 8-9). The Stoics and Epi resources for gaining knowledge, and about the relative import cureans use Presocratic, Platonic, and Aristotelian material to ance of observation and theory, or sense-perception and reason, . - .. I :• • - - 4 Introduction Introduction 5 as sources of knowledge. Questions about sources of knowledge every philosopher takes the same view about how they are con stimulate epistemology (theory of knowledge). while doubts about ' nected. The rest of the book should counteract any such the possibility of knowledge provoke sceptical reactions. impression. Metaphysics. Understanding the world involves the discovery of natural laws, and forces us to ask how our conception of iv. Sources ourselves fits into our understanding of the rest of nature. A scientific theory of natural processes sometimes seems to leave no A reader who wants to go deeper into Classical thought than I room for our belief in ourselves as conscious, rational, responsible have gone in this book should turn to the Notes. They identify some of the texts I have relied on, and should help readers in agents. Questions about the place of human consciousness and exploring the texts for themselves. I have cited the evidence not agency within a universe governed by physical laws raise problems only for my account of different philosophers but also for some about body and mind, and about causation and free will-two points about the historical or political background, so that readers central problems in metaphysics (inquiry into the nature of can consult these sources also. All the philosophical texts I cite, reality). and almost all the non-philosophical ones, are available in English Ethics. Philosophers seeking a rational understanding of nature translations. 4 r also seek a rational understanding of morality. They look for ll References to modern books and articles are highly selective, reasonable principles to guide human conduct and to justify social I and cite works of quite varying levels of difficulty and spe and political structures. Socrates and his successors argue about cialization. They are not meant to provide a systematic survey of the correct account of a person's good; the relation between a secondary literature; the coverage is uneven between different person's own good and the good of other people; and hence topics, since some topics have attracted more interesting work about the relation between self-interest and morality. They try to than others. The references are meant to introduce readers to ,I formulate a critical moral system that will show us both what is some of the more interesting discussions of the topics covered in true in our pre-reflective moral beliefs and how to correct them. this book, or to points of view different from my own, or to Theology. The concerns of the first philosophers are similar to I treatments of questions that I mention only briefly. 5 those of religion and mythology- to understand the origin and nature of the world, and our place in it. In its different phases Classical philosophy challenges the religious outlook, develops independently of it, and seeks to absorb traditional religion into rational theology. Augustine shows how one movement in later Greek philosophy came to accept the claims of Christianity, and formed Christian theology. It is still an open question which II attitude to religion counts as philosophical progress or decline whether philosophy should try to defend, criticize, ignore, or undermine all or some of the claims of all or some religious outlooks. While it is useful to distinguish these different areas of philo sophical inquiry, it would be unfortunate to give the impression either that they are quite unconnected with each other, or that I~ - - ·...: ·--·