Opening the text

Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch

Philosophy

Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"

Name: Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Author: Plutarch

Plutarch

Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy

It being our determination to discourse of Natural Philosophy, we
judge it necessary, in the first place and chiefly, to divide the body
of philosophy into its proper members, that we may know what is that
which is called philosophy, and what part of it is physical, or the
explanation of natural things. The Stoics affirm that wisdom is the
knowledge of things human and divine; that philosophy is the exercise
of that art which is expedient to this knowledge; that virtue is the
sole and sovereign art which is thus expedient; and this distributes
itself into three general parts,—natural, moral, and logical. By
which just reason (they say) philosophy is tripartite; of which one
is natural, the other moral, the third logical. The natural is when
our enquiries are concerning the world and all things contained in
it; the ethical is the employment of our minds in those things which
concern the manners of man’s life; the logical (which they also call
dialectical) regulates our conversation with others in speaking.
Aristotle, Theophrastus, and after them almost all the Peripatetics
give the following division of philosophy. It is absolutely requisite
that the complete person be contemplator of things which have a being,
and the practiser of those things which are decent; and this easily
appears by the following instances. If the question be proposed,
whether the sun, which is so conspicuous to us, be informed with a
soul or inanimate, he that makes this disquisition is the thinking
man; for he proceeds no farther than to consider the nature of that
thing which is proposed. Likewise, if the question be proposed,
whether the world be infinite, or whether beyond the system of this
world there is any real being, all these things are the objects about
which the understanding of man is conversant. But if these be the
questions,—what measures must be taken to compose the well ordered
life of man, what are the best methods to govern and educate children,
or what are the exact rules whereby sovereigns may command and
establish laws,—all these queries are proposed for the sole end of
action, and the man conversant therein is the moral and practical man.




CHAPTER I.

WHAT IS NATURE?

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch

Philosophy

Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"

Plutarch

Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy

It being our determination to discourse of Natural Philosophy, we
judge it necessary, in the first place and chiefly, to divide the body
of philosophy into its proper members, that we may know what is that
which is called philosophy, and what part of it is physical, or the
explanation of natural things. The Stoics affirm that wisdom is the
knowledge of things human and divine; that philosophy is the exercise
of that art which is expedient to this knowledge; that virtue is the
sole and sovereign art which is thus expedient; and this distributes
itself into three general parts,—natural, moral, and logical. By
which just reason (they say) philosophy is tripartite; of which one
is natural, the other moral, the third logical. The natural is when
our enquiries are concerning the world and all things contained in
it; the ethical is the employment of our minds in those things which
concern the manners of man’s life; the logical (which they also call
dialectical) regulates our conversation with others in speaking.
Aristotle, Theophrastus, and after them almost all the Peripatetics
give the following division of philosophy. It is absolutely requisite
that the complete person be contemplator of things which have a being,
and the practiser of those things which are decent; and this easily
appears by the following instances. If the question be proposed,
whether the sun, which is so conspicuous to us, be informed with a
soul or inanimate, he that makes this disquisition is the thinking
man; for he proceeds no farther than to consider the nature of that
thing which is proposed. Likewise, if the question be proposed,
whether the world be infinite, or whether beyond the system of this
world there is any real being, all these things are the objects about
which the understanding of man is conversant. But if these be the
questions,—what measures must be taken to compose the well ordered
life of man, what are the best methods to govern and educate children,
or what are the exact rules whereby sovereigns may command and
establish laws,—all these queries are proposed for the sole end of
action, and the man conversant therein is the moral and practical man.




CHAPTER I.

WHAT IS NATURE?

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"

Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"

No reviews yet