The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy
The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy, Ancient
The introduction of Teichmüller’s name affords me an opportunity
for mentioning that my attention was not directed to his brilliant
researches into various questions connected with Greek philosophy,
and more particularly with the systems of Plato and Aristotle,
until it was too late for me to profit by them in the present work.
I allude more particularly to his _Studien zur Geschichte der
Begriffe_ (Berlin, 1874), and to his recently published _Literarische
Fehden im vierten Jahrhundert vor Chr._ (Breslau, 1881). The chief
points of the former work are, that Plato was really a pantheist
or monist, not, as is commonly believed and as I have myself taken
for granted, a dualist; that, as a consequence of the suppression
of individuality which characterises his system, he did not really
accept or teach the doctrine of personal immortality, although he
wished that the mass of the people should believe it; that Plato
no more attributed a transcendent existence to his ideas than did
Aristotle to his substantial forms; and that in putting an opposite
interpretation on his old master’s theory, Aristotle is guilty of
gross misrepresentation. The most important point of the _Literarische
Fehden_ is that Aristotle published his _Ethics_ while Plato was still
alive and engaged in the composition of his _Laws_, and that certain
passages in the latter work, of which one relates to free-will and the
other to the unity of virtue (861, A ff. and 962 ff.) were intended as
a reply to Aristotle’s well-known criticisms on the Platonic theory of
ethics.
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