The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy
The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy, Ancient
only to be acquired by incessant practice; only the earlier thinker
would have observed that knowledge of every kind is gained by the same
laborious repetition of particular actions. To the obvious objection
that, in this case, morality cannot, like theoretical truth, be
imparted by the teacher to his pupils, but must be won by the learner
for himself, he would probably have replied that all truth is really
evolved by the mind from itself, and that he, for that very reason,
disclaimed the name of a teacher, and limited himself to the seemingly
humbler task of awakening dormant capacities in others.
An additional influence, not the less potent because unacknowledged,
was the same craving for a principle of unity that had impelled early
Greek thought to seek for the sole substance or cause of physical
phenomena in some single material element, whether water, air, or fire;
and just as these various principles were finally decomposed into the
multitudinous atoms of Leucippus, so also, but much more speedily,
did the general principle of knowledge tend to decompose itself into
innumerable cognitions of the partial ends or utilities which action
was directed to achieve. The need of a comprehensive generalisation
again made itself felt, and all good was summed up under the head
of happiness. The same difficulties recurred under another form. To
define happiness proved not less difficult than to define use or
practical knowledge. Three points of view offered themselves, and all
three had been more or less anticipated by Socrates. Happiness might
mean unmixed pleasure, or the exclusive cultivation of man’s higher
nature, or voluntary subordination to a larger whole. The founder of
Athenian philosophy used to present each of these, in turn, as an end,
without recognising the possibility of a conflict between them; and it
certainly would be a mistake to represent them as constantly opposed.
Yet a truly scientific principle must either prove their identity, or
make its choice among them, or discover something better. Plato seems
to have taken up the three methods, one after the other, without coming
to any very satisfactory conclusion. Aristotle identified the first
two, but failed, or rather did not attempt to harmonise them with the
third. Succeeding schools tried various combinations, laying more or
less stress on different principles at different periods, till the will
of an omnipotent Creator was substituted for every human standard.
With the decline of dogmatic theology we have seen them all come to
life again, and the old battle is still being fought out under our
eyes. Speaking broadly, it may be said that the method which we have
placed first on the list is more particularly represented in England,
the second in France, and the last in Germany. Yet they refuse to be
separated by any rigid line of demarcation, and each tends either to
combine with or to pass into one or both of the rival theories. Modern
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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