The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy
The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy, Ancient
III. How the practical teaching of Plato differed from that of
Socrates, 229—Identification of justice with self-interest,
230—Confusion of social with individual happiness, 231—Resolution of
the soul into a multitude of conflicting impulses, 232—Impossibility
of arguing men into goodness, 233.
IV. Union of religion with morality, 234—Cautious handling of
the popular theology, 234—The immortality of the soul, 235—The
Pythagorean reformation arrested by the progress of physical
philosophy, 237—Immortality denied by some of the Pythagoreans
themselves, 237—Scepticism as a transition from materialism to
spiritualism, 238—The arguments of Plato, 239—Pantheism the natural
outcome of his system, 240.
V. Plato’s condemnation of art, 241—Exception in favour of religious
hymns and edifying fiction, 241—Mathematics to be made the basis of
education, 242—Application of science to the improvement of the race,
242—Inconsistency of Plato’s belief in heredity with the doctrine
of metempsychosis, 243—Scheme for the reorganisation of society,
244—Practical dialectic of the _Republic_, 245.
VI. Hegel’s theory of the _Republic_, 246—Several distinct tendencies
confounded under the name of subjectivity, 247—Greek philosophy not
an element of political disintegration, 250—Plato borrowed more from
Egypt than from Sparta, 253.
VII. The consequences of a radical revolution, 254—Plato constructed
his new republic out of the elementary and subordinate forms of social
union, 254—Inconsistencies into which he was led by this method,
254—The position which he assigns to women, 256—The Platonic State
half school-board and half marriage-board, 258—Partial realisation of
Plato’s polity in the Middle Ages, 259—Contrast between Plato and the
modern Communists, 259—His real affinities are with Comte and Herbert
Spencer, 261.
VIII. Reaction of Plato’s social studies on his metaphysics, 262—The
ideas resolved into different aspects of the relation between soul and
body, 263—Dialectic dissolution of the four fundamental contrasts
between reality and appearance, 263—Mind as an intermediary between
the Ideas and the external world, 265—Cosmogony of the _Timaeus_,
265—Philosophy and theology, 267.
IX. Plato’s hopes from a beneficent despotism, 268—The _Laws_,
269—Concessions to current modes of thought, 270—Religious
intolerance, 271—Recapitulation of Plato’s achievements,
272—Fertility of his method, 273.
CHAPTER VI.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ARISTOTLE pages 275-329
I. Recent Aristotelian literature, 275—Reaction in favour of
Aristotle’s philosophy, 277—and accompanying misinterpretation of its
meaning, 278—Zeller’s partiality for Aristotle, 280.
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