Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 2 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
Later on we see the philosophy of the Stoics pass over to the Romans,
that is to say, it became the philosophy of many Romans, though this
philosophy did not gain anything as a science by so doing. On the
contrary, as in the case of Seneca and the later Stoics, in Epictetus
or Antoninus, all speculative interest was really lost, and a
rhetorical and hortatory disposition shown, of which mention cannot be
made in a history of Philosophy any more than of our sermons. Epictetus
of Hierapolis in Phrygia, born at the end of the first century after
Christ, was first of all the slave of Epaphroditus, who, however, freed
him, after which he betook himself to Rome. When Domitian banished
the philosophers, poisoners and astrologers from Rome (94 A.D.),
Epictetus went to Nicopolis, in Epirus, and taught there publicly.
From his lectures Arrian compiled the voluminous _Dissertationes
Epicteteæ_, which we still possess, and also the manual ἐγχειρίδιον of
Stoicism.[126] We still have the Meditations εἰς ἑαυτόν of the Emperor
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, in twelve books; he first of all ruled
along with Lucius Aurelius Verus from 161 to 169 A.D., and then from
169 to 180 alone and he conducted a war with the Marcomanni. In his
Meditations he always speaks to himself; these reflections are not,
however, speculative in nature, being admonitions, such as that man
should exercise himself in every virtue.
We have no other original works by the older Stoics. For the Stoic
Philosophy, too, the sources on which we formerly could count are cut
off. The sources from which a knowledge of the philosophy of the Stoics
is to be derived are, however, well known. There is Cicero, who was
himself a Stoic, though in his representation there is great difficulty
in discovering how, for instance, the principle of Stoic morality is
to be distinguished from that which constitutes the principle of the
morality of the Peripatetics. And, more particularly, we have Sextus
Empiricus, whose treatment is mainly theoretic, and is thus interesting
from a philosophic point of view. For Scepticism has had to do with
Stoicism more especially. But also Seneca, Antoninus, Arrian, the
manual of Epictetus, and Diogenes Laërtius must really be called into
council.
As regards the philosophy of the Stoics themselves, they definitely
separated it into those three parts which we have already met with
(Vol. I. p. 387, Vol. II. pp. 48, 49), and which will, generally
speaking, be always found. There is Logic in the first place; secondly,
Physics, or Natural Philosophy; and thirdly, Ethics, or the Philosophy
of Mind, on the practical side especially. The content of their
philosophy has, however, not much that is original or productive.
1. PHYSICS.