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Currents of philosopical ideas in the first two centuries AD

Nothing is more confused than the history of intellectual thought in the first two centuries of our era; these two centuries saw the last brilliance of the great post-Aristotelian dogmatisms shine with Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, then disappear. Conversely, it is the rebirth of the Athenian idealism of the 5th and 4th centuries, of the systems of Plato and Aristotle. Philo of Alexandria in the beginning of our era, Plutarch of Chaeronea (49-120), then the commentators of Plato, in particular Albinus towards the middle of the 1st century, those of Aristotle are the witnesses; at the same time a Pythagorean literature was created, imbued with Platonism. But alongside the great philosophical schools, what new motifs of thought are striving to take shape and enter the flow of civilization! It is the reciprocal penetration of Hellenism and the Orient; the Jews of Alexandria, with Philo, first made a place for themselves there; then it is Christianity. the eighth century saw simultaneously the apologists, Justin, Tatian and Irenaeus, and the emergence of the great Gnostic systems; more hidden but no less active are the oriental religions, in particular that of Mithras, which, in addition to their cults and their mysteries, have overall conceptions of the universe and of human destiny.

It is only through abstraction that we can study these movements of thought in isolation; they belong to the same intellectual civilization whose common characteristics it is important to grasp: firstly, the creative period is well over; we do not continue the works of Plato, Aristotle and Chrysippus, we comment on them, and their diligent reading gives rise to constantly renewed exercises. We do not feel the need to revise their conception of the universe and the cosmos; this conception, which was for them the fruit of experience and reasoning, is now a fixed image from which we start; a finite and unique world, geocentrism, the opposition of the earth, place of change and corruption, and the incorruptible sky, with the intermediate regions of the air, the more or less considerable influence of the stars on earthly destinies, these are dogmas common to almost all and which will not be revised for a long time. No deep philosophical curiosity; consequently, if we except the practical arts, medicine (Galen), mechanics (Heron of Alexandria) and even alchemy, no scientific curiosity; these arts in fact most often boast of being simple practices, fruits of experience, which are entirely independent of theoretical sciences; if Galen undoubtedly wants the doctor to be a philosopher, he means by this not that he must have his personal theories, but that he must use Aristotelian or Stoic physics for physiology; on the other hand, Sextus Empiricus and the school of so-called empirical doctors take great care to restrict the doctor’s method to pure observation. Theoretical sciences, mathematics, music, astronomy are no more useful for practical arts than for speculation on the universe; we often wonder what their place should be in education; we are afraid to see them develop for themselves, and we generally only give them a subordinate role; we must study everything that is necessary to understand and conceive the system of the cosmos, but nothing more; this cycle of liberal education is at most the slave or the introducer of philosophy; Theon of Smyrna wrote a work around 125 on the mathematical knowledge necessary to read Plato; arithmetic, for Philo of Alexandria, only serves to prepare numerical symbolism.

Thus an intelligence frozen in images which impose themselves, and all intellectual development stopped, this is a general trait of this period. It follows that, in certain respects, philosophy only provides themes, and themes so worn out that they can only be renewed through the virtuosity of the form. Would philosophy fall into the pure rhetoric? It is a constant danger for her; how many times has Epictetus felt, who constantly reproaches his students for their lack of deep feelings and their tendency towards pure rhetorical skill! How many times already does Seneca sacrifice thought to the balancing of sentences and the discovery of ingenious formulas! And we see a Maxim of Tire expounding in an elegant style the pros and cons on the most serious philosophical subjects, practical and active life, the role of the sciences in philosophy (1). So much so that, in the constant struggle between the professors of rhetoric lecturers or sophists and the philosophers, the sophists are close to triumphing; an Ælius Aristides (117-177), who passionately criticizes the condamation of rhetoric by Plato in the Gorgias, places the formal education of the rhetorician well above that of the philosopher (2).

This frivolous turn of thought, which finds no obstacle in a methodical activity of the mind, has on the contrary its counterbalance in moral and religious concerns which are fundamentally the same in all schools. At this moment we seek, in the philosopher, a guide, a comforter, a director of conscience. Philosophy is a school of peace and serenity. If it claims to remain research and knowledge of the truth, it is because of the value that this knowledge has for the peace of the soul and its happiness. “Philosophy,” says Albinus in his Manual of Platonic Philosophy, “is, at the same time as the desire for wisdom, the deliverance of the soul and its conversion outside the body, which turns us towards intelligibles and true beings”. What is important in knowing the truth is reaching the object of truth, which alone produces happiness, it is not the method by which we seek it. It is less a question, as we have already seen with Stoicism, of discovering a new truth than of transforming the mind and the vision it has of things, the judgments it makes about them; this result is acquired less by instructing the mind than by striking it.

References

  1. Dissertations, V and VI, XX and XXI.
    2. A. Boulanger, Ælius Aristide, 1923.

Source: Émile Bréhier(1951). Histoire de la philosophie, Presses Universitaires de France. Translation and adaptation by © 2024 Nicolae Sfetcu

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