Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/59

 PHILOSOPHY

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PHILOSOPHY

and change, the generating principle of all things, in which all things are finally reabsorbed — such is the fundamental theme to be found in the Upanishads under a thousand variations of form. To arrive at the atman, we must not stop at empirical reality, which is multiple and cognizable; we must pierce this husk, penetrate to the unknowable and in- effable superessence, and identify ourselves with it in an unconscious unity. (3) The Post-Vedic, or Sanskrit, Period (since 500 B. c). From the germs of theories contained in the Upanishads, a series of systems spring up, orthodox or heterodox. Of the orthodox systems, Vedanta is the most inter- esting; in it we find the principles of the Upanishads developed in an integral philosophy which comprises metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, and ethics (transmigration, metempsychosis). Among the sys- tems not in harmony with the Vedic dogmas, tin' most celebrated is Buddhism, a kind of Pessimism which teaches liberation from pain in a state of unconscious repose, or an extinction of person- ality {Nirv&na). Buddhism spread in China, where it Uves side by side with the doctrines of Lao Tsee and that of Confucius. It is evident that even the systems which are not in harmony with the Veda are permeated with religious ideas.

B. Greek Philosophy. — This philosophy, which occupied six centuries before, and six after, Christ, may be di\'ided into four periods, corresponding with the succession of the principal lines of research:

(1) From Thales of Miletus to Socrates (seventh to fifth centuries B. c. — preoccupied with cosmology);

(2) Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (fifth to fourth centuries b. c. — psychology) ; (3) From the death of Aristotle to the rise of nco-Platonism (end of the fourth century B. c. to third century after Christ — moral philosophy); (4) neo-Platonic School (from the third century after Christ, or, including the sys- tems of the forerunners of neo-Platonism, from the first century after Christ, to the end of Greek philos- ophy in the seventh century — mysticism).

(1) The pre-Socratic philosophers either seek for the stable basis of things — which is water, for Thales of Miletus; air, for Anaximenes of Miletus; air endowed with intelligence, for Diogenes of Apollonia; number, for Pythagoras (sixth century B. c); ab- stract and immovable being, for the Eleatics — or they study that which changes: while Parmenides and the Eleatics assert that everj'thing is, and noth- ing changes or becomes. Heraclitus (about 535-475) holds that everything becomes, and nothing is unchangeable. Democritus (fifth century) reduces all beings to groups of atoms in motion, and this movement, according to Anaxagoras, has for its cause an intelligent being. (2) The Period of Apogee: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. When the Sophists (Protagoras, Gorgias) had demonstrated the insuffi- ciency of these cosmologies, Socrates (470-399) brought philosophical investigation to bear on man himself, studying man chiefly from the moral point of view. From the presence in us of abstract ideas Plato (427-347) deduced the existence of a world of supersensible reahties or ideas, of which the visible world is but a pale reflection. These ideas, which the soul in an earUer hfe contemplated, are now, because of its union with the body, but faintly perceived. Aristotle (384-322), on the contrary, shows that the real dwells in the objects of sense. The theory of act and potent iality, of form and matter, is a new solution of the relations between the per- manent and the changing. His psychology, founded upon the principle of the unity of man and the substantial union of soul and body, is a creation of genius. And as much may be said of his logic. (3) The Moral Period. After Aristotle (end of the fourth century b. c.) four schools are in evidence: Stoic, Epicurean, Platonic, and Aristotelean. The Stoics

(Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, Chrysippus), like the Epicureans, make speculation subordinate to the quest of happiness, and the two schools, in spite of their divergencies, both consider happiness to be an drapa^la or absence of sorrow and preoccupation. The teachings of both on nature (Dynamistic Monism with the Stoics, and Pluralistic Mechanism with the Epicureans) are only a prologue to their moral phi- losophy. After the latter half of the second century B. c. we perceive reciprocal infiltrations between the various schools. This issues in Eclecticism. Seneca (first century b. c.) and Cicero (106-43 B. c.) are at- tached to Eclecticism with a Stoic basis; two great commentators of Aristotle, Andronicus of Rhodes (first century B. c.) and Alexander of Aphrodisias (about 200), affect a Peripatetic Eclecticism. Paral- lel with Eclecticism runs a current of Scepticism (^Enesidemus, end of first century B. c, and Sextus Empiricus, second century a. d.). (4) The Mystical Period. In the first century B. c. Alexandria had be- come the capital of Greek intellectual life. Mystical and theurgic tendencies, born of a longing for the ideal and the beyond, began to appear in a current of Greek philosophy which originated in a restoration of Pythagorism and its alliance with Platonism (Plutarch of Chieronea, first century B.C.; Apuleius of Madaura; Numenius, about 160 and others), and still more in the Graeco-Judaic philosophy of Philo the Jew (30 b. c. to A. D. 50). But the dominance of these tendencies is more apparent in neo-Platonism. The most brilliant thinker of the neo-Platonic series is Plotinus (a. d. 204-70). In his "Enneads" he traces the paths which lead the soul to the One, and establishes, in keeping with his mysticism, an emanationist metaphysical system. PorphjTy of Tyre (232-304), a disciple of Plotinus, popularizes his teaching, emphasizes its religious bearing, and makes Aristotle's "Organon" the introduction to neo-Platonic philosophy. Later on, neo-Platonism, emphasizing its religious features, placed itself, with Jamblichus, at the service of the pagan pantheon which growing Chris- tianity was ruining on all sides, or again, as with Themistius at Constantinople (fourth century), Proclus and Simplicius at Athens (fifth century), and Ammonius at Alexandria, it took an Encyclopedic turn. With Ammonius and John Philoponus (sixth century) the neo-Platonic School of Alexandria developed in the direction of Christianity.

C. Patristic Philosophy. — In the closing years of the second century and, still more, in the third cen- turj', the philosophy of the Fathers of the Church was developed. It was born in a civilization domi- nated by Greek ideas, chiefly neo-Platonic, and on this side its mode of thought is still the ancient. Still, if some, like St. Augustine, attach the greatest value to the neo-Platonic teachings, it must not be forgotten that the Monist or Pantheistic and Emanationist ideas, which have been accentuated by the successors of Plotinus, are carefully replaced by the theory of creation and the substantial distinction of beings; in this respect a new spirit animates Patristic phi- losophy. It was developed, too, as an au.xiliary of the dogmatic system which the Fathers were to establish. In the third century the great representatives of the Christian School of Alexandria are Clement of Alexandria and Origen. After them Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Xazianzus, St. Ambrose, and, above all, St." Augustine (354-430) appear. St. Augustine gathers up the intellectual treasures of the ancient world, and is one of the principal interme- diaries for their transmission to the modern world. In its definitive form Augustinism is a fusion of in- tellectualism and mysticism, with a study of God as the centre of interest. In the fifth century, pseudo-Dionysius perpetuates many a neo-Platonic doctrine adapted to Christianity, and his writings exercise a powerful influence in the Middle Ages.