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Reale's volume supplies a synthesis previously lacking-a synthesis in the historical treatment of the great philosophies of the Hellenistic Age: the Academy, the Peripatos, the Stoa, the Garden of Epicurus, Scepticism, and Eclecticism. Reale's extensive and fully documented treatment of the major schools of the period is unified by his thesis that the ethics developed by these major schools were secular faiths that sprang from intuitions about the meaning of life first emotionally grasped and then systematically and rationally developed. It is for this reason that the teachings of these schools endured almost continuously for about 500 years. It is for the same reason that the founders of the schools were considered gods and were actually, in a certain sense, the saints of secular faiths and religions.
In this book, Reale traces the decline of the philosophical schools of the classical period, the post-Platonic Academy, the post-Aristotelian Peripatos, and the minor socratic schools. The destruction of the polis and the incapacity of the schools to address the concerns of the new age were the fertile grounds from which the new schools developed. The Garden of Epicurus, the Porch of Zeno, and the sceptical movement initiated by Pyrrho form the core of the volume. The volume contains a select bibliography and an index of names and Greek terms, as well as an index of citations.
Foreword
Preface to the American Edition
Translator's Preface
The Systems of the Hellenistic Age
Introduction to the Philosophy of the Hellenistic Age
1. The spiritual consequences of the revolution produced by Alexander the GreatFirst Part
2. The development and diffusion of the cosmopolitan ideal
3. The discovery of the individual
4. The equalization of Greeks and barbarians and the breakdown of ancient ethnic prejudices
5. The transformation of Hellenic culture into Hellenistic culture
6. The addition in breadth and the loss in depth of Hellenistic philosophy
7. The revival of the Socratic spirit
8. The ideal of autarcheia
9. The ideal of ataraxy
10. The ideal of the Sage
11. The deification of the founders of the great systems of the Hellenistic Age
THE DECLINE OF THE MINOR SOCRATIC SCHOOLS AND THE SCHOOLS OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE
First Section
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINOR SOCRATIC SCHOOLS AND THE REASONS FOR THEIR DECLINE AND DISAPPEARANCE I. Diogenes "The Dog" and the Development of Cynicism
1. Diogenes and the radicalization of CynicismII. The Decline and End of the Cyrenaic School
2. Parrhesia and anaideia
3. The practice of discipline (askesis) and work (ponos)
4. Autarcheia and apatheia
5. Diogenes and the Hellenistic Age
6. Crates of Thebes and other followers of Diogenes
7. Cynicism up to the end of the Pagan Era
8. The value and limits of Cynicism
1. The development and diffusion of CyrenaicismIII. The Dialectical Developments of the Megaric School and its Dissolution
2. Hegesias and his followers
3. Anniceris and his followers
4. Theodorus and his followers
5. The end of Cyrenaicism
1. The development of the Megaric doctrines and their characteristicsIV. The Rapid Dissoultion of the Elean-Eretrian School
2. Eubulides and the Megaric "paradoxes"
3. Diodorus Cronos and the polemic against the Aristotelian notion of "potency"
4. Stilpo and the final affirmations of Megaricism
5. The end of the Megaric school
Second Section
THE FIRST ACADEMY AND THE RAPID DESTRUCTION OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE "SECOND VOYAGE"
I. The Platonic Academy, its Aim, its Organization, and its Rapid Decline
II. Eudoxus of Cnidus, an Astronomer Guest of the Academy
1. The immanent nature of the IdeasIII. Heraclides, Ponticus, Head of the Academy during the Absence of Plato
2. The hedonism of Eudoxus
1. The neglect of intelligible realityIV. Speusippus, First Successor to Plato
2. The conception of the soul
3. The rejection of the geocentric view
1. The rejection of the Platonic IdeasV. Xenocrates, Second Successor to Plato
2. The levels of reality
3. The highest principles of reality
4. Knowledge
5. Ethics
1. The tripartition of philosophyVI. The Final Representatives of the Old Academy: Polemon, Crates, and Crantor
2. The doctrine of knowledge
3. Physics (the doctrine of the principles)
4. The religious interpretation of the cosmos
5. Ethics
1. PolemonVII. Conclusions Concerning the Old Academy
2. Crates
3. Crantor
Third Section
THE FIRST PERIPATOS AND THE RAPID LOSS OF THE MEANING OF THE METAPHYSICAL DIMENSION
I. The Aristotelian Peripatos, its Organization, and its Rapid Decline
II. Theophrastus and the Loss of the Speculative Component
1. MetaphysicsIII. The Other Immediate Followers to Aristotle: Eudemus, Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus
2. Physics and psychology
3. Logic
4. Ethics
5. Conclusions concerning Theophrastus
1. EudemusIV. Strato of Lampsacus, Second Successor to Aristotle
2. Dicaearchus
3. Aristoxenus of Tarantum
1. PhysicsV. Conclusions Concerning the First Peripatos
2. Psychology
Second Part
EPICUREANISM FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE END OF THE PAGAN ERA
First Section
EPICURUS AND THE FOUNDING OF THE GARDEN
I. The Development and Characteristics of the Garden
1. The polemic of Epicurus against Plato and AristotleII. The Epicurean Canonic
2. The rejection of the "second voyage"
3. The renewal of atomism and the Eleatic categories fundamentally connected to it
4. The relations between Epicurus, Socrates, and the minor Socratics
5. The predominant role of ethics
6. The purpose of the Garden and its originality
1. The "Canonic" as determining the criteria of truthIII. Epicurean Physics
2.Sensation and its absolute validity
3. Prolepses or anticipations and language
4. The feelings of pleasure and pain
5. Opinion
6. Aporias and limits of the Epicurean canonic
1. The ontological foundations: the characteristics of reality as such, bodies, the void, and the infiniteIV. Epicurean Ethics
2. The atoms
3. The structural characteristics of the atom
4. The doctrine of the "minima"
5. The structural characteristics of the void
6. Movement
7. The "clinaman" or "swerve" of the atoms
8. The universe and infinite worlds
9. Celestial phenomena and their multiple explanations
10. Soul, its materiality and mortality
11. The likenesses and knowledge
12. The conception of the Gods and the Divine
1. Pleasure as the foundation of ethicsV. The followers of and Successors to Epicurus
2. Reform as Cyrenaic hedonism
3. The hierarchy of pleasures and wisdom
4. Epicurean asceticism and autarcheia
5. The absolute character of pleasure
6. The relative character of pain
7. Death is nothing for human beings
8. Epicurean virtue and Socratic intellectualism
9. The devaluation of the State and political life and the elevation of the "hidden life"
10. Friendship
11. The fourfold remedy and the ideal of wisdom
Second Section
THE SPREAD OF EPICUREANISM AT ROME AND LUCRETIUS
I. The First Attempts to Introduce Epicureanism at Rome and the Circle of Philodemus
1. The attempt of Alceus and Philiscus and its failureII. Lucretius and Epicurean Doctrine Presented through Elevated Poetry
2. The attempt of Amafinius
3. The circle of Philodemus
1. The inadequacy of some judgments concerning LucretiusThird Part
2. The initial pessimism and the victory of reason in Lucretius and Epicurus
3. The truth which eases pain and produces peace
4. The principles of true Epicureanism and the poem of Lucretius
5. Pity through pain in the poem of Lucretius
6. The significance of life and death
STOICISM FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE END OF THE PAGAN ERA
First Section
ANCIENT STOICISM
I. Zeno, the Foundation of the Stoa, and the Different Phases of Stoicism
1. The meeting of Zeno with Crates and with SocraticismII. The Tripartition of Philosophy and the Logos
2. The rejection of the "second voyage"
3. The reinterpretation of Heraclitus and the concept of "physis" as fire-maker
4. Relations with Epicurus
5. The origin of the Stoa and its development
III. The Logic of the Ancient Stoa
1. The role and the articulations of Stoic logic
2. The criteria of truth: se