Mentioned by Plato for treating
the body as a whole,
the traditional founder of scientific medicine,
Hippocrates,
was born about 460 BC on the island of Cos
and died
about 377 BC at Larissa.
His teacher Herodicas emphasized gymnastics
even for cases
of fever, but Hippocrates used a gentler approach
without
harsh measures or drastic drugs.
His writings show that
he was extremely observant,
and he recommended prudence, kindness
to all, fairness,
and good moral character.
He advised physicians
not to begin by discussing fees,
believing it was better to have
to reproach a saved patient
for not paying than to extort money
from those at death's door.
He recommended sometimes giving one's
services for nothing
to those in need, for where there is the
love of humanity
there is also love of the art.
He found that
many patients recovered simply because
they were happy with the
goodness of the physician.
It is good to make the sick well, care
for the healthy
so as to keep them well, and to take care of oneself
so as to do what is right.
Hippocrates believed that the physician
is only Nature's
assistant in the healing process.
He paid attention
to diet, fresh air, and environmental factors.
The writings attributed to Hippocrates apparently were
collected
at Cos from early scientific observations by
Hippocrates and other
physicians of his era.
The Hippocratic Oath has had a tremendous
influence
on the ethics of medical practice from that day to this.
Although Hippocrates criticized traditional beliefs that the
gods
cause illnesses, the oath begins
by swearing to the gods of health.
In the Hippocratic oath physicians promise to benefit patients
and abstain from whatever is harmful,
to give no deadly medicine
nor give a woman
a pessary to induce an abortion.
In entering
homes to benefit the sick they must abstain from
any voluntary
mischief including seduction.
Hippocrates recommended that physicians study nature
and the
whole subject of medicine that shows what people are
in relation
to food and drink and other occupations
with the effects of each.
He noted that large quantities of undiluted wine make one feeble,
although he occasionally prescribed some wine.
General rules often
have exceptions.
Cheese, for example, is not equally injurious
to everyone.
The physician should know the effects of fasting
or eating
various amounts or drinking soups, and so on.
His most
famous aphorism is the very first one:
Life is short, and art long; the crisis fleeting;
experience perilous, and decision difficult.
The physician must not only be prepared to do
what is right oneself, but also to make the
patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate.1
Hippocrates also wrote that the noble art of medicine
was behind
the other arts.
To gain a competent knowledge of medicine Hippocrates
believed one needs natural ability, instruction,
favorable circumstances
for study,
early learning, love of labor, and leisure.
Isocrates was born in 436 BC before the Peloponnesian
War
and did not die until after the Greek allies lost their
independence to Macedonia at Chaeronea in 338 BC.
His father manufactured
flutes and was wealthy enough
to give his son an outstanding education.
Isocrates studied with the famous rhetorician
Gorgias in Thessaly.
After the Peloponnesian War
during which he lost all the
money his father gave him, for ten
years or so Isocrates
wrote speeches for use in the law courts.
About 392 BC he began teaching as a sophist, and in spite of
his
higher fees he claimed he had more students than all the
other
sophists combined, though he spent most of his wealth
on public
services to Athens.
His students included the Athenian general
Timotheus,
the orators Isaeus, Lycurgus, and Hypereides,
the historians
Ephorus and Theopompus, the philosopher
Speusippus, and Nicocles
who ruled Salamis on Cyprus.
His lawyer speeches were quite persuasive,
but he later considered
them unworthy of him.
His speech for Nicias against Euthynus argued
that
Euthynus returned only two talents out of the three
Nicias
had deposited with him.
This speech was written shortly after
the fall of the
oligarchy of Thirty, which is described as a time
when it was more dangerous to be wealthy than to engage
in wrong-doing,
because the oppressive government
was seizing their property.
In a speech against Callimachus in 402 BC Isocrates
argued that
the amnesty of the previous year be upheld.
In a speech against
Lochites for assault and battery
Isocrates mentioned that 1500
citizens were put to
death without a trial by the Thirty.
Isocrates
also wrote a speech for the son of the famous
Alcibiades, who
was being sued because his father had
allegedly stolen a team
of race-horses probably for the
Olympics of 416 BC when Alcibiades
entered seven teams
and won first, second, and fourth; the extant
part of the
speech justifies and praises the political career
of the controversial Alcibiades.
A speech on banking argues for the son of a wealthy man
from
the Bosporus, from where Athens got much of its grain.
The Athenian
banker Pasion is a freed slave, and the case
depends on his not
allowing his slave to be tortured when
questioned, which was the
standard practice
for slaves' testimony.
Refusal to let one's
slaves be so interrogated
was considered an admission of guilt.
In another moving speech the adopted son of Thrasylochus
claims
his inheritance authorized in the will is valid not only
because
of the written document but because of his services
to the man
in undergoing dangers and caring for him when sick,
while the
illegitimate daughter claiming she should have the
inheritance
did not care for her father at all.
When Isocrates began to teach professionally, he wrote a
short
tract against the sophists to differentiate his approach
to education
from that of other sophists, whose reputation
was bad because
of their false promises,
which led some to prefer indolence to
serious study.
He wrote they claim to search for the truth
but
begin by telling lies.
They offer the greatest value of virtue,
but they only charge
three or four minae; yet they do not
even trust their students
to pay but make them deposit the funds
with a third party.
They are vigilant about contradictions in
words but blind
to their own inconsistencies in action.
They claim
to have knowledge about the future but cannot
even say anything
insightful about the present.
Others profess to teach political
discourse
but have no interest in the truth.
They promise to make
their students clever speakers
even if they have no natural ability
as though it were as simple
as learning letters, whereas good
speech-making requires
knowledge of the subject, style, creativity,
and imagination.
Isocrates believed such teachers
ought to pay
out money for lessons.
Isocrates held that formal training can help those with natural
aptitude who have practical experience, but to those without
ability
it can do little more than offer them some
self-improvement and
more knowledge of the subject.
An able student can learn the different
kinds of discourse
from a teacher, who can expound the principles
and set an
example of oratory; but those who exhort others to
study
discourse while neglecting the values of what study affords
are merely meddlesome and greedy professors.
Those who follow
true precepts may move more toward
honesty of character than facility
in oratory.
Isocrates did not claim to teach right living nor
to be able to
implant prudence and justice in the depraved, although
he
believed that the study of political discourse could help
stimulate
one to form good character.
Isocrates displayed his talent in a piece on the legendary
Egyptian leader Busiris in which he criticized Polycrates for
making Busiris look bad in his defense of him while making
Socrates look good in his accusation
against him.
Polycrates mentioned how Busiris sacrificed humans,
which
Isocrates considered atrocious; but his criticizing Socrates
for having taught Alcibiades
was denied by Isocrates,
and if true he would consider it praiseworthy.
In 380 BC Isocrates published his Panegyricus in which
he praised the culture of Athens and Greece, suggesting
that they
stop fighting among themselves and unite
in a war against the
barbarian Persians.
Also in 373 BC he wrote a speech on behalf
of the
Plataeans asking for Athenian military aid against the
Thebans.
The oration to Demonicus by Isocrates is an exhortation to
virtue filled with moral precepts.
Virtue is better than riches
and more useful than noble birth.
As the body is developed by
physical exercise, the soul may
grow by practicing the moral precepts
Isocrates recommended.
Isocrates applied the golden rule to parents,
saying to
treat them as one would want to be treated by one's
children.
The body should be trained by exercises
that lead to
health rather than strength.
One should be thoughtful without
violent laughter
or presumptuous speech.
Everyone agrees on the
virtues of
modesty, justice, and moderation.
One should fear the
gods, honor parents, respect friends,
and obey the laws.
Loving
knowledge can lead to mastering knowledge,
and wisdom is the most
imperishable possession.
Isocrates suggested being pleasant to everyone,
but cultivating
the best.
Practice self-control in everything that is shameful.
Using money well is more important than possessing it.
Be content
with present circumstances,
but seek to improve them.
Be affable
and not proud; avoid drinking parties,
or leave them before becoming
intoxicated.
Isocrates valued culture and recommended gleaning
the best
from the poets and other writers as a bee visits flowers.
The greatest incentive to deliberation is observing the
misfortunes
that result from lacking it.
It is better to retire from a public
trust,
not more wealthy but more esteemed.
Honest poverty is better
than unjust wealth, because justice
outlasts all riches even beyond
death.
Work hard with one's body and love wisdom with the soul
so as to have the strength to carry out
resolves seen as good
by intelligence.
Isocrates wrote three orations related
to the rulers of Salamis
on Cyprus.
The first one to Nicocles suggested
how the new king
may rule best.
Isocrates advised him to use education to improve
his nature,
send for the wisest people, and study the best poets
and sages.
He should not allow the people to do or suffer any
outrage,
but honor the best and protect everyone's rights.
Bad
laws and institutions should be changed.
He should not show favoritism
but be consistent in judging.
Isocrates recommended being prepared
for war
yet peaceful in avoiding unjust aggression.
Once again
he applied the golden rule to weaker states.
Rather than emulating
those with the widest dominion,
it is better to make use of the
power one already has
to enjoy happiness with moderate achievements.
The king should grant freedom of speech to those with
good judgment
so that his friends can help him decide,
his friends being not
those who praise all he does
but those who criticize his mistakes.
Nicocles should govern himself no less than his subjects
by not
being a slave to any pleasure or desire so that his
moderation
will be an example to all.
It is more important to pass on a good
name to his
children than riches, for wealth can never buy a good
name.
In finding the happy mean it is better
to fall short than
to go to excess.
The second oration concerning Nicocles
was written for the
king to his subjects.
Isocrates again urged education and the
ability to speak well
as the surest sign of good understanding.
In this speech the king is communicating to his people
so that
they will know what he expects of them.
He criticized democracies
and oligarchies
whose rivalries injure the commonwealth.
These
governments honor those skilled in swaying the crowd,
but the
monarch claimed he honors those skilled in practice.
In war situations
monarchy was considered more efficient.
Isocrates noted that the
gods live under a monarchy.
Nicocles claimed that he has ruled
so mildly
that no one has suffered exile, death, or confiscation
of their property during his reign.
Isocrates pointed out that
courage and cleverness
are not always good, but moderation and
justice are.
The king called on his subjects to be diligent and
just,
and he asked them to deal with each other
as they expect
him to deal with them.
He warned against political societies
and
unions as dangerous to a monarchy.
The character of the citizens
often affected the behavior
of the rulers, as depravity has compelled
them
to be more harsh than they wished.
Nicocles concluded with
the golden rule again and exhorted
them not to practice anything
they condemn in words.
A third oration about Cyprus is an encomium to Euagoras,
the
father of Nicocles.
Isocrates praised Euagoras uncritically for
taking the throne
of Salamis by force and ruling there as a tyrant
for about forty years until he was assassinated in 374 BC,
though
Isocrates did not mention how he died.
He considered Euagoras
even greater than Cyrus,
who had ruled over the Persian empire;
Isocrates was the only Greek writer to mention that
Cyrus killed
his mother's father Astyages.
Euagoras gave the Athenian admiral
Conon refuge from 405
until 397 BC, enabling a remnant of the
Athenian navy
to come back after the disastrous Peloponnesian
War.
Attempting to surpass a work by his teacher Gorgias,
Isocrates
wrote an encomium on Helen in which
he praised the power of her
beauty that caused the Greeks
to unite in a victorious war against
the Trojans in Asia.
He also praised the heroics and wise policies
of Theseus.
In 368 BC Isocrates wrote
to Dionysius I of Syracuse,
praising him as the foremost Greek with the greatest power,
saying
that Athens would surely ally itself with him
in any struggle
he would make for the welfare of Greece.
The lost letter that
accompanied the extant introductory letter
likely urged Dionysius
to take up a Greek crusade
against the barbarian Persians.
Two years later Isocrates wrote an oration for Archidamus,
the prince of Sparta, who had fought well in the losing battle
at Leuctra when Sparta lost its hegemony to Thebes.
The Thebans
had razed Thespiae and Plataea and now
proposed to settle their
colonists in Messene, which
Isocrates considered a violation of
the Peace of Antalcidas.
What bothered him most though was that
this
would not restore the true Messenians but the Helots,
making
these slaves masters.
Isocrates believed that justice is most
important,
which with the grace of the gods secured the Spartan
laws;
but he did not seem to recognize the rights of the Helots.
Many more people were in exile from the Peloponnesian
peninsula
than ever before, as the whole region was in distress.
Isocrates
had Archidamus recommend they send their parents,
wives, and children
to Sicily, Cyrene, and Asia Minor
so that the men could fight
and plunder
their enemies by land and sea.
For if they let the
Helots settle on their borders and permitted
Messene to flourish
undisturbed, the derision at the hands
of their foes would be
worse than suffering annihilation.
In this speech by Isocrates
Archidamus told the Spartans
to take up the war, for it is disgraceful
to tolerate freedom
of speech to slaves when before they did not
even grant
equal speech to free men.
Ten years later Isocrates
wrote a letter to Archidamus,
now king of Sparta, urging him to
reconcile the Greeks,
stopping their wars with each other so that
they could end the insolence of the Persians.
At the end of the terrible Social War in 355 BC when peace
was being negotiated, Isocrates, over 80 years old, wrote an
oration
addressed to the Athenian assembly entitled
On the Peace
and called On the Confederacy by Aristotle.
The important
question of war and peace was to be decided.
Isocrates criticized
the flatterers who had brought ruin
to their public affairs; yet
they had blindly followed them
into war expecting to recover their
lost power,
while counselors of peace advised being content with
what
they had rather than crave possessions contrary to justice.
Many who possess great fortunes madly risk
what they have grasping
for more.
Apparently the Athenian assembly had not been willing
to listen to anyone who disagreed with their desires,
and so Isocrates
wrote this speech for the reading public,
asking that both sides
be given an unbiased hearing.
Those favoring peace have never
caused misfortune,
while those espousing war plunged them into
many disasters.
Only the most reckless orators were given
freedom
of speech in the assembly.
Isocrates recommended making peace not only with Chians,
Rhodians,
Byzantines, and Coans, but with all humanity in the
agreement
(Peace of Antalcidas) made thirty years before
with the king of Persia and the Lacedaemonians
that recognized
independence of the Greeks and removed foreign
garrisons.
Isocrates acknowledged that this appeared to give Thebans
the advantage of keeping Thespiae and Plataea,
but he promised
to persuade them that injustice
is not an advantage but results
in disasters.
He suggested that the blessings of security, abundance,
and
the esteem of others are better than the loss of these in
war
which makes them poor and gives them a bad name.
In peace
they will be freed from war-taxes and other burdens
and be able
to cultivate their fields and sail the seas safely.
The city's
revenues will double; commerce will thrive;
and they will have
all humanity as allies.
Others will withdraw from Athenian territory
because
of the advantages of supporting the power of Athens
to
secure their own realms.
They must realize that peace is better
than meddling,
justice better than injustice, and attending to
one's own
business better than coveting the possessions of others.
Wars had cost them great expense and reaped hatreds
from interfering;
but when they had been just and aided those
who were oppressed
without coveting their possessions,
they were willingly given
hegemony.
Nothing contributes more to material gain
and a good
reputation than virtue.
Those who unjustly seize what belongs
to others
are like animals lured by bait who
find themselves in
a desperate situation.
Isocrates accused the warmongers of accepting
bribes
and the assembly of appointing generals
who were guilty
of this capital crime.
As a physician treats ills, an unpopular
speech that
reproaches sins is needed to cure ignorant souls.
Foreigners would think the Athenians mad if they were
to come
and see them claiming to follow their ancestors,
who fought the
barbarians to free Greeks,
when they are now bringing Asians
to
fight Greeks in their homes.
Now Athens seemed to be waging war
against the whole world, paying lawless and
violent mercenaries
to attack their allies.
Isocrates blamed the empire of the sea for plunging them
into
disorders that overthrew the democratic government.
He argued
that empire is neither just nor capable
of being maintained nor
advantageous.
When the Lacedaemonians held hegemony,
the Athenians
denounced it as wrong and waged war against them
until
they got their independence back.
Thus it is not just for
the stronger to rule the weaker.
Even ten thousand talents could
not help
Athens maintain her empire.
How could they possibly acquire one
now in their current poverty?
They ought to commend those
who admonish them and
reveal their evil policies with their consequent
disasters.
The Peloponnesian War that
resulted from Athenian
imperialism would have ended in their slavery
if the
Lacedaemonians had not been more friendly
than their former
allies.
Yet Athens, while not even in control of its own territory,
had tried to extend its power to Italy, Sicily, and Carthage.
In the Decelean war in Attica they lost 10,000 hoplite soldiers,
in Sicily 40,000 men and 240 ships,
and in the Hellespont 200
ships.
The great Athenian houses that had survived the tyrannies
of the sixth century BC and the Persian
Invasions were
wiped out under the coveted empire, because
they
desired not just to rule but to dominate in order to provide
pleasures for themselves from the labors of others.
Those who
seek such despotic power must suffer
the disasters that result
from that,
and Athens suffered the distress of a siege.
Imperialism ruined Athens, and then it quickly
ruined previously
virtuous Sparta too.
As soon as they gained the power, the Lacedaemonians
plotted against Thebes and the king of Persia,
drove the Chians into exile, and set up despotic regimes
throughout
the Greek world.
Their arrogance soon led to the end
of their
supremacy by land and sea.
The meddling of Athens in her empire
had caused cities
to become partisans of Sparta; then Spartan
hegemony
made them side with Athens again.
Does not such power
cause a state to make war
on all their citizens, suspect their
friends, hate those
who have not wronged them, and hire mercenaries?
Now they believe the Thebans are in a bad way,
because they
oppress their neighbors;
but does not Athens do the same?
Rich
Thessaly has been reduced to poverty;
but stony Megara continues
to thrive even though
it is surrounded by warlike cities.
Isocrates
concluded that arrogance caused misfortunes,
but moderation is
the source of blessings.
States, like individuals, should shun
vice and practice
virtue even more, because there is no escape
from their consequences in death.
Peace and justice will make
all Greeks happy and
prosperous, and no one will dare oppress
them.
Everyone will seek their friendship and alliance
when they
are just and powerful, not taking from
others but willing and
able to help.
In the midst of injustice and madness let Athens
be
the first to adopt a sane policy and champion the
freedom of
Greeks as their saviors, not their destroyers.
They must cease
from wars and abhor all despotic
rule and imperial power, when
they reflect on the
disasters that result from them.
Isocrates
concluded by urging those younger
to speak and write to turn states
that would oppress
others into the paths of virtue and justice
so that
the conditions of learning and culture may improve.
In the same year as the peace concluding the Social War
Isocrates
also wrote an oration called Areopagiticus
in which he
discussed the public safety and social issues.
He noted that riches
and power often lead to folly, whereas
poverty tends to encourage
prudence and moderation.
Once again Athens by paying mercenaries
has gained
the hatred of Greeks and the enmity of the
Persian
king that previously led to disaster.
Isocrates believed their
democracy has been corrupted, and
he advised going back to the
institutions founded by Solon
and reformed by Cleisthenes after
the Peisistratid tyranny.
They governed by electing the best to
be officials
rather than relying upon a more democratic random
lottery.
The people should be the masters of the state
and punish
those who rule badly.
Isocrates exalted the oversight of the conservative
Areopagus, whose powers were greatly weakened
by Ephialtes a century
before.
Isocrates condemned oligarchies and special privileges
while commending equal rights and democracy.
The richest 1200 Athenians paid heavy taxes and
were often required to fit out a trireme for war.
A person assigned this
task could challenge another
citizen he thought had more wealth
to take over this duty
or exchange property with him.
Isocrates
lost such a challenge in the only trial of his long life.
In response
to this experience Isocrates wrote his Antidosis,
defending
himself as though he were
on trial for his life like Socrates.
Although this trial was a fiction,
he declared that he wrote the
truth.
Once more he applied the golden rule to judges,
who ought
to judge others as they
would expect others to judge them.
Isocrates
wrote that he has endeavored not to
offend others nor to seek
revenge in court
but to settle disputes by conferring as friends.
His discourses were not about private conflicts
but concerned affairs of state and all Greece,
suitable for Pan-Hellenic conferences.
He presented the evidence of his previous writings.
He defended
at length the behavior of the famous general
Timotheus, who had
been one of his students, praising him
for respecting the rights of those he conquered in war.
Isocrates, having a weak voice,
did not speak in public,
hold office, or serve on juries,
allowing
those more needy to receive that dole.
Isocrates noted the importance of education to the fortune
of the state, and he warned against
letting the sycophants control
it.
He recommended the study of discourse
as well as gymnastics.
He believed that everyone acts for the sake of pleasure,
gain,
or honor, and he found that the study of philosophy,
by which
he meant the liberal arts in general,
was the best way to achieve
these ends.
In 346 BC when he was 90 years old, Isocrates wrote a
discourse
to Philip, king of Macedonia,
who had just
concluded a ten-year war with Athens
over control
of Amphipolis.
Isocrates opposed the war as bad for both sides,
arguing that it was to the advantage of Macedonia
for Athens to
possess Amphipolis but not to acquire it.
He tried to persuade Philip that friendship with
Athens
was worth more than the revenues of Amphipolis,
while he
hoped that Athens would learn not to
plant colonies in areas of
conflict.
By surrendering this territory Philip
would still hold
the power in the region while gaining the good
will of Athens
with hostages to guarantee their friendship.
The
peace was concluded before Isocrates
finished his discourse, and
he approved it.
Once again Isocrates urged all the Greeks to make peace
with
each other and launch a campaign
against the barbarians in Asia.
Isocrates believed that Philip,
having the highest position
and power in Greece, was the one to
lead this effort.
If he could reconcile Argos, Lacedaemon, Thebes,
and Athens
to take a sane view, all the other Greeks would follow.
He hoped that friendly acts would help
them forget past wrongs.
Isocrates criticized those who were jealous of Philip
and who found peace a state of war
against their selfish interests.
King Agesilaus of Sparta had tried to invade the Persian
empire after the Peloponnesian
War but failed
because he had not first settled the quarrels
among Greeks,
and many resented the oligarchies Sparta set up
at that time.
Even if Philip
did not conquer all of Persia, at least
he could liberate the
Greeks on the coast of Asia.
Knowing Philip
already had power and wealth,
Isocrates appealed to his desire
for honor and lasting fame.
Four years later in a letter Isocrates again asked Philip
to lead a Greek expedition against Persia,
and finally after the battle of Chaeronea when he was 98,
Isocrates
wrote his last letter urging Philip to bring all the
Greeks into
concord and take up the conquest
his son Alexander
would soon accomplish.
Isocrates had also written a short letter
to young Alexander
in 342
BC warning him against disputation and encouraging
his study of
rhetoric; this was probably about the time
that Aristotle began
to tutor the Macedonian prince.
In his last oration, started when he was 94 and delayed by
three years of illness before he finished it at 97, Isocrates
praised Athens and criticized the aggressive ways of Sparta.
In
one long sentence Isocrates summed up
much of his life's endeavor.
Yet all know that most orators harangue not on
behalf of the state but for what they themselves
expect to gain, while I and mine not only abstain
more than others from public funds but also
expend more than we can afford from our
private means on the needs of the state;
still they know these are either wrangling among
themselves in the assemblies over deposits of
money or insulting the allies or falsely charging
any of the rest who chances, while I have led the
way in discourses exhorting the Greeks to agree
with each other and to strategize against the
barbarians, urging us all to unite in colonizing
a country so vast and vulnerable that those who
have heard about it agree, if we are sensible
and stop the manias against each other
that we could quickly occupy it without effort
and risk, and that this territory will easily
accommodate all those among us
in need of the necessities of life.2
Isocrates described as educated those who manage
well their
daily circumstances with accurate judgment
that is expedient;
who are decent and honorable
with all they meet, tolerating what
is unpleasant or
offensive while being as agreeable and reasonable
as possible; who are not overcome by misfortunes
but bear them
bravely; and finally who are not
spoiled by successes and do not desert their
true selves or become arrogant,
but hold steadfastly
to their intelligence.
Isocrates did justify Athens doing injustice as sensible
when faced with the alternative of
suffering injustice
from Sparta.
Isocrates recommended listening to what
people say
and watching what they do.
When they do wrong, one should censure
them
and guard against their ways; for things are only
good or
bad because of how they are used.
In Stagira, a Greek colony near the Macedonian border,
in 384
BC was born Aristotle.
His father Nicomachus was court physician
to Amyntas III,
king of Macedonia and father of Philip
II.
Thus Aristotle was probably educated by his father as
advised
in the Hippocratic oath until his father died.
When he
was 17, Aristotle began studying in Plato's Academy
and remained
there for twenty years until Plato
died.
Plato called Aristotle
the "mind of the school."
When Plato
read aloud the Phaedo, Aristotle
was the only
one to stay to hear the whole dialog.
Unfortunately
the popular dialogs Aristotle wrote on the
immortality of the
soul and spiritual subjects did not survive.
Aristotle wrote an
inscription for an altar to Plato
that called
him "a man whom it is not right for the bad even
to praise."
When Plato's nephew Speusippus became head of the
Academy in
347 BC, Aristotle and Xenocrates started
a philosophical school
at Assus where Hermeias,
a former slave and banker, was ruling
the Troad.
Aristotle married the niece of Hermeias, and after
her death
he had a son Nicomachus by Herpyllis.
Hermeias fell
under the control of the Persians,
and after
refusing to betray
his friends under torture, he was killed.
In his grief Aristotle
wrote an elegy about his friend,
who had died for the beauty of
goodness.
In 345 BC Aristotle went with his friend Theophrastus
to
Mytilene on Lesbos, where his interest
shifted from politics
to biology.
Three years later Aristotle returned to the Macedonian court
at Pella to tutor Philip's son Alexander,
who was 13 then.
In 340 BC when Philip
went to war against Byzantium,
Alexander
ruled as regent, giving Aristotle more time for
his own studies
at Stagira, now restored for him after
Philip had destroyed it
in the Olynthian war.
Aristotle introduced his nephew Callisthenes
to Alexander
but warned him
to be careful of what he said.
Though Alexander later took Callisthenes
to Asia,
where he collected research materials, Callisthenes was
eventually suspected by Alexander
of plotting against him
with Hermolaus; he was confined to an
iron cage in which
he became infested with vermin before being
thrown to a lion.
When Philip died in 336
BC, Aristotle returned to Athens,
where Xenocrates
was now in charge of the Academy.
In the garden of the Lyceum
Aristotle established his
Peripatetic (so named because Aristotle
lectured while "walking around")
school with maps and
a large library.
According to Diogenes Laertius all of Aristotle's
writings
came to 445,270 lines, but the surviving ones
seem to
be mostly his lectures.
When Alexander died in 323 BC and Athens
led the revolt,
Aristotle's friendship with Macedonian viceroy
Antipater
caused him to be charged with impiety for the elegy
that had called Hermeias divine.
Aristotle fled to his mother's
property in Chalcis, saying
he would not let Athenians offend
twice against philosophy.
Alone there he wrote Antipater that
he had become
fonder of myths; he died the next year of a stomach
illness.
In his will Aristotle made provisions for his family,
Herpyllis,
and his slaves, some of whom he freed.
Aristotle's
close friend Theophrastus
took over his school at the Lyceum.
The biography of Aristotle by Diogenes Laertius
recorded some
of his remarks.
When asked what people gained by lying,
Aristotle
commented that when they speak the truth,
they are not believed.
Reproached for giving charity to a bad man,
Aristotle said that
he pitied the man, not his character.
The three things he found
indispensable to education
were natural endowment, study, and
constant practice.
He believed the difference between being educated
and
uneducated is as much as between the living and the dead.
He said education is an ornament in prosperity,
a refuge in adversity,
and the best provision for old age.
Aristotle believed that teachers
who educate children
deserve more honor than their parents,
for
parents give them life but teachers a good life.
Asked what a
friend is, Aristotle replied,
"A single soul dwelling in
two bodies."3
When asked how we should behave toward friends,
he answered with the golden rule:
as we wish them to behave toward
us.
He believed that philosophy enabled him to do
without being
ordered what some are
constrained to do by fear of the law.
Aristotle
found that the end of love
is not merely intercourse but also
philosophy.
Aristotle's analysis of human knowledge is an amazing
and comprehensive
accomplishment, and the influence
of his ideas on western civilization
has been immense.
He first divided it into theoretical, practical,
and productive knowledge.
The theoretical includes philosophy,
physics, and mathematics;
the practical ethics and politics;
and
the productive the arts and rhetoric.
Propositions he divided
into ethical, physical, and logical.
Preliminary to the study
of all subjects is the analytical study
of thought and language
now called logic,
which he called an instrument of philosophy.
Aristotle analyzed simple expressions into the ten categories
of substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time,
position, state, action, and affection.
Aristotle made a detailed analysis
of syllogisms and logical fallacies.
He analyzed deductive reasoning
in the Prior Analytics
and inductive reasoning or scientific
thought
in the Posterior Analytics.
Aristotle believed that all people by nature desire to know.
A sign of one who knows is that that person can teach,
while the
person of experience without knowledge cannot.
He defined wisdom
as knowledge of principles and causes.
In his Physics and
Metaphysics Aristotle discussed the
material and formal
causes Plato used
and also the
efficient and final causes.
The material cause explains what something
is made of
(out of which), the formal cause how it is made (into
which),
the efficient cause who made it (by which), and the final
cause
why it is made (for which purpose).
For Aristotle the final
cause or purpose of anything analyzes
the metaphysical cause,
which is studied in teleology.
Aristotle also perceived God in
the beginning as well as
the end as the prime mover and in the
present as completely
actual in contrast to the concept of potential.
Aristotle also gave many lectures on the sciences of
astronomy,
meteorology, and biology.
Aristotle analyzed the faculties of
the soul as nutritive,
perceptive, and intelligent, and he also
discussed
memory, sleep, dreams, and aging.
At the Lyceum 158
Greek constitutions were gathered,
and Aristotle's work On
the Athenian Constitution
has been useful in understanding
the history of Athenian politics.
Although Aristotle agreed with his teacher Plato
that
poetry and drama are imitations, he disagreed in finding
redeeming value for these arts and
did not wish to censor or ban
them.
In his Poetics he noted that tragedy tends to portray
those
who are better and comedy those worse
than people of the
present day.
Humans are the most imitative animal, delight in
imitating,
and learn much this way.
Aristotle believed that learning
is the greatest pleasure
and is not just for philosophers but
for all humanity.
Thus the imitative arts are not just entertaining
but educational as well.
Aristotle found that tragedy aroused
the emotions of pity
and fear in order to accomplish a purification
of those feelings.
The six elements of a play he analyzed are
the plot (story),
character, theme (thought), language, spectacle,
and music.
The plot, like a fable, conveys meaning; characters
portray
moral qualities, and thought enunciates general truths.
In a tragedy a good man must not be seen passing from
happiness
to misery or a bad man from misery to happiness,
because these
are morally repugnant, nor does the falling
of an extremely bad
person from happiness
to misery arouse pity or fear.
In tragedy
a person of intermediate character suffers misfortune
not from
vice or depravity but from an error of judgment.
Aristotle held
that moral goodness could be shown
in any personage, even in women
and slaves.
Aristotle defined rhetoric as the art of persuasion.
Rhetoric
can arouse emotions which may not be related to the
essential
facts; thus many courts forbid discussion of what
is not essential
to the case, because it is not right to pervert
the jury by moving
them to anger or envy or pity.
To the argument that rhetoric can
be used unjustly,
Aristotle answered that this is true of any
art
and of all good things except virtue.
Aristotle described
the three modes of persuasion as the
personal character of the
speaker, the frame of mind of the
audience, and the argument of
the speech.
First, people of good character
are more readily believed
than others.
Second, when the audience is pleased,
their judgments
are affected.
Third, the speech may prove the truth by reasoning.
Thus the abilities needed to persuade are logical reasoning,
understanding
human character and goodness,
and understanding emotions.
Statements
can be persuasive, because they are self-evident
or by using the
inductive reasoning of examples
or deductive syllogisms.
Aristotle divided oratory into three parts.
Persuading members
of the assembly about a future action
is political; convincing
jurors about a past action is forensic;
and winning a speaking
contest is ceremonial.
Political speakers argue to do or not do
something;
forensic speakers prosecute or defend someone;
and
ceremonial orators either praise or censure.
In political oratory
the debate is whether the proposal
is good or harmful; trial lawyers
argue over what is
just or unjust; and display oratory deals with
honor and shame.
Political speakers in arguing for what is expedient
may ignore
whether it is just or not.
Litigants may not deny that
something has happened
or that it has caused harm, but they will
not admit
their client is guilty of injustice.
Rhetorical propositions
may be complete
proofs, probabilities, or signs.
Political oratory combines logic
and the ethical branch of
politics.
Aristotle described the five main subjects of political
oratory
as ways and means, war and peace,
national defense, trade,
and legislation.
Thus the speaker should know the following:
the
state's sources of revenue and its expenditures;
the military
strength of the country and its enemies;
the means and installations
of defense; the needs and sources
of the food supply and imports
and exports,
making sure his country does not offend strong states
and trading partners; the constitution and the laws of the state,
internal developments, and in knowing the customs
of other states
history is useful.
One must know the aim of life, which is happiness,
defined
as prosperity combined with virtue, independence,
security, pleasure,
and the good condition
of one's body and property.
Aristotle noted
that half of life among the Lacedaemonians
is spoiled, because
the state of the women is bad.
Doing good means preserving life
and the good things of life,
namely health, wealth, and friends.
Good is what is chosen for itself
or for the sake of something
else, such as the virtues of the
soul: justice, courage, moderation,
magnanimity, etc.
Faculties of speech and action as well as arts
and sciences
are also productive of what is good.
The political
speaker will argue relatively that
good will be increased and
harm decreased.
Knowing the form of government, the political
speaker will
appeal to the interests of the rulers.
The goal of
democracy is freedom, of oligarchy wealth,
of aristocracy education
and institutions,
and of tyranny protection of the tyrant.
In prosecution and defense Aristotle discussed the incentives
to wrong-doing, the state of mind of wrong-doers,
and the kind
of people and condition of those who do wrong.
Aristotle defined
wrong-doing as injury
voluntarily inflicted contrary to law.
Law
may be specific written laws or universal laws
based on unwritten
principles.
The causes of wrong actions are vice and lack of self-control,
and the wrong reflects a fault in one's character.
Such actions
may be due to habits or desires.
Rational desires are for some
wish; irrational desires
come from appetites and anger.
Aristotle
differentiated revenge from punishment:
punishment is inflicted
for the sake of the person punished,
but revenge is to satisfy
the punisher's feelings.
Irrational desires are for food, drink,
or sex.
Rational desires are for pleasure, what one consciously
believes is good, and may be for revenge, winning,
reputation,
friends, change, learning, and so on.
The state of mind of wrong-doers is that they believe
the thing
can be done by them either, without being found out,
or believing
they could escape punishment if found out,
or that it would be
worth the punishment.
Wrong is also done to people who have what
the person wants,
who are accessible or in a place safe from being
caught
or prosecuted, or who are not likely to fight back or prosecute,
or those who are vulnerable, or those considered
enemies or wrong
themselves.
Aristotle divided unjust actions into those that affected
the
community and those affecting individuals.
The victim must
suffer actual harm and against one's will.
Criminal guilt depends
on a deliberate purpose.
Aristotle recommended equity as follows:
Equity bids us be merciful to the weakness of
human nature; to think less about the laws than
about the person who framed them, and less about
what one said than about what one meant;
not to consider the actions of the accused
so much as the intentions, nor this or that detail
so much as the whole story; to ask not what a person
is now but what one has always or usually been.
It bids us remember benefits rather than injuries,
and benefits received rather than benefits conferred;
to be patient when we are wronged;
to settle a dispute by negotiation and not by force;
to prefer arbitration to litigation---
for an arbitrator goes by the equity of a case,
a judge by the strict law, and arbitration was
invented with the express purpose
of securing full power for equity.4
Aristotle described the unskilled means of persuasion
as laws,
witnesses, contracts, torture, and oaths.
One may argue that the
written law is unjust
and must give way to a higher principle.
Aristotle considered testimony under torture as unreliable,
because
tough people can endure the pain
while cowards may speak falsely
to avoid it.
Aristotle noted that the character of the speaker is particularly
important in political oratory, while the mood
of the jury is
more significant in lawsuits.
The orator may inspire confidence
with good sense,
good moral character, and goodwill.
Aristotle
defined emotions as those feelings attended
by pleasure or pain
that change people
so as to affect their judgments.
Anger is a
pleasurable impulse accompanied by pain
directed for conspicuous
revenge because of
what concerns oneself or one's friends.
Anger
can be used in slighting
as in contempt, spite, and insolence.
People vexed by others, sickness, poverty, love, thirst
or unsatisfied
desires are easily aroused to anger
against those who slight their
distress.
An orator may manipulate the listeners into a frame
of mind
disposed to anger toward the adversaries.
The opposite
of anger is becoming calm, which may be
caused by the object of
anger admitting fault and being sorry.
Aristotle discussed friendship
and differentiated hatred
from anger, the latter being colder
and more lasting.
Fear is defined as a pain due to a mental picture
or expectation of some evil in the future.
Aristotle defined shame as pain or disturbance in regard to
bad things which seem likely to discredit one such as
cowardice,
licentiousness, greed, meanness, begging,
flattery, effeminacy,
and boastfulness.
People feel shame before those whose opinions
matter to them.
Kindness is helpfulness toward someone in need
for the sake
of the person helped, not for any advantage or a
return.
Pity is a feeling of pain caused by some evil which befalls
one who does not deserve it and which we believe
might befall
us or our friends.
We pity most those we know
or who are close
to us or like us.
We feel indignation at unmerited prosperity.
The negative expressions of these are delight in others'
misfortunes
and envy of any prosperity;
such feelings can be used to neutralize
an appeal to pity.
The positive expression of this is emulation,
which takes steps to secure the good,
which envy may try to stop
someone from enjoying.
The types of human character Aristotle discussed are
the young, the old, those in their prime, those of noble birth,
the wealthy,
and the powerful.
The young have strong passions, are hot-tempered,
love victory, but don't yet love money,
not yet having learned
what it is to be without it.
The youthful trust others easily,
because they have not yet
been cheated much; they are hopeful,
confident,
and seek what is noble.
Their mistakes tend to be from
doing things
excessively and vehemently.
The elderly have the
opposite characteristics;
tending to do too little, they can be
cynical and small-minded,
because they have been humbled by life.
They are less generous, because life has taught them
how difficult
it is to get money
and how easy it is to lose it.
They care more
about what is useful than what is noble,
and their passions are
weak and often
concentrated on the love of gain.
Aristotle believed
that those in their prime have the best
qualities of the young
and old in moderation.
Those of good birth are ambitious; the
wealthy are arrogant,
luxurious, and ostentatious; the powerful
are ambitious,
dignified, and made serious by their responsibilities.
Aristotle analyzed the inductive arguments using examples
and
the syllogistic reasoning he called enthymeme, in which
he included
the use of maxims which display
the moral character of the speaker.
He noted that the uneducated, arguing from common
knowledge and
drawing obvious conclusions, often are
more persuasive than the
educated,
who argue from general principles.
Unlike dialectic,
rhetorical arguments can be based on
probabilities as well as
on certainties.
Aristotle also described how arguments may be
refuted
by using counter-syllogisms and objections.
Speeches need
an introduction,
must state the case and prove it.
Prejudices
must be removed; interrogation can be used;
and the conclusion
tends to end in short sentences.
Aristotle's main ethical work, Nicomachaen Ethics,
was
named after his son Nicomachus, who probably
edited it from the
lecture course.
Aristotle began with the Socratic premise that
every art
and investigation, even every practical pursuit,
seems
to aim at some good.
All things aim for what is good, although
not all activities
are ends in themselves, many being means to
other ends.
The ultimate end must not only be good but the best.
To secure the good for one person is an achievement;
to secure
the good of a state or nation is nobler and divine.
Political
science aims at what is fine and just.
To criticize this subject
one needs a comprehensive
education and experience of life and
conduct
which the young lack.
The young are also more likely to
be ruled by their feelings
rather than knowledge, but those who
regulate their desires
and actions by reason can benefit from
this study.
Most people believe that the best thing they seek
in all actions is happiness,
conceived as a good life or doing
well.
Aristotle noted the view of Plato
that there is a universal good,
which is the cause of all specific
goods,
though he dismissed it because it is predicable in all
categories,
which seems to me to be more an argument that it is
universal.
Aristotle noted that the ideal good does not seem to
be
practical in pursuing specific goods, but in my view
he did
not take into account the value of
praying for the highest good
or best.
Aristotle also criticized Socrates
for saying that
virtue is knowledge, though I believe Socrates
meant
a form of wisdom that included action as well as thought.
For Aristotle virtue is a form of goodness and,
as a pattern of
right actions, is related to habit.
Many identify the good with pleasure and are
content with a
life of enjoyment.
Beyond this, Aristotle found those who value
honor
and virtue in the political life, but he admitted that
a
miserable life with virtue is hardly happy.
Aristotle also mentioned
the life of contemplation
but postponed its discussion.
He considered
the life of money-making constrained,
because wealth is only good
as a means.
Aristotle found that human good is the exercise of
human faculties, especially reason, according to the best
virtues
which, when done over a lifetime, results in happiness.
Aristotle
repeated the Platonic division of goods
between the soul, the
body, and the property of the body,
and he emphasized the active
exercise of the functions
of the soul according to virtue for
happiness.
Aristotle believed that virtuous actions are also
pleasant
or not painful, though he acknowledged that
happiness does seem
to require external prosperity as well.
However, he did not base
judgment on fortune,
because it does not determine if we do well
or not
but is only an accessory.
The virtuous person is more likely
to be happy permanently.
Even with reverses of fortune nobility
can shine through
such circumstances when a good person bears
it
with grace and not out of insensitivity.
Happiness is not merely
a potential good but actual.
Aristotle defined virtue as the excellence of the soul,
and
happiness is the virtuous activity of the soul.
In the moderate,
self-controlled and courageous,
everything is in harmony with
the voice of reason.
Aristotle differentiated intellectual virtues
from ethical virtues.
Intellectual virtues are developed by teaching;
ethical virtues are formed by habit (ethos).
Virtues are
not implanted in us by nature nor are they
contrary to nature,
for we are equipped by nature
to receive them and can develop
them by habitual practice.
Thus we become just by acting justly,
self-controlled by controlling ourselves,
and courageous by acting
bravely.
Others may become undisciplined and short-tempered
by
acting in those ways.
Thus habits developed in childhood
make
a considerable difference.
Aristotle noted that the purpose of
this study is
not to know what virtue is but to become good;
thus
we must act according to right reason.
Aristotle observed that ethical qualities are destroyed
by
defect and by excess.
Just as too much or too little food destroys
health,
the same applies to courage and moderation.
The one who
fears everything becomes a coward,
while the one who fears nothing
acts recklessly.
Whoever revels in every pleasure is undisciplined,
while those who avoid every pleasure are insensitive.
Virtuous
behavior is reinforcing.
Abstaining from pleasures results in
moderation,
and the practice of moderation helps
one to abstain
from pleasures.
Enduring fear makes one courageous, and acting
bravely
makes one more able to endure fear.
These pleasures and
pains test virtue, which can be
developed or destroyed by whether
it is practiced or not.
Yet avoiding pleasures and enduring pains
must be of the
right kind done at the right time and place
and
in the right manner.
Choice is determined by what is noble, beneficial,
and pleasurable
and their opposites of
what is base, harmful, and painful.
Ethical
action requires knowledge of what one is doing,
choice to act
that way and for its own sake,
and the action must spring from
one's character;
of these three factors Aristotle believed that
knowledge was the least important.
He criticized those who do
not act virtuously
but take refuge in argument, thinking that
by
philosophical discussion they will become good;
he compared
them to sick people,
who listen to their doctor
but fail to do
what is prescribed.
Virtues are related to emotions, but Aristotle noted that
we
are not blamed or praised for our emotions,
as we are for virtues
and vices.
Also emotions like anger and fear do not involve choice,
as the virtues do.
We are "moved" by emotions but are
"disposed" by
virtues and vices to act in certain ways.
Virtues cause abilities to function well
in the right ways and
circumstances.
There are many ways to go wrong by either extreme
of
lack or excess, but the mean is
what the prudent person determines.
Such emotions as spite, shamelessness, and envy
have no mean and
are simply base, just as some actions
are bad such as adultery,
theft, and murder.
Such bad actions do not have a right time or
manner.
Aristotle found generosity to be a virtuous mean between
extravagance
and stinginess;
magnificence is a mean between gaudy vulgarity
and
niggardliness; high-mindedness is a mean
between vanity and
small-mindedness;
sincerity is a mean between boasting and self-depreciation;
wittiness is a mean between buffoonery and boorishness;
gentleness
is a mean between being short-tempered
and apathetic; friendliness
is a mean between flattery
and quarrelsomeness; modesty is a mean
between
being abashed and shameless;
and just indignation is a
mean between envy and spite.
In a similar ethical work, Eudemian
Ethics,
Aristotle also listed justice as a mean between profit
and loss;
liberality is a mean between prodigality and meanness;
dignity is a mean between subservience and stubbornness;
hardiness
is a mean between luxury and endurance;
and wisdom is a mean between
rascality and simpleness.
Aristotle advised us to watch the errors
we are most
attracted to personally, pleasure being
the most difficult
to judge without bias.
Voluntary actions are praised or blamed,
while involuntary
actions may be pardoned or pitied.
Actions done under constraint
or because
of ignorance are considered involuntary.
Actions done
out of fear of a greater evil, such as threat
from a tyrant or
throwing away cargo from a ship
during a storm, are mixed in regard
to voluntariness.
Such actions are voluntary, because the agent
is choosing,
though they are somewhat involuntary in that
no one
would choose them for their own sake.
Some call actions impelled
by appetites and passions
involuntary, but Aristotle asked if
it is right to consider
base actions involuntary while saying
that
virtuous actions are voluntary;
that he felt would be absurd.
Choice is critical in ethics, and our character is
determined
by choosing good or evil.
We deliberate about things which are
within our power
and can be realized in action.
The ends are most
important but usually obvious;
so we tend to deliberate most about
the means
to find what is easiest and best.
Since the end is based
on a wish and the means are
determined by deliberation and choice,
the resulting actions are voluntary.
We may wish for an end such
as health or wisdom,
but to achieve them we must act in a practical
way.
Thus virtue and vice depend on our own actions.
Private individuals
and public officials chastise and punish
evildoers unless they
have acted under constraint or
due to some ignorance for which
they are not responsible.
If the individual is responsible for
one's ignorance,
the penalty may be even greater,
such as in laws
regarding drunkenness.
Aristotle defined justice as what is lawful and fair
in not
taking more than one's share.
Justice is considered the highest
virtue,
because it relates to others as well as oneself.
Fairness
in distribution is described
as what each one deserves and is
usually
based on equality, although for Aristotle
unequals should
not receive equal treatment.
He found that distribution depends
on the philosophy
of government: democrats value freedom,
oligarchs
wealth and noble birth,
and aristocrats excellence or virtue.
Justice can also be rectification in correcting
what is unequal
or wrong.
To go for justice is to go to a judge, who acts
as mediator to help find the median or fair result.
Pythagoreans believed
in reciprocity, which implied
suffering that which one has done
to another.
Reciprocal action holds the state together,
though
requiting evil with evil does not seem
as good to me as requiting
good with good.
Many Greek cities worshiped Graces (Charites),
because they believed in doing and returning favors.
To balance
goods by a single standard,
coins were invented as currency
to
facilitate equal exchanges.
Aristotle apparently did not see the injustice of slavery
but
considered slaves as property
and children as dependent until
they are mature.
No one wishes to be harmed or suffer injustice
voluntarily;
but the uncontrolled may act against their own wishes
for what is ethically good, for the uncontrolled do
what they
believe they should not do.
Aristotle defined the equitable as
a form of justice.
The equitable may rectify the law
when the
law falls short of universal justice.
Since right reason is what determines the virtuous
mean to
be practiced, Aristotle analyzed intellectual virtue.
He divided
the intellectual faculty into the scientific part that
relates
to unchanging truth and the calculative faculty
that works with
changing circumstances.
The three psychological elements that
control truth
and action are sense perception, intelligence, and
desire.
He further divided the faculties into art or skill (techne),
science or knowledge (episteme),
prudence or practical
wisdom (phronesis),
wisdom or theoretical knowledge (sophia),
and intelligence or intuition (nous).
Things which change
include action and production.
Production depends on art and skill
guided by reason.
Scientific knowledge can be learned and taught.
The prudent person has the ability to deliberate.
The task of
intelligence is to apprehend fundamental
principles and demonstrate
certain truths.
Theoretical wisdom combines scientific knowledge
and apprehended intuition.
Practical wisdom includes ethics and politics,
which is divided
into legislative and judicial deliberations.
Prudence requires
understanding that results in good judgment.
Another quality (gnome),
translated as "good sense,"
involves sympathetic understanding
and forgiveness
in knowing what is fair and equitable.
Aristotle
reminded us that prudent actions are acquired
more by habit than
by knowledge.
Aristotle distinguished vice from being
uncontrolled and from
brutishness.
The opposites of these are virtue, self-control or
more
precisely inner control, and superhuman virtue,
which goes beyond the normal human range
as brutishness falls below it.
Aristotle
considered excessive folly, cowardice,
indulgence, and ill-temper
brutish or morbid.
If being self-controlled means having strong
and base
appetites,the moderate person will not be self-controlled
nor the self-controlled be moderate;
for the moderate person does
not have to strain for control.
The opposite of the moderate person,
the undisciplined,
believe in pursuing pleasures of the moment
and choose them,
while the uncontrolled do not think
they should
but pursue them nonetheless.
The undisciplined feel no regret
since they are choosing
the pleasures, but the uncontrolled always
feel regret.
Aristotle considered inner control of great ethical
value
and being uncontrolled as bad.
Friendship (philia) for Aristotle involved
all human
relationships with any affection including
marriage and family
and business associations.
He believed friendship is an indispensable
good,
because no one would want to live without any friends.
The
best works are done for one's friends.
Nature implants friendship
in parents
even of other species.
Concord is valuable in society,
which does its best
to expel faction, the enemy of concord.
Aristotle
found that we love what is
good, pleasant, and useful.
Most people
don't really love what is truly good,
but what appears to be good
to them.
In friendship there is goodwill for each other.
Older
people tend to pursue the beneficial
more than pleasure, which
is sought more by the young.
The best friendship is between good
people,
who wish each other's good, because they are good;
this
friendship tends to last longest.
Friendship does not occur quickly,
though the wish
to be friends can come quickly.
Friendships based
on pleasure can last quite
a while as long as they continue to
be pleasant,
but those that are useful tend to dissolve
when the
advantage ceases.
Friendships of the good imply mutual trust and
the
assurance that neither will ever wrong the other.
Thus in
this way Aristotle noted in the Eudemian Ethics
that friendship
and justice are nearly the same.
Friendship is based on equality, and this is sometimes achieved
by compensating for different factors by proportionate affection.
Most people wish to receive affection more than give it,
though
friendship is giving affection more than receiving it.
Friendships
based on opposites, such as the rich and poor,
the learned and
ignorant, are useful,
because they supply what their friend lacks.
Friends share things in common,
and this is the basis of community.
Aristotle held that there can be no friendship with a slave
as
a slave, but there can be friendship with the human being
who
happens to be a slave.
Parents love their children, because they
have produced them;
thus the mother tends to feel more affection
than the father.
A good friend will not complain about giving
more
than one receives, but a friend concerned with usefulness
will.
Thus friendships based on character last longer.
One must
love oneself as well as one's friend,
as loving a friend is loving
another self.
One must make effort to avoid vice and be good
in
order to be a good friend.
Goodwill alone tends to lack the intensity
and desire
of friendship; yet goodwill can arise in the moment
and be toward anyone and everyone.
Some believe that benefactors care more about their
beneficiaries
than the reverse, the way debtors
avoid their creditors; but Aristotle
argued that those
who do good care more about those they are helping
because of the joy it brings.
The base are selfish in doing everything
for their own sake;
the good also love themselves best but differ
in that
they love others as they love themselves.
One cannot love
others well without loving
the best part of oneself, which is
the
sovereign element of intelligence.
Thus the good will love
this part of themselves in order
to be able to do noble actions
and benefit others,
while the wicked do not really love themselves,
because by following base emotions they harm themselves.
Some
argue that the happiest, self-sufficient people
do not need friends,
but Aristotle held that good people
need friends to whom they
can do good,
especially in misfortune.
Humans are social beings
and need to live with others.
Life is good and pleasant, because it is desired by all,
especially
the good and happy.
Aristotle foreshadowed the insights
of Descartes
and Berkeley when he wrote that in
thinking we perceive that we
think,
which means that we must exist,
since existence is perceiving
or thinking.
This perceiving that we are living is pleasant;
for
existence is good,
and perceiving this goodness is pleasant.
The
ethically good person has the same attitude toward
oneself as
toward one's friend, since a friend is another self.
Thus one's
friend's existence is desirable too,
and so to be happy one needs
good friends.
Although one may have many friends who are virtuous,
it is practical to have only a few intimate friends,
nor can one
really be in love with more than
one person according to Aristotle.
Friends are most needed in bad fortune,
but it is more noble to
have friends in good fortune.
One wishes to pursue activities
with one's friends,
and so best friends live together.
Aristotle found that not all pleasures are desirable,
though
he observed that drawing such distinctions
is not a strong point
for most people.
Pleasure is valuable though in making judgment
more
perceptive and execution more accurate,
for those who enjoy
a particular activity
tend to become good at it.
A pleasurable
activity can draw one's attention
from some other activity,
and
pain from an activity can also destroy it.
Pleasures from ethically
good activities are good,
while those from base activities are
bad.
For Aristotle pleasures of the mind
are superior to those
of the senses.
What is real and true is determined best by the
good person.
Virtuous actions that perform noble and good deeds
are desirable for their own sake and are most happy.
Pleasant
amusements are also sought for their own sake,
but for Aristotle
it is childish
to exert serious efforts for amusements.
The highest virtue relates to the highest
part of ourselves,
which is intelligence.
Intelligent activity can be performed more
continuously
and easily than any other kind of action.
The wise
person requires the necessities of life but,
unlike the just and
courageous persons, does not need
anyone else to exercise the
intellect in study,
and the wiser one is the more one can do it
by oneself.
As intelligence is the most divine quality, the life
guided
by intelligence is more divine.
This highest and best controlling
part of us
is our true self and acts according to virtue.
Thus
for Aristotle contemplative activity
surpasses all others in bliss.
One still needs external goods to live as a human,
but the wise
will not possess them in excess.
Those who cultivate intelligence
best are most
beloved of the gods and presumably happiest.
Most people though are not guided by goodness
and nobility,
but they are swayed by fear of punishment
more than shame of disgrace.
Influenced by emotions,
they pursue pleasures and avoid pains.
Aristotle asked how could such people
be transformed by argument.
Some argue that people are good by nature,
others by habit, and
others by teaching.
Nature is beyond our power.
Teaching is not
effective in all cases,
because the listener must first be
conditioned
by appropriate habits.
To give the right training from the beginning,
one must be
brought up under the right laws,
which also can regulate
the actions of adults.
Law has the power to compel; while people
resent those
who oppose their impulses, the law is not as invidious.
Thus anyone who wants to make people better ought
to study legislation,
and so Aristotle turned next
to politics and governmental constitutions.
Many of Aristotle's prejudices came out in his Politics.
He believed that barbarians and slaves are identical
and that
the Greeks ought to rule over both.
He also quoted Homer for the
long-standing practice
that men ought to have the power of law
over children and wives.
Aristotle believed that humans are political
animals
and only a sub-human like the war-mad man of Homer
has
no family, no morals, and no home.
Wickedness that is armed is
the hardest to handle.
Justice is the essential basis of political
association.
Aristotle was aware that some people believed there
is
no difference in the nature of slaves and that as a form
of
rule based on force it is wrong.
Aristotle considered property
and tools essential
to a minimum standard of wealth and the good
life.
He included tamed animals and slaves as tools
and the master's
property.
He believed that some by nature
should rule and others
serve.
When the mind rules over the body,
a person is in a good
state;
when the body rules over the mind,
one is in a bad condition.
He believed that as the mind is to rule the emotions,
so too men
are to rule over women.
Aristotle said that where the discrepancy among people
is the
same as that between people and animals,
then the inferior ought
to be slave to the superior.
However, I don't believe it is at
all clear, as he said it is,
that such a discrepancy among humans
exists in nature,
although it may have seemed to exist within
his society.
Again Aristotle mentioned those versed in law who
protested legal slavery as contrary to law,
which should restrain
such violence.
They held there is no justification for overpowering
others by violence to make them property.
Others believed that
the stronger should rule;
they said enslavement by war is right,
though often the war may have been unjust.
Aristotle hoped for
mutual affection between
masters and slaves, but he found this
did not occur
when the slavery arose from the use of such force.
The original means of getting slaves
was by raiding and hunting.
Aristotle held that plants exist for the sake of animals,
and
animals for the sake of humans.
War, of which hunting was a part,
was a way of
acquiring property, and he justified its use against
men.
Aristotle noted that rule over slaves is different from
the
rule over free and equal persons
which constitutes the government
of a state.
Aristotle noted that money-making is
one pursuit that can have
no limit.
He criticized excessive commercial trade and was
particularly against charging interest for the loan of money
as most contrary
to nature.
He observed that a monopoly was a way of making money,
and that it is used by governments as well as private interests.
He reported how the Sicilian tyrant Dionysius
expelled
a citizen for monopolizing iron as detrimental to the
country.
Aristotle, mistakenly I believe, found no deliberative
faculty
in slaves and observed that it was inoperative in women
and undeveloped in children.
These observations were undoubtedly
due to social conditions.
However, he did believe that these faculties
should
be developed by education in women and children
so that
they could become good.
Aristotle compared several forms of government
starting with
those recommended by Plato.
He
believed that having wives and children
in common was unworkable.
He found too much emphasis on unity in Plato's
Republic.
It is easier for a family to have unity,
but a state is based
on cooperative self-sufficiency,
which requires
more specialization and less unity.
He noticed a logical error
in the concept of having
all things in common, because in practice
everyone
could not use all things; thus it was an impossible situation.
In common ownership there would be less respect
for property,
because people are more careful
with their own possessions.
They
only care for public property in so far as it affects them.
Similarly
with children, no one would
care much about any of them.
He suggested
sarcastically that perhaps having children
in common might be
better for the farming class,
because with less affection between
them
they would be less likely to revolt.
Aristotle did believe in friendly feelings in cities
as a safeguard
against strife, but he thought that by sharing
wives and children
the feelings of affection would be
lukewarm and watered down without
any sense
of what is one's own that one loves specially.
Also
he predicted that the transfers from one class
to another because
of different natures would not be
conducive to brotherhood
but
would lead to problems and crime.
He also criticized Plato's communistic
system for taking away
the incentives of work by equalizing income;
he believed that private ownership worked much better,
though
he suggested the right use of property can be
communal if the
lawgiver makes the citizens disposed to this.
Ownership is pleasurable
and natural;
selfishness is only condemned when it is excessive.
Greed is bad, but everyone likes to have their bit of property.
There is also the pleasure of giving and helping others.
In the
communal system there would be no self-restraint
in sexual passion
and no liberality with money.
The complaints that people have about broken contracts
and
the undue influence of the wealthy arise from the defects
of character,
and there are even more
such disputes in shared ownership.
A state
that becomes too unified could be much worse,
like a monotone
without variety and harmony.
The plurality of a state can develop
unity through education,
which is a much better method for training
character
than regulating property.
Aristotle suspected that Plato's
farmers,
who would have to pay rent, would be more
troublesome
than the Helots and slaves they knew.
He considered women doing
the same work as men futile,
since men do not do housework,
once
again showing his social conditioning.
Aristotle also criticized Plato's Laws
for relying too much
on virtue without being liberal.
Both are
needed, because virtue alone is too hard,
and liberality alone
is too easy.
He thought that leaving the number of births unrestricted
would lead to poverty, discontent, and crime.
Equality of wealth
would not put an end to stealing,
and the upper class, discontent
with equality,
would want more.
Aristotle's suggestion was that
the upper class
should not wish to get more
(He did not say how—presumably by education.),
and the inferior should not be able
to because
they are weaker though not downtrodden.
Aristotle agreed with the Spartan custom that citizens
should
be free of all menial tasks, but he found that
Spartan women indulged
in every luxury and license.
He criticized Spartan inequality
of property and noted that
the number of full citizens had fallen
below one thousand.
He seemed to like Cretan government better
although it wasn't much different, and he disliked
the importance
of money in Carthage.
He credited Charondas as being the first
to make perjury an indictable offense.
The constitution for Aristotle is the way of organizing
the
people living in the state.
Citizens are those who participate
in the legal, political,
and administrative judgment and authority
of the state.
Citizenship was usually based on birth
and often
on some property standard.
In democratic constitutions the people
are supreme,
in oligarchies the few.
Constitutions that aim at
the common good are right
and those aiming only at the good of
the rulers
are deviations and wrong.
The deviation of a monarchy
is a tyranny,
of an aristocracy an oligarchy,
and of what he called
a polity a democracy.
Democratic concepts of justice are based
on
equality,
oligarchic on superiority.
Aristotle noted that people
generally are bad judges
where their own interests are involved.
The state is more than an investment to provide a living
but is
to make life worth while;
it is more than a community living in
the same place
promoting the exchange of goods and services;
it
ought to promote living well a full and satisfying life
that includes
culture, civic associations, and religion.
The majority by taking and distributing the possessions
of
the few can destroy a state just as much as can a tyrant,
nor
is it just for the wealthy few to rule by plunder.
Aristotle's
fourth alternative is that the good should govern,
and the fifth
is rule by the best person.
He also observed that the many collectively
may rule better
than any single person, as a feast in which many
contribute
is better than one given at one person's expense.
In
addition to birth and property Aristotle considered the
virtues
of justice and military prowess to be needed.
Justice means equality
and fairness for all,
but for Aristotle apparently that meant
only all citizens, not all the people.
Aristotle delineated four kinds of constitutional kingship
as
(1) the old heroic monarchy in which the king's duty was
defined
as judge, military commander, and religious head;
(2) the hereditary
despotic monarchy of barbarians
that was considered legal;
(3)
an elected dictator; and
(4) the Lacedaemonian dual kingship which
was
a hereditary generalship for life.
A fifth kind was unrestricted
control of everything,
though that is not constitutional monarchy
but tyranny.
Aristotle asked whether rule by the best person
is
better or by the best laws.
Laws can only enunciate principles,
while a human
has feelings and can give sounder counsel in individual
cases;
but laws must be laid down to guard against personal whims.
Many judges are less corruptible than one judge
and less likely
to have a warped view.
Based on his observation of history, Aristotle
believed
that hereditary succession was harmful,
although sometimes
a good family can rule well.
Aristotle defined the constitution as the arrangement for
distributing
offices of power and for determining
the sovereignty and its ends.
Laws prescribe the rules by which the rulers rule
and transgressors
of the laws are restrained.
He listed five classes:
(1) farmers
who make up the bulk of the people;
(2) urban workers;
(3) commercial
traders;
(4) hired laborers; and
(5) defenders in war.
Aristotle
then added a class of well-to-do,
who serve with their possessions,
and a class of government employees.
Democracies can limit citizenship
by property and by birth;
they can be ruled by law,
or the people
can be made sovereign without law.
When there are no laws, there
is no constitution.
Oligarchies can restrict offices to those
with property
of differing amounts or can be ruled by
hereditary
officers with or without laws.
Aristotle noted that the majority
principle may be used
among the oligarchies as well as in the
democracies,
as a majority of those participating determines policy.
In looking for the virtuous mean, Aristotle, hoping for an
aristocratic polity, recommended a combination of democracy
and
oligarchy, preferring oligarchic selection to choosing
officials
by lot while favoring the
democratic freedom from property qualification.
In framing laws he suggested giving the middle class
the greatest
consideration, for he believed it would be unlikely
for the rich
and poor to make common cause against them.
In analyzing revolutions
he found that those bent on equality
may revolt if they believe
they have less,
and those wanting superiority revolt
if they are
not getting more.
Other motives include profit and dignity, and
the origins
of disorders are cruelty, fear, excessive power,
contemptuous
attitudes, disproportionate aggrandizement,
and the nonviolent
methods of lobbying and intrigue.
Those bent on profiting themselves
may be cruel and oppressive.
Dignity is affected when people see others honored
and themselves
degraded.
Criminals fearing punishment may revolt.
A small power
group may become excessive.
The larger class may have contempt
for the oligarchs,
or in democracies the upper classes may have
contempt
for the disorder and inefficiency.
In a democracy a disproportionate
growth of the number
of poor may become unstable, or too much
increase of wealth
among the rich may lead to a strong power-group.
Lobbying can change the constitution without violence;
this may
be done overtly because of lack of vigilance
or so gradually that
it is not noticed.
From history Aristotle also found that the
most potent cause
of revolution in democracies was the unprincipled
character of popular leaders, who often by malicious
prosecutions
against property-owners
caused them to join forces.
Governments are stabilized by loyalty to the established
constitution,
capacity for the work,
and the virtues of goodness and honesty.
Tyrants tend to have a guard of foreign mercenaries
rather than
a citizen guard, and they maintain their power
by making sure
the people have no minds of their own,
do not trust each other,
and have no means
of carrying out anything.
Aristotle gave several
examples of tyrannical policies.
The foundation of democratic constitutions is liberty
in which
the poor have more sovereign power than
the propertied class,
for being more numerous
they are the prevailing majority.
Aristotle
also described this society as
under the "live as you like"
principle.
The features of democracy include elections in which
all citizens are eligible for office, some offices filled by lot,
little or no property qualification for office,
limited terms
for office-holders,
juries chosen from all the citizens,
a sovereign
assembly or council,
and pay for serving on juries,
the assembly,
council, and in offices.
Aristotle felt that an agricultural democracy
was best,
because farmers kept busy, rarely attended the assembly,
and did not lack necessities.
Aristotle suggested that money from
fines go for sacred
purposes so that people won't fine too much
to gain funds for the government.
Guarding prisoners is unpleasant
work, and they need
to be well-paid so that they can be accountable
and not have a free hand to disregard the laws.
Aristotle summarized
the services of government
as "religion, defense, income
and expenditure, trade,
the town and harbor, the countryside,
legal administration,
registration of contracts, prisons and the
execution of judgment,
auditing and review of accounts,
examination
of the holders of office,
and finally discussion and decision on the affairs of the nation."5
Aristotle found that those who value wealth want the city
to
be prosperous, those who value power want it to rule over
extensive
dominions, and those who value virtue
want the city to excel in
justice and goodness.
He criticized Sparta and Crete for designing
their
educational systems for war and military power
as do the
Scythians, Persians, Thracians, and Celts.
In Carthage, Macedonia,
and Iberia soldiers were
honored with some distinction for having
killed an enemy.
Aristotle attributed the fall of Sparta to its
militaristic system,
and he could not applaud lawgivers who train
their people
to acquire power and rule over their neighbors.
For
Aristotle military training should be only for defense
against
subjection, to win leadership in order to benefit others
but not
to dominate, and in order to be master over the slaves.
Military
states, he found, generally fight wars and survive;
but once they
have established an empire, they decline,
because they are not
educated for peace.
He believed it was just to serve only someone who was
superior
in virtue and in the ability to perform good actions.
If happiness
is doing well, then the active life is better
both for the individual
and the whole community.
Aristotle listed the necessities as food,
handicrafts and their
tools, arms, wealth, religion, and most
essential
is a method of arriving at decisions.
For Aristotle
slaves were necessary for the agricultural work
so that the citizens
could handle the civic and military duties
as well as religious
functions as they got older.
This class distinction he traced
back
to the earliest civilizations in Egypt
and Crete.
Although all creatures
live by nature and some by habit,
Aristotle believed that only
humans use reason,
which can enable one to do many things contrary
to nature
and habit when one is convinced it is a better course.
People do not object to letting older people rule more,
because
they hope to earn their chance to rule also.
Along with courage and steadfastness for work,
Aristotle believed
that we need intellectual ability for
cultivated leisure as well
as honesty and restraint
at all times, especially in peace.
Thus
Aristotle turned to education and agreed with Plato
on many things such as the importance of play for children
and
having inspectors to choose children's stories
and censoring unseemly
talk; but he disagreed in letting
children cry so that they could
exercise their lungs.
He recognized the need to control population
and
approved of abortion before the embryo
has acquired life and
sensation.
He did not approve of extra-marital sex
with persons
of either sex.
Aristotle did not believe that children should
view
comedies until they are old enough to drink.
He thought education
for the citizens ought to be
a national concern, and he considered
degrading occupations
or work for money as deleterious to the
body's condition.
In addition to reading and writing and gymnastics,
Aristotle was also very particular about the kind of music
that
ought to be taught.
Children should not be allowed
to view art
that is not truly ethical.
A work by Aristotle or his followers on economics
or household
management is about the relationship between
a man and a woman
as the most natural of all relationships
that in humans can be
based on
mutual help, goodwill, and cooperation.
Parents take
care of their children
when they are young and weak,
and later
the children can care for the parents
when they become old and
weak.
Aristotle believed that women are better fitted for quiet
employments requiring patience,
while men are more active and
stronger.
The mother nurtures the children,
and the father educates
them.
The man should not do wrong to the woman,
such as by associating
with other women,
while women should not importune their husbands
nor be restless during their absences.
This book also discusses
the proper treatment of slaves.
To develop trust one should not
allow them
to be insolent nor mistreat them.
Aristotle recommended
setting the prize of freedom
as an incentive for good work with
a definite time
when it can be attained, and he also advised
frequent inspections of workers or stewards
and developing good habits
of management
without procrastination.
The second book of the Oeconomica cites numerous
historical
examples of how devious rulers
raised money to pay their soldiers.
The third book only survived in Latin translations
of the 13th
century and is about the relationship
between husband and wife.
A good wife is responsible for administering the internal
functions
of the home, the husband the external concerns,
although the wife
is expected to obey her husband.
Virtue is emphasized, and it
is noted that only a great soul
can handle troubles and wrongs
without committing a base act.
Correctly reared children will
grow up to be virtuous,
but parents who are not just will find
them rebelling.
Aristotle praised fidelity and warned the husband
against
promiscuity as well as the wife, for it is a shame
to
have children outside of marriage.
The husband who learns how
to master himself can then
teach his wife to follow his example.
Aristotle saw no greater blessing on earth than a
husband and
wife ruling their home
in harmony of mind and will.
After each
other their duties extend to their children,
their friends, and
their estate.
By treating their entire household as a common possession
they can vie with each other to see who can contribute
the most
to the common welfare and excel in virtue.
The line of Cynic philosophers goes back to a disciple
of Socrates named Antisthenes, who
emulated
his hardihood and disregard of feeling.
Antisthenes,
who was about twenty years younger
than Socrates and about twenty years older than Plato,
lived in the Peiraeus and walked the
five miles each day to hear Socrates.
He considered the most
necessary part of learning
getting rid of having anything to unlearn.
He said it was a royal privilege to do good and be called evil.
He pointed to Heracles and Cyrus to show that
pain could be a
good thing.
Antisthenes said he would rather be mad than feel
pleasure.
He had few students,
because he used a silver rod to
eject them;
he criticized them the way a physician treats a patient.
He preferred crows who eat the dead
to flatterers who devour the
living.
He believed those who would be immortal ought to live
justly and piously, and states are doomed when they
cannot distinguish
the good from the bad.
Antisthenes criticized Plato
for his pride.
He maintained that virtue had to do with actions
not words.
The wise are guided by virtue and not by laws of the
state.
The good deserve to be loved, and virtue cannot be
taken
away and is the same for men and women.
Diogenes lived to be over eighty and died
about the same time as Alexander in 323 BC.
Diogenes was the son of a banker in Sinope,
and both were banished for adulterating the coinage,
which Diogenes
admitted later.
In Athens Antisthenes tried to discourage Diogenes,
but Diogenes persisted by offering his head
to the staff of Antisthenes
saying,
"Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to
keep me
away from you, so long as I think you've something to
say."6
Antisthenes then accepted him as a pupil,
and Diogenes
began a simple life.
Wandering and begging for his food,
Diogenes
used any place he could find for eating, sleeping,
conversing,
or any other purpose.
He found that the Athenians had provided
him with places
to live in the portico of Zeus and the hall of
the processions.
To inure himself to hardship he would roll in
hot sand
in the summer and embrace
snow-covered statues in the
winter.
Diogenes found that despising pleasure itself could be
most pleasurable once one was accustomed to it.
When begging charity
in his poverty, Diogenes asked them
to give to him if they have
given to anyone else;
or if they had not, to begin with him.
The
love of money he called the mother-city of all evils.
Diogenes scorned the school of Euclides as cholic,
Plato's
lectures as a waste of time,
and Dionysian performances as peep-shows
for fools.
Demogogues he called lackeys of the mob.
When he observed
philosophers and physicians,
he called humans the most intelligent
animal;
but seeing diviners puffed up by wealth,
he thought no
animal more silly.
Once Diogenes trampled on the carpets of Plato,
saying he was trampling on
his pride;
but Plato replied
that Diogenes had a different kind of pride.
When Plato
was applauded for defining humans
as featherless bipeds, Diogenes
plucked a fowl and took it
to Plato's lecture room as "Plato's
person."
Diogenes mocked Plato's ideas of tablehood and cuphood,
and he considered himself a Socrates
gone mad.
One day Diogenes lit a lamp and went around saying
he was seeking
a person, a story that later became
a search for an honest person.
Diogenes wondered at the grammarians who investigate
the ills of Odysseus but are ignorant of their own,
or the musicians who
tune their lyres but leave the dispositions
of their souls discordant,
or at orators who make a fuss
about justice in their speeches
but never practice it,
or the avaricious who criticize money while
being so fond of it.
He got angry at those who sacrificed to the
gods
for health and feasted to their own health's detriment.
One
day when a child drank out of his hands,
he threw away his cup,
because a child
had surpassed him in plainness of living.
He reasoned
that all things belong to the gods;
the wise are friends of the
gods;
since friends have all things in common,
all things belong
to the wise.
Diogenes opposed fortune with courage,
convention
with nature, and passion with reason.
When someone complained
that he was not adapted
to the study of philosophy, Diogenes asked
why he lived,
if he did not care to live well.
Diogenes held that
education is a controlling grace
to the young, consolation to
the old, wealth to the poor,
and an ornament to the rich.
Diogenes
believed that the most beautiful thing
in the world is freedom
of speech.
When Athenians urged him to become initiated
so that he would
enjoy a special privilege in the other world,
Diogenes thought
it ludicrous that this could cause those
of no account to live
in the Isles of the Blessed.
Observing a religious purification,
he asked the priest
if he knew that he could no more get rid of
errors of conduct
by sprinkling than he could so correct errors
of grammar.
He reproached people for praying for what they thought
was good instead of what is truly good.
Diogenes often insisted
that the gods had given humans
everything they need to live easily,
but they wanted honeycakes and ointments
and other such things.
When he saw temple officials leading away someone
for stealing
a bowl that belonged to the treasurers,
Diogenes commented that
the great thieves
were leading away the little thief.
When strangers asked to see Demosthenes,
Diogenes pointed him
out with his middle finger
and called him the demagogue of Athens.
He noted how much difference a finger
could make in human attitudes.
After the battle of Charonea, Diogenes was taken
and dragged off
to Philip, who asked him who he was.
Diogenes replied that he
was a spy on his insatiable greed,
for which he was admired and
set free.
Alexander said that
if he had not been Alexander,
he would have liked to have been Diogenes.
When Diogenes was sunning
himself in the Craneum,
Alexander
came and stood over him saying that
he could have anything he
wished.
Diogenes simply asked Alexander
to move out of his sunlight.
Alexander
said that he was Alexander
the great king,
and he said that he was Diogenes the hound.
Asked
why he was called that, Diogenes replied that
he fawned on those
who gave him anything,
yelped at those who refused, and put his
teeth into rascals.
When Alexander asked him if he was not afraid
of him,
Diogenes asked if Alexander was a good thing or a bad
thing.
Alexander said he was a good thing,
and Diogenes asked
who is afraid of the good.
Asked where he was from one time, Diogenes said that
he was a citizen of the world, perhaps the first use
of the term "cosmopolitan."
He believed that the only true commonwealth is as wide
as the
universe, and he advocated the community of wives
with no marriage
other than consenting union by persuasion.
Children thus would
also be held in common.
When Diogenes was captured and put up for sale
as a slave and
was asked what he could do,
he said he could govern people and
told the crier
to announce for someone who wanted
to purchase
a master for himself.
He told the Corinthian Xeniades, who bought
him,
that he must obey him as though he were a physician,
and
he educated his children.
Xeniades entrusted his whole house to
him and said
that a good spirit had entered his house.
Finally
Diogenes died either from eating raw octopus,
being bitten by
a dog, or from holding his breath.
1. Hippocrates, Aphorisms, tr. Francis Adams, 1:1.
2. Isocrates, Panathenaicus, tr. George Norlin 12-14.
3. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers,
tr. R. D. Hicks, 5:20.
4. Aristotle, Rhetoric, tr. W. R. Roberts, 1:13, 1373b.
5. Aristotle, Politics, tr. J. A. Sinclair, 6:8.
6. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers,
tr. R. D. Hicks, 6:21.