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From Alexander to the Roman Empire.
Cynics, Sceptics, Epicureans and
Stoics. Neoplatonism.
Presented at
Central University of Finance and
Economics
中央财经大学
Beijing
by
卜若柏
Robert Blohm
Chinese Economics and Management Academy
中国经济与管理研究院
http://www.blohm.cnc.net
April 27, 2008
2008年4月27日
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
 Time span
• Greek City States brought to an end by Macedonian
domination and the empire of Philip (腓力普) and
Alexander (亚历山大而).
• Last vestige of Alexander’s Macedonian (马其顿)
Empire ended with Roman annexation of Egypt (埃
及) after the death of Cleopatra (克里奥巴特).
 Macedonian Empire produced:
• best Greek mathematics
• 4 predominant schools of philosophy: Cynics (犬儒
学派), Sceptics (怀疑派), Epicurians (伊壁鸠鲁派)
and Stoics (斯多葛主义)
• little profoundly new in philosophy that hadn’t
already originated under the Greeks. Only
Epicurianism. Nothing new appeared until the neo2
Platonists emerged in the later Roman Empire.
Silver coin of Alexander (336-323 BCE). British Museum.
Bust of Alexander (Roman copy of a 330 BCE statue by
Lysippus, Louvre Museum). According to Diodorus, the
Alexander sculptures by Lysippus were the most faithful
Ptolemy coin with Alexander wearing an elephant
scalp, symbol of his conquests in India.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great
Empire of Alexander the Great: 323 B. C.
Magna Graecia
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www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342alexanderthegreatmap.gi
Alexander conquered his empire in 9 years (334-325 BC), undefeated in battle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MacedonEmpire.jpg
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Greek mathematics contributed to Alexander’s military success
Catapults were first invented about 400 BC in the Greek town Syracus under
Dionysios I (c. 432-367 BC).
The main catapult significance is that it: embodied the deliberate exploration of
physical and mechanical principles to improve armaments.
Weapons fired by torsion bars powered by horsehair and ox tendon (the Greeks called
this material neuron ) springs could fire arrows, stones, and pots of burning pitch along a
parabolic arc. Some of these machines were quite large and heavy and this were thus
mounted on wheels to improve tactical mobility and deployment. When horse-hair and
other materials failed, the women in several instances cut off their own hair and twisted it
into ropes for the engines
The catapult development started in Sicily with the Greek tyrant Dionysios I providing the
financial means required for the experiments that were necessary to find the optimal
design. Except in Sicily , Rhodes and Alexandria were the main centers of the
development of the catapult technology, in Alexandria advanced by the support of the
Greek Ptolemaic kings of Egypt.
Archimedes has also been credited with improving the power and accuracy of the
catapult. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
Archimedes' legendary engines are said to have used stones three times as heavy.
Plutarch tells us that it was Hiero, another king of Syracuse, who spurred Archimedes
into military engineering. His splendid catapults kept the Roman troops at bay until the
besieged city fell in 212 B.C. as a result of treachery.
It is interesting to note that the largest stone-thrower on record, a three-talent (78
kilogram) machine, was built by Archimedes.
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In honor of the Greek contributions, to this day the military art of siege warfare is called
poliorcetics.
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/war/CatapultTypes.htm
It was Philip of Macedon who first organized a special group of artillery engineers within
his army to design and build catapults. Philip's use of siegecraft allowed Greek science
and engineering an opportunity to contribute to the art of war, and by the time of
Demetrios I (305 B.C.), known more commonly by his nickname "Poliorcetes" (the
Besieger), Greek inventiveness in military engineering was probably the best in the
ancient world.
Alexander the Great used catapults in a completely different way -- as covering
artillery. Alexander's army carried prefabricated catapults that weighed only 85 pounds.
Larger machines were dismantled and carried along in wagons. Alexander's engineers
contributed a number of new ideas. Major Greek cities adopted the use of catapults and
owned a park of torsion artillery.
The use of catapults in the field is evidenced in one of Alexander's early battles in the
Northern Marches of Macedon. At Pelion, Alexander, in a rare loss of the initiative had to
extract his army from a siege position around the town and cross a river to a defensive
position in the foothills. Surrounded, Alexander lulled the barbarian army into watching
his phalanx and cavalry maneuver on the plain outside of the city, then in a typical
lightening move, he forced a crossing of the river creating a defensive bridgehead. He
then set up some of his siege artillery to fire back across the river, over the heads of his
own troops to cover their rear with a curtain of missiles as they crossed the river after
disengaging with the enemy. This is the first reported use of siege artillery in the
field as an assault weapon (in spite of the fact that it was used defensively).
In 334 BC Alexander the Great used at the siege of Halicarnassus heavy palintona. At
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Tyre he used arrow catapults and palintona against the wall fortifications.
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0009&layout=&loc=16.10.html)
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Urumqi Greek Soldier
"A bronze figurine of a kneeling warrior, not
Greek work, but wearing a version of the
Greek Phrygian helmet”. Ürümqi Xinjiang
Museum.
Probable depiction of Greek soldier, found
in a burial north of the Tian Shan
mountains. 4th-3rd century BCE. Bronze,
42cm high, 4 kilograms. Documented in
"Cambridge Ancient History" IV. Also in
Boardman "The diffusion of Classical Art in
Antiquity", p. 149, with photograph.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great
The Hellenistic world, 300 B.C. Alexander the Great's empire contained everything within
the red lines. A generation later, four of his generals ruled pieces of it: Ptolemy (dark
green portion), Seleucus (yellow), Lysimachus (purple), and Cassander (pink).
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http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/map11.gif
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
 Alexander
(cont.d)
• conquered Asia Minor (小亚细亚), Syria (叙利亚), Egypt
(埃及), Babylonia (巴比伦), Persia (波斯), Samarkand (
萨马尔干), Bactria (大夏) and Punjab (旁遮普)
• destroyed Persian Empire in 3 battles
• imported Zoroastrian (祅教的) dualism (of forces of
good and evil) and the religions of India (印度),
including Buddhism
• conquered on the basis of
 small armies and
 conciliation of the local populations.
• Orientals were accommodating provided their religion was
respected
• Eastern world accustomed to divine kings and Alexander’s
prodigious success was easily considered of divine origin
• had captains (titled “Companions”) who
 were allowed to criticize
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 stopped him from crossing the Indus (印度) River and engaging overwhelmingly larger Indian armies on the other side
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Alexander (cont.d)
• broke down the Greek attitude of superiority of being
uniquely both spirited (Northern) and “intelligent”
 married two barbarian princesses
 made leading Macedonians marry Persian noble women
• brought forth the idea of mankind as a whole in a
cosmopolitan viewpoint
 embodied in Stoic philosophy
 whence barbarians learned Greek science
 and Greeks learned barbarian superstition
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Empire survived
• in the Moslem religion. Aristotelian commentators.
Mathematicians. Contact with the West stimulated
revival of classical learning in Scholasticism (经院哲
学) and the Renaissance (文艺复兴)
 Al-jebr (“algebra”, although invented by Alexandrian
Greeks).
 “Alcohol”, “alembic”, “alchemy”, “alkali” are Arabic words
from Greek attempts to turn base metals into gold.
 “Azimuth” and “zenith” are Arabic words from Greek
astrology
• Himalayan (喜马拉雅山) chieftains claim descent
from him (particularly in Afghanistan 阿富汗).
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 After Alexander’s death the Empire was divided
up among 3 generals’ families into
• European
• African
• Asian
• Dialogues of the king with a Buddhist sage, in Chinese
translation
• Asoka (阿育王), the saintly Buddhist king in India, sent
missionaries to all the Macedonian kings. (Edicts of
Asoka are the basis for Indian law and legal philosophy.)
• Babylonia (巴比伦)
• and Syria (叙利亚) were very influenced by Hellenism. They
supported the heliocentric theory of the universe.
• most impressed the Greeks because of
• 1000s of years of priestly records
• ability to predict eclipses
• corrupted Greeks with astrology and magic
• gave the Greeks the inconsistent beliefs in fate (determinism),
and fortune (randomness) paradoxically named “necessity” to 14
express the inconsistency.
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 After Alexander’s death the Empire was divided
up among 3 generals’ families into
• Greek became the language of literature and
culture
• until the Moslems
• except among the Jews (Maccabees 马喀比一家)
• Greek experts
• were used by uneducated Macedonian soldiers
• in Egyptian irrigation and drainage projects, for
example
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Alexandria (named for Alexander) was
• exposed to commerce, not wars
• the center of mathematics
• until the end of the Roman Empire
• where Archimedes (阿几米德) studied
• supported by the ruling Ptolemies (托勒密王朝),
patrons of learning
• home of the Library of Alexandria (the world’s most
complete library)
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
• Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
local insecurity. Reflected in
•
•
•
•
•
•
worship of the goddess of fortune or luck
nothing rational in human affairs
little interest in public affairs
local disorder in Greece
temples becoming bankers
labor displacement
• competition from Eastern slave labor
• free laborers became mercenary soldiers
• strong army due to
• almost continuous war
• fear to disband it
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
local insecurity. Reflected in (cont.d)
• the Empire’s incorporation of the Mediterranean citystate model originated by the Phoenecians(腓尼基人),
with
 slave labor at home, and
 hired mercenaries abroad.
Russell compared these to Singapore, Hong Kong and old
Shanghai
• where a commercial aristocracy depended on local labor.
• He predicted (1941) that white hold on Asia will stop but
industrialism would survive.
• New cities founded by Alexander were
• not homogeneous, with citizen-adventurers from all parts of Greater
Greece
• not strong political units.
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
local insecurity. Reflected in (cont.d)
• local disorder in Greece
• temples becoming bankers
• labor displacement
• competition from Eastern slave labor
• free laborers became mercenary soldiers
• strong army due to
• almost continuous war
• fear to disband it
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
local insecurity. Reflected in (cont.d)
• uselessness of thrift (if you lose wealth tomorrow)
and honesty (if cheated)
• tendency to become an adventurer (highly riskloving ) or a time server (highly risk-averse)
• self-development to escape misfortune rather than
achieve positive good
• replacement of metaphysics by ethics.
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Opposite intellectual attitudes, one before
Alexander’s empire, the other during and
afterward. Both attitudes recur in Western history
• In harmony with surroundings, not disliking the world.
Modern examples:
 Elizabethan (伊丽莎白的) England
 18th century England
 Goethe (欧德)
 Bentham (边沁)
• Despairing of the world, calling for radical alternatives
in the near future
 no hope, weary
 life on earth essentially bad (original sin),evil is too powerful
 good only in after-life
 Modern examples:
• Later 18th century France
• 19th century German nationalism
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• Shelly (雪莱)
• Leopardi (李奥巴第)
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Dualism of both attitudes occurs in the Catholic
Church from the 5th to the 15th century
• (Despairing) Theoretically the world was bad:
philosophy is a retreat from it, from the pursuit of
worldly goods which are a gift of fortune, not our own
efforts.
 the other worldliness was rooted in the eclipse of the Greek
city-state.
• Before then, wanted to attain the good through public institutions
 Greek philosophers were not cosmically despairing
 Plato & Pythagoras (毕达哥拉斯) had plans for making the
governing class into sages
 Addressed how man can make a good state
• After then, sought to be virtuous/happy in a wicked/suffering world,
to be content through resignation.
 subjectivism and individualism, ultimately exercised in
individual salvation, until
 the Christian gospel of individual salvation became embodied
in an institution that
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--the philosopher could adhere to.and
--could provide an outlet for his legitimate love of power
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander
(cont.d)
 Dualism of both attitudes in the Catholic Church
from the 5th to the 15th century (cont.d)
• (Optimism) Clerics were happy as the literary and
governing class through the most important
institution in the everyday world
 Hellenistic Empire intellectuals could not help
but continue
• to think but they had no hope of
• affecting the world of practical affairs
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Cynics (犬儒学派)
 Originated by Antisthenes (安提斯泰尼),
disciple of Socrates. When older he despised
his younger aristocratic life, and now
• associated with working men
• held all refined philosophy to be worthless
• thought all that’s worth knowing could be known to
the plain man
• favored return to nature (like Rousseau 卢梭)
• condemned slavery
• despised luxury and pursuit of artificial pleasures of
the senses
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Cynics (cont.d)
 Founded by Diogenes (狄奥根尼), disciple of
Antisthenes
• Diogenes’ father was a disreputable money changer
• Diogenes vowed to “deface the coinage” of
convention everywhere
• lived like a dog and by begging: so he was called a
“cynic” meaning “canine” (dog)
• proclaimed brotherhood with both animals and
humans
• visited by Alexander: rejected Alexander’s offer of
any favor
• had an ardent passion for virtue
• held worldly goods of no account
• freedom was liberation from desire, and consisted in
indifference to goods. Stoics took up this idea.
• felt the arts brought complication and artificiality to25
modern life. Like Taoists.
Cynics (cont.d)
 Particularly fashionable in Alexandria. Cynics
• published little sermons
• preached a simple life of
 indifference toward, not abstinence from, (for example)
obligations to a lender
 without material possessions
 eating simple food
• followers were
 rich people who thought the sufferings of the poor
imaginary, or
 the new poor resentful of the successful businessman
 Stoicism (斯多葛主义) extracted the best part of
cynicism (simplicity, indifference, brotherhood,26
and virtue) in a more complete philosophy
Scepticism (怀疑派)
 First proclaimed by Pyrrho (皮浪), soldier in
Alexander’s army who traveled as far as India
 Greek philosophers already
• had been sceptical (doubtful of the cognitive
reliability) of the senses
• Plato (柏拉图) and Parmenides (巴门尼德) outright
denied the cognitive value of perception
• Sophists, like Protagoras (普罗塔哥拉) and Gorgias
(高尔吉亚), were led by contradictions from sense
perception to subjectivism (Protagoras’ “man is the
measure of all things”), like Hume’s (休谟的)
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Scepticism (cont.d)
 Pyrrho added moral and logical scepticism to
scepticism about the senses. Thus
• there was no rational ground for preferring one
course of action over another
• local customs should be followed, including pagan
rituals, since
 they cannot be proved wrong and
 common sense suggested it is more convenient to follow
them than to abstain from them
• the diversity of schools of philosophy suggested
those schools were pretending to knowledge that is
not attainable. Scepticism therefore provided
 a lazy man’s resolution: that the ignorant are
automatically already wise.
 a basis for enjoying the present and not worrying about28
the future. Prefiguring Epicurianism.
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Paradox of scepticism: the dogma of doubt.
“Nobody knows and nobody ever can know”.
 Timon 蒂孟 (Pyrrho’s disciple)
• denied the possibility of self-evident first principles, as
in the deductive systems of Euclid (欧几里德) or
Aristotle. Since everything is proved by means of
something else, all argument is either:
 circular, or
 an endless chain.
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
confused phenomena with statements about them by
saying
 “The phenomenon is always valid”. Objection:
• Validity is a logical property of reasoning with (or of deriving)
statements, not physical or sense phenomena.
• Physical or sense phenomena occur or not.
• No statement is ever so closely linked to a phenomenon as to be
incapable of falsehood
• Only tautologies are “always valid”, but convey no factual content,
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such as the statement “’(Definitely) A or (possibly) not A’ or
‘(Possibly) A or (definitely) not A’”.
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Timon 蒂孟 (Pyrrho’s disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
confused phenomena with statements about them
by saying (cont.d)
 “That honey is sweet I refuse to assert; that it appears
sweet I fully grant”.
• Objection. This statement is the basis of 2000 years of
confusion:
 The statement should be rephrased:
--The asserted statement “honey is sweet” is very likely to be
true but not absolutely, or
--The phenomenon that honey is sweet is highly probable but
not absolutely, or
--Our knowledge that honey is sweet is highly certain, but30not
absolutely.
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Timon 蒂孟 (Pyrrho’s disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
confused phenomena with statements about them
by saying (cont.d)
 “That honey is sweet I refuse to assert; that it appears
sweet I fully grant”. (cont.d)
• Objection. This statement is the basis of 2000 years of
confusion: (cont.d)
 Scientific statements (or laws) are about objective
phenomena, not about our observations of (or experiments
with) those phenomena. My objection is the subject of
vigorous 20th century debate between
--realists like Popper (波普) and Bunge (邦格), and
--two other groups
----logical positivists like the Vienna Circle (Carnap 卡尔纳普
and Feigl 费格尔). The logical positivists were so radical
that
--------They considered only statements about observables
as scientifically meaningful
--------There are useful scientific constructs that themselves
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are not directly observable, such as a population.
----phenomenologists like Husserl (胡塞尔 ).
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Timon 蒂孟 (Pyrrho’s disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
confused phenomena with statements about them
by saying (cont.d)
 “That honey is sweet I refuse to assert; that it appears
sweet I fully grant”. (cont.d)
• Timon seems to be the first philosopher to suggest a doctrine of
“empirical proof” or evidence similar to Hume’s:
 It is not enough to logically (theoretically) derive statements
about physical reality;
 The reality must also be observed (“appear” to the senses),
with the observation serving as “empirical” evidence.
 In Hume’s case,
 --if the two phenomena are frequently enough observed
together, one can be “associated” with the other [not
“inferred” as Russell mistakenly asserts by committing the
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very mistake he pointed out previously (confusing statement
with phenomenon)].
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Timon 蒂孟 (Pyrrho’s disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
confused phenomena with statements about them
by saying (cont.d)
 “That honey is sweet I refuse to assert; that it appears
sweet I fully grant”. (cont.d)
• Timon seems to be the first philosopher to suggests a doctrine of
“empirical proof” or evidence similar to Hume’s: (cont.d)
 In Hume’s case (cont.d),
--Mere “association” (statistical correlation) does not assert a
causal or theoretical relationship between the phenomena:
that relationship is provided by deductive/mathematical
theoretical reasoning alone which the observed correlation
confirms or not.
----Empirical confirmability alone is the logical positivist
criterion for meaningful scientific statements
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----Empirical falsifiability, criticism, is the realist criterion for
scientific statements
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Arcesilaus (阿塞西劳斯) of Plato’s Academy
succeeded Timon as leading sceptic
• Platonic/Socratic bases for scepticism
 The Platonic Socrates professes to know nothing
 Many of the Socratic dialogues reach no positive
conclusion
 The Parmenides dialogue shows that either side of the
question can be maintained with equal plausibility
 The Platonic dialectic (Socratic method) could be viewed
as an end, an inconclusive conclusion, rather than a
means of discovering something further.
• Arcesilaus’ method. He
 maintained no thesis but instead refuted any thesis set up
by his pupil. This is first assertion of the realist
“falsifiability” (critical) criterion of truth.
 advanced two contradictory hypotheses and argued
convincingly for either. This provided evidence against34
the “confirmation” approach to truth/discovery.
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Arcesilaus (阿塞西劳斯) of Plato’s Academy
succeeded Timon as leading sceptic (cont.d)
• Students emerged learning cleverness and
indifference to the truth.
• Scepticism remained the philosophy of the Academy
for 200 more years.
 Carneades (卡尔内亚德), a successor of Arcesilaus,
demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
philosophers sent to Rome (罗马)
• In his first lecture he expounded on Plato & Aristotle,
for example Socrates’ argument that to inflict injustice
is a greater evil to the perpetrator than to suffer it. 35
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Carneades (卡尔内亚德), a successor of Arcesilaus,
demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
philosophers sent to Rome (罗马) cont.d
• In his second lecture he refuted the first lecture by
stating
 countries become great by unjust aggressions against
others, and that
 during a crisis you should look after your own survival first,
even at the expense of others
• The intended result was to show that every
conclusion is unwarranted.
36
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Carneades (卡尔内亚德), a successor of Arcesilaus,
demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
philosophers sent to Rome (罗马) cont.d
• The Elder Cato (老卡图), a Roman, stood in stark
contrast to Carneades who represented a lax morality
infected by the dissolution of the Hellenistic Empire.
Cato
 represented
• the old Roman severity of manners
• the brutal moral code by which Rome defeated Carthage (迦太基)
 was scrupulously honest
 urged accusing and pursuing the wicked as the best thing
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an honest man can do
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Carneades (卡尔内亚德), a successor of Arcesilaus,
demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
philosophers sent to Rome (罗马) cont.d
• Elder Cato, a Roman, stood in stark contrast to
Carneades who represented a lax morality infected
by the dissolution of the Hellenistic Empire. Cato(cont.d)
 when in power
• put down luxury and feasting
• made his wife nurse his slaves’ children so that they might love his
•
•
•
children
sold off his slaves when they became old
encouraged his slaves to quarrel with each other
induced his other slaves to condemn a delinquent slave of his to
death
carried out the sentence with his own hands in their presence
•
 viewed the Athenians as a lesser, lawless breed
 aspired to keep Roman youth puritanical, imperialistic,
ruthless and stupid.
38
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Clitomachus (克来多马柯), a Carthiginian, last
sceptic head of the Academy. With Carneades
• opposed the belief in divination, magic, and
astrology
• developed a constructive doctrine concerning
degrees of probability: degrees of truth and
likelihood of occurrence.
 Probability should be the guide in practice.
 It is reasonable to act on the most probable of possible
hypotheses.
 Precursor of Leibniz’ (莱布尼兹的) possible worlds
 Plato’s Academy
• Under leadership and development by the Academy,
scepticism served to undermine the non-scientific
concept of absolute truth or absolute certainty.
39
• The Academy’s teachings thereafter shifted to
become indistinguishable from the Stoics’.
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Sextus Empiricus (塞克斯托·恩皮里库斯).
Roman sceptic
• The only ancient sceptic whose works survive
• Treatise entitled “Arguments Against a Belief in
God”, said probably to be taken from Carneades as
reported by Clitomachus:
 Sceptics
• follow the way of the world.by speaking of the gods as existing and
worshiping them, but
• express no belief, thereby “avoiding the rashness of the
dogmatizers”
 We cannot know God’s attributes
 God’s existence is not self-evident and therefore needs
proof. Any proof leads to an impiety:
• If God controls everything, then he is the author of evil things.
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• If God controls some things only, then he he is grudging.
• If God controls nothing, then he is impotent.
Scepticism (cont.d)
 Dogmatic religion and salvation began to
dominate the age.
• Scepticism
 made educated men dissatisfied with the State religions,
but
 offered nothing in their place. From the Renaissance
onwards enthusiastic belief in science provided the
alternative.
• So, oriental religions invaded to compete for the
favor of the superstitious, until Christianity
triumphed.
41
Epicurianism (伊壁鸠鲁派)
 Founded and set once and for all by Epicurus (
伊壁鸠鲁), as reported by Diogenes Laertius (第
欧根尼·拉尔修)
• Son of a poor Athenian colonist in Samos (撒摩).
• When Athenian colonists were expelled from Samos
at time of Alexander’s death
 Epicurus was in Athens to establish citizenship
 his family was exiled to Asia Minor where he joined them
• Educated by a follower of Democritus 德谟克里特
(materialist)
• Taught in the garden of his eventual home in Athens
• Suffered from ill health all his life
• Was natural and unaffected, without the dignity and
42
reserve in expression of emotion expected of
philosophers
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Founded and set once and for all by Epicurus (
伊壁鸠鲁), as reported by Diogenes Laertius (第
欧根尼·拉尔修)
• Believed inconveniences accompanied luxurious
pleasures
• Expressed happiness in letters on his deathbed
• Lacked generosity toward other philosophers,
especially those to whom he was intellectually
indebted
• Suffered from dictatorial dogmatism
• Wrote 300 books, all lost
 Designed to secure tranquility and individual
happiness
43
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Pleasure is the good, “the beginning and the end
of a blessed life”
• The beginning and the root of all pleasure is the
stomach
• Pleasure of the mind is
 contemplation of pleasures of the body
 has the advantage over bodily experience that we can avoid
contemplation of pain
 Justice consists of ability to act without fearing
other men’s resentment. Origin of Social
Contract theory (Hobbes 霍布斯 & Rousseau 卢梭)
44
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Disagrees with hedonism
• Epicurus prefers
 static, passive or quiet pleasure: equilibrium state of affairs
which would be desired if absent.
• Akin to nirvana in Yoga and Tantric Buddhism
• Recommends training yourself to contemplate pleasures rather
than pains
 to active, dynamic or violent pleasure: attainment of a
desired end following pain
• because
• a state of having eaten moderately is better than a
voracious appetite.
• The pain of a stomach ache outweighs the pleasures of gluttony.
• Epicurus lived on bread and water
• static pleasure does not require pain as a stimulus,
45
therefore
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Absence of pain rather than presence of
pleasure is the wise man’s goal
• Desires for wealth, honor and power are futile
because they make a man restless when he
might be contented.
• With power comes
 greater envy by people wishing to do you harm
 greater worry about this, while
• the wise man lives unnoticed so as to have no
enemies. Living prudently makes freedom from pain
likely
• The goal of philosophy is a happy life which
• requires common sense
• not mathematics and logic
46
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Love, marriage and children are a distraction
from serious pursuits. But Epicurus was fond of
other people’s children.
 Men at all times pursue their own pleasure.
Benthamite.
 Friendship
• is desirable in itself
• cannot be divorced from pleasure
• starts from the need for help
 Mental discipline makes physical pain bearable
47
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
avoiding fear.
• 2 sources of fear are
 religion
 dread of death
• Gods
 exist because otherwise cannot account for the widespread
existence of the idea of gods
 do not interfere in human affairs:
• supernatural interference in the course of nature seemed like terror
• non-interference removes all grounds for fear of incurring the anger
of the gods
 are rational (mental) hedonists: in their life of complete
blessedness they feel no temptation (active pleasure)
• Soul perishes with the body. Immortality means no
48
eventual release from pain
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
avoiding fear.(cont.d)
• Materialistic, not deterministic. Held that
 the world consists of atoms and the void (like Democritus),
• and the atoms
 are falling but
--in an absolute sense and
--not towards the center of the earth as Democritus believed
 sometimes collide
--on their downward path with an atom diverted by free will
from its downward path
--and produce vortices (like Democritus)
• but the atoms are not completely controlled by natural laws (unlike
Democritus).
 Rejection of religion required rejection of the concept of 49
necessity which was religious in origin
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
avoiding fear.(cont.d)
• Materialistic, not deterministic. Held that (cont.d)
 the soul is material and composed of particles like breath
and heat
• sensation is due to thin films
• thrown off by bodies and
• travelling on until they touch soul atoms
• at death
• the soul is dispersed and
• its atoms, disconnected from the body, are no longer capable
of sensation
• therefore “death is nothing to us”
50
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
avoiding fear.(cont.d)
• Science
• is valuable solely to provide naturalistic explanations for
phenomena superstition attributes to the agency of gods
• no point to deciding between several possible naturalistic
explanations, which are all legitimate so long as they do
not bring in the gods.
• Value of Epicurianism lay in its opposition to
astrology, magic and divination
• Lucretius (盧克萊修).
• Roman Epicurian poet who wrote On the Nature of
Things during the free thinking days of the end of 51the
Roman Republic (of Julius Caesar 尤利烏斯·愷撒).
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Lucretius (盧克萊修) cont.d
• Emperor Augustus (奧古斯都) revived ancient
religion and virtue, making the poem unpopular until
it was revived during the Renaissance
• Passionate and committed suicide, disillusioned by
the new order of empire produced by the Romans
(that Alexander had been unable to produce) but that
violated the traditional Roman aristocrat’s aversion
to the quest for power and plunder. .
• Regarded Epicurus as the destroyer of religion.
• Greek religion and ritual were cheerful, but.
• Human sacrifice
• was demanded by the Olympian gods
• was recognized throughout the barbaric world
• was practiced in times of crisis, such as the Punic (布匿) Wars,52
until the Roman conquest
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Lucretius (盧克萊修) cont.d
• Regarded Epicurus as the destroyer of religion (cont.d)
• The general Greek population had other beliefs associated
with barbarous rites, some incorporated into Orphism ( 奥尔
弗斯派).
• Hell was not a Christian invention: fear of punishment after death
was common in Athens among the general population.
• Calamities were attributed to divine displeasure or failure to respect
the omens.
• Epicurus’ humble origins and exposure to popular religion explain
his hostility to religion
• Materialism, denial of god, and rejection of immortality appear
gloomy compared to Christianity but were a gospel of liberation from
the fear generated by the popular religion of the time.
53
Epicurianism (cont.d)
 Christianity reversed Epicurianism by placing all
good after death, not before.
• Epicurianism was revived by the 18th century
French philosophes (哲學家們) and the 19th
century English Benthamites.
54
Stoicism (斯多葛主义)
 Zeno (芝諾). Founder. Phoenecian (腓尼基人)
born in Cyprus. Family business brought him to
Athens
• Materialist. But later Stoics, under the influence of
Platonism, abandoned materialism.
• Combination of cynicism and Heraclitus (赫拉克利特).
 Chief importance as ethical doctrine. Zeno
• thought only virtue is important and had no patience
for metaphysical subtleties.
 Physics and metaphysics were important only insofar as
they contributed to virtue. Subordinated all theoretical
studies to ethics, as did the later Roman sceptics.
 The individual life is good when in harmony with Nature
 Virtue consists of a will which is in agreement with Nature
55
 The wicked obey God’s law involuntarily
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Chief importance as ethical doctrine.Zeno (cont.d)
• thought only virtue is important and had no patience
for metaphysical subtleties. (cont.d)
 Everything good or bad in a person’s life depends only on
that person. Individualism. Condemnation of altruism:
basis for Nietzsche (尼采).
• Only your own virtue counts
• You must not be actuated by the desire to benefit mankind
 Every man has perfect freedom if he emancipates himself
from mundane desires.
 Preached universal love (as Seneca did), but not love as
an emotion. Echoed in Kant’s (康德的) enjoinder to be
kind not because of fondness, but because the moral law
enjoins it.
• combated metaphysical tendencies by means of
common sense, which meant materialism
56
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Chief importance as ethical doctrine.Zeno (cont.d)
• began by asserting the existence of the solid material
world
• believed there is no such thing as chance
• considered God to be
 the fiery mind of the world
 a bodily substance formed by the whole universe
• considered all things to be part of one system called
Nature or Destiny
 whose course was ordained by a lawgiver of natural laws
who is
• also a beneficent Providence (like 18th century “deist” theology)
• the soul of the world (as in Spinoza’s pan-theism) and
 not separate from the world
 a part of whose divine fire is in each of us
57
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Chief importance as ethical doctrine.Zeno (cont.d)
• considered all things to be part of one system called
Nature or Destiny (cont.d)
 to secure certain ends by natural means, and
 whose General Law , which is Right Reason, pervades
everything as a power that moves matter
• apparently believed in astrology and divination
 Cicero claimed he attributed divine potency to the stars
 Diogenes Laertius claimed the Stoics held all kinds of
divination to be valid.
• claimed fire was the original element after which the
air, water and earth gradually emerged in that order
• believed there will be a cosmic conflagration during
which all will again become fire, but
 that is not yet the end of the world, only
 the conclusion of a cycle in an endlessly repeated process:
everything that happens has happened before and will58
happen again, countless times.
Stoicism (cont.d)
 The least Greek of the schools.
• Early Stoics were mostly Syrians who contributed
Chaldean (迦勒底的) influences
• Later Stoics were mostly Roman: Seneca (塞涅卡),
Epictetus (愛比克泰德) and Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·
奧勒留)
• Emotionally narrow and fanatical.
 All passions are condemned
 You do not suffer deeply others’ misfortunes as long as
they are
• no obstacle to your own virtue based, not on what you do for
others, but how you yourself endure.
• friendship is not so strong to the point where a friend’s
misfortunes destroy your holy calm.
59
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Socrates was the saint of the Stoics because of
• his refusal to escape at the time of his trial and
• his calmness before death.
• his contention that the perpetrator of injustice
injures himself more than the victim
• his plainness in food and dress
 Stoics never adopted Plato’s
• doctrine of ideas
• arguments for immortality.
 The soul is composed of material fire (in agreement with
Heraclitus) and therefore perishes with the body
 But later Stoics followed Plato’s claim the soul is
60
immaterial.
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Objection: Problem of evil
• If a beneficent Providence is solely concerned to
cause virtue, why have the laws of nature produced
an abundance of sinners?
• If virtue is the sole good, cruelty and injustice are
not bad because they afford the sufferer the best
opportunity to exercise virtue.
• If the world is completely deterministic,
 natural laws will decide if I am virtuous or not. Like
Calvinist (加尔文派的) pre-destination.
 Freedom which virtue is supposed to give is impossible.
61
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Objection: Futility of virtue
• If there are no evils, then nothing is accomplished by
virtue.
• To the Stoic virtue is an end in itself.
 Virtue is not defined in terms of doing good including doing
good for others.
 You do good in order to be virtuous, for your personal
benefit and edification.
• The repeated return of the world to destruction by
fire, rules out long-run progress.
 Cleanthes of Assos (阿索斯的克雷安德), Zeno’s
successor, criticized Aristarchus of Samos (撒摩
的亚里士达克) for his heliocentric theory of the 62
universe
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Chrysippus (克呂西普), successor to Cleanthes
• made Stoicism systematic and pedantic
• said God has no share in the causation of evil, but
he did not reconcile that with determinism
• justified evil
 in Heraclitean terms of everything accompanied by its
opposite, so that
 good without evil is impossible
• identified hypothetical and disjunctive syllogisms,
and coined the term “disjunction”
• originated the study of grammar and invented
“cases” (subject, object, possessive, etc.) in
declensions of nouns
• developed an empirical theory of knowledge based
on perception
63
• allowed certain ideas and principles established by
consensus gentium
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Cicero (西塞罗)
• transmitted Stoicism to the Romans
• was most influenced by
 Posidonius (波昔東尼) who
• was a Syrian Greek influenced by the Stoics
• a voluminous writer on scientific subjects
• studied tides on the Atlantic Ocean, not possible on
the Mediterranean Sea
• made Antiquity’s best estimate of the distance to
the sun .
• first combined with Stoicism much of Plato’s
64
teaching
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Posidonius (波昔東尼) who (cont.d)
• said the soul
 continues to live in the air after death where it remains
 unchanged until the next world conflagration
 gets muddy vapours if the person was bad and thus
• rises less than the soul of a good person, or
• stays near the earth and gets reincarnated if the person was very
wicked
 rises to the stellar sphere to spend time watching the
stars go round if the person was truly virtuous
 can help other souls, and this can explain the truth of
astrology.
• helped pave the way for gnosticism (the belief that
the cosmos is evil)
• was threatened not by Christianity but by the
heliocentric theory of the universe of Aristarchus of
65
Samos (撒摩的亚里士达克)
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Seneca (塞涅卡), a Spaniard
• tutored Roman Emperor Claudius’ (克勞地烏斯的)
son, Nero (尼羅)
• officially despised riches but amassed a fortune by
lending money in Britain at excessive interest rates
that helped cause a revolt against the exaggerated
capitalism practiced by an apostle of austerity
• allowed to commit suicide after being accused of
conspiring to murder Nero and become emperor
66
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Epectetus (愛比克泰德), a Greek originally a
Roman slave
• On earth we are prisoners, and in an earthly body
• Zeus (宙斯) could not make a body free but could
give us some of his divinity
• God is the father of men and we are all brothers
• As the Christians said, he said we should love our
enemies
• He despised pleasure. Happiness is freedom from
passion and disturbance
• Every man is an actor in a play where God has
assigned the parts
• Brotherhood of man and equality of slaves: superior
to Aristotle
• His ideal world is as superior to Plato’s as his actual
67
world is inferior to the Athens of Pericles (白里克里斯)
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor, the adopted son of the previous emperor.
• Philosopher king
• Reign
 was the last of the 100-year Golden Age of the Antonine (安
東尼) emperors (80-180 AD) where the general happiness
was the highest reached before the Renaissance more than
a millenium later
 coming at the end of an era
• Was beset by calamities: needed fortitude.
• A tired, not a hopeful, age
• Persecuted Christians for rejecting the State religion
• Men looked to the past for what was best
• Evil of slavery
 was sapping the vigor of the ancient world.
 Gladitorial shows and fights with wild beasts must have
debased the population
68
69
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留) Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• Reign (cont.d)
 coming at the end of an era (cont.d)
• Rome depended on free distribution of grain from the provinces
• Greco-Roman civilization had little influence in agricultural regions
• Cities contained a large poor class and slave class: very moderate
income or extreme poverty
• Devoted to Stoic virtue, suited to a tired age
 calling for endurance, not hope
 when even material goods lose their savor
 strongest temptation he said he resisted was to retire to a
quiet country life
70
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• With Epectetus
 of opposite extreme social origin
 they agree on all questions
 This suggests that social origins
• can have less influence on philosophy than sometimes thought
• are accidents of private lives that tend to be discounted by
philosophers
71
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor. (cont.d)
• Wrote Meditations.
 Expresses the burden he felt for his duties
 In study of philosophy he avoided history, syllogism &
astronomy
 Don’t correct people for bad grammar: just follow the
mistake with the correct expression.
 Doubtful about immortality: but we should regulate every act
& thought as if it will be our last
 Universe is one living being, with one substance and soul,
called God or Reason, where all component things are
connected. (Embodies Aristotle’s teleological organicism
and prefigures Hegel 黑格尔.) So,
 Human race is
• one community where
72
• all human beings are equal
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• Wrote Meditations. (cont.d)
 Problem of free will (arises from confusion of human law or
action with organic teleology, and both of these in turn with
human law)
• Law rules all: the universe is a rigidly deterministic single whole in
which all that happens is the result of previous causes (ignoring the
distinction between internal and external causation--Bunge).
 God chose such laws as would have the best results
 Human being is partly clay and partly fire.
--when he is fire he is part of God
--when this part exercises will virtuously it is part of God’s will
which is free. Engels’ (恩格斯的) & Lenin’s (列宁的) concept
of “'freedom is the appreciation of necessity”.
----When the results of God’s laws are not wholly desirable, the
inconvenience is worth enduring for the sake of legislative
fixity
----To desire happiness is to lack resignation to the will of God
----Harmony with the universe is same as obedience to God’s
will.
73
 God gives every man a daemon as his guide. Like guardian
angel in Christianity.
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• Wrote Meditations. (cont.d)
 Problem of free will (arises from confusion of human law or
action with organic teleology, and both of these in turn with
human law) cont.d
• The individual will is completely autonomous, both
--in not being caused, except when the will is sinful, and
--in not causing harm or good to others.
----in not causing harm. Tolerant attitude toward sinners
------One man’s wickedness does no harm to another man
------This enables loving the sinner out of concern
--------not that he has harmed you through bad intention
--------but as a kinsman who has done wrong through ignorance
----in not causing good. Therefore benevolence is an illusion.
 Objection: therefore Stoicism
 causes virtue through intellectual error (contradiction,
intellectual decay)
74
 or has a paralyzing effect on moral effort, as evidenced in the
moral decay of the Roman Empire
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• Wrote Meditations. (cont.d)
 Paradox of duty:
The administrator enforces ordinary mundane standards of
good and bad.
Virtue is the good will freely directed to indifferent ends.
The administrator cannot make people virtuous, only happy
(with mundane goods).
Therefore the administrator is virtuous by securing false
goods for others.
 Uncritical attitude toward perception, unlike Plato.
Deceptiveness of the senses is really false judgement
(of probability when the senses don’t provide
75
certainty).
Stoicism (cont.d)
 Marcus Aurelius (馬爾庫斯·奧勒留), Roman emperor,
the adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• Originated the doctrine of innate ideas.
 There are first principles that
• are obvious, admitted by all men, that
• can serve as the basis for deduction of all others.
 Accepted throughout the Middle Ages and by Descartes
(笛卡尔).
• First to distinguish natural (divine, deduced from first
principles) law from human law.
 Same law for all
 Improved status of women and slaves
 Adopted by Christianity
76
Roman (罗马的) Empire
 Long Roman peace Pax Romana (200 years)
• diffused Greek culture to the West of the Empire and
to Christianity, both
 directly and
 through Semitic people and
• accustomed people to the idea of a
 single civilization associated with
 a single government
 Western Mediterranean had been dominated by
Syracuse (叙拉古) and Carthage (迦太基), both
subdued by Rome in the Punic (布匿) Wars.
 Under Roman rule areas of North Africa (北非)
were cultivated with crops and supported large77
cities.
78
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342TradeRoutes.gif
Contact between Roman Empire & China
Trade with the Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the
Parthians) from the 1st century BC. … Hence, Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, wrote:
The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off
the white down of the leaves… So manifold is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to
enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public.
—Pliny the Elder, The Natural History VI, 54
The Roman historian Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys, including Seres (perhaps the Chinese), to the first
Roman Emperor Augustus, who reigned between 27 BC and 14 AD:
Now that all the races of the west and south were subjugated, and also the races of the north, (...) the Scythians and the
Sarmatians sent ambassadors seeking friendship; the Seres too and the Indians, who live immediately beneath the sun, though
they brought elephants amongst their gifts as well as precious stones and pearls, regarded their long journey, in the
accomplishment of which they had spent four years, as the greatest tribute which they rendered, and indeed their complexion
proved that they came from beneath another sky.
—Florus, Epitomae II, 34
A maritime route opened up with the Chinese-controlled Jiaozhi (centred in modern Vietnam) and the Khmer kingdom of
Funan probably by the first century AD. At the formerly coastal site of Óc Eo in the Mekong Delta, Roman coins were
among the vestiges of long-distance trade discovered by the French archaeologist Louis Malleret in the 1940s. Óc Eo may
have been the port known to the geographer Ptolemy and the Romans as Kattigara. The trade connection extended, via ports
on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to Roman-controlled ports in Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the
northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The Hou Hanshu records that a delegation of Roman envoys arrived in China by this
maritime route in 166 AD; this may well have been an exaggeration, by the envoys or the scribe, of what was actually an
79
unofficial party of Roman merchants.
There are several known instances of Roman soldiers being captured by the Parthians and transferred to the East for border
duty. According to Pliny, in 54 BCE, after losing at the battle of Carrhae, 10,000 Roman prisoners were displaced by the
Parthians to Margiana to man the frontier (of the 40,000 troops under Crassus, half had lost their lives, one quarter escaped,
and one quarter were taken prisoner): It was to this place (Margiana) that Orodes conducted such of the Romans as had
survived the defeat of Crassus —Plin. Hist. Nat. 6. 18
About 18 years later the nomadic Xiongnu chief Zhizhi established a state in the nearby Talas valley, near modern day Taraz.
The Chinese have an account by Ban Gu of about "a hundred men" under the command of Zhizhi who fought in a so-called
"fish-scale formation" to defend Zhizhi's wooden-palisade fortress against Han forces, in the Battle of Zhizhi in 36 BCE The
historian claimed that this might have been the Roman testudo formation and that these men, who were captured by the
Chinese, were able to found the village of Liqian (Li-chien) in Yongchang County There is, however, no evidence that these
men were Romans,[4] and recent DNA testing of the male inhabitants of Liqian does not support the hypothesis. [5]
A Roman inscription of the 2nd–3rd centuries CE has been found in eastern Uzbekistan in the Kara-Kamar cave complex,
which has been analysed as belonging to some Roman soldiers from the Pannonian Legio XV Apollinaris:] PANN
G. REX
Expedition of Ban Chao
AP.LG
In 97, Ban Chao crossed the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains with an army of 70,000
men in a campaign against the Xiongnu/Huns, who were harassing the trade routes
now known as the Silk Road. The Han general made an alliance with the Parthian
king Pacorus II and established his base on shores of the Caspian Sea and at
Antiochia Margiana (Merv) at the eastern outpost of the Parthian Kingdom. It was
from here that the Han general dispatched envoy an Ying to Daqin (Rome). Gan
Ying left a detailed account of western countries, although he apparently only
reached as far as Mesopotamia. While he intended to sail to Rome through the Black
Sea, some Parthian merchants, interested in maintaining their profitable role as the
middleman in the trade between China and Rome, falsely told him the dangerous trip
would take two years at the least (when it was actually closer to two months).
Deterred, he returned home. Gan Ying left an account on Rome (Daqin in Chinese)
which may have relied on second-hand sources. He locates it to the west of the sea:
Its territory covers several thousand li [a "li" is around half a kilometre], it has over
400 walled cities. Several tens of small states are subject to it. The outer walls of the
80
cities are made of stones. They have established posting stations There are pines and The Chinese impression of the Daqin people, from the
cypresses. —Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner
Ming Dynasty encyclopedia Sancai Tuhui
He also describes the adoptive monarchy of the Emperor Nerva, and Roman physical appearance and products:
As for the king, he is not a permanent figure but is chosen as the man most worthy ... The people in this country are tall and
regularly featured. They resemble the Chinese, and that is why the country is called Da Qin (The "Great" Qin) ... The soil
produced lots of gold, silver and rare jewels, including the jewel which shines at night ... they sew embroidered tissues with
gold threads to form tapestries and damask of many colours, and make a gold-painted cloth, and a "cloth washed-in-the-fire"
(asbestos). —Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner
Finally Gan Ying determines
Rome correctly as the main
economic power at the
western end of Eurasia:
It is from this country that all
the various marvellous and
rare objects of foreign states
come. —Hou Hanshu, cited in
Leslie and Gardiner
Eastern travels of
Maes Titianus
Maës Titianus was the
ancient traveller of
Hellenistic culture who
penetrated farthest east along
the Silk Road from the
Mediterranean world. In the
early second century CE or
at the end of the first century
BCE, during a lull in the
intermittent Roman struggles
with Parthia, his party
Maes Titianus went as far as Tashkurgan, known as the "Stone Tower" in Antiquity, the 81
reached the famous Stone
doorstep to China (in blue).
Tower, Tashkurgan, in the
Pamirs.
First Roman embassy
With the expansion of the Roman Empire in the Middle East during the 2nd century, the Romans gained the capability to develop shipping & trade in the Indian Ocean. Several ports containing Roman ruins have been excavated on the coast of India.
Groups of Romans probably travelled farther eastwards, either on Roman, Indian, or Chinese ships. The first group of people
claiming to be an ambassadorial mission of Romans to China was recorded in 166, sixty years after the westbound
expeditions of the Chinese general Ban Chao. The embassy came to Emperor Huan of Han China "from Antun (Emperor
Antoninus Pius), king of Daqin (Rome)". (As Antoninus Pius died in 161, leaving the empire to his adoptive son Marcus
Aurelius (Antoninus), and the convoy arrived in 166, confusion remains about who sent the mission given that both
Emperors were named 'Antoninus'.) The Roman mission came from the south (therefore probably by sea), entering China
bythe frontier of Jinan or Tonkin. It brought presents of rhinoceros horns, ivory, and tortoise shell, probably been acquired
in Southern Asia. About the same time, and
possibly through this embassy, the Chinese
acquired a treatise of astronomy from the
Romans.
The existence of China was clearly known to
Roman cartographers of the time, since its
name and position is depicted in Ptolemy's
Geographia, which is dated to c. 150. On the
map, China is located beyond the Aurea
Chersonesus ("Golden Peninsula"), which
refers to the Southeast Asian peninsula. It is
shown as being on the Magnus Sinus ("Great
Gulf"), which presumably corresponds to the
known areas of the China Sea at the time;
although Ptolemy represents it as tending to
the southeast rather than to the northeast.
Trade throughout the Indian Ocean was
extensive from the 2nd century, and many
Ptolemy's world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geographia (circa 150),
trading ports with links to Roman
indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the island of 82
communities have been identified in India
"Taprobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (Southeast
and Sri Lanka along the route used by the
Asian peninsula).
Other Roman embassies
Other embassies may have been sent
after this first encounter, but were not
recorded, until an account appears
about presents sent in the early 3rd
century by the Roman Emperor to
Cao Rui of the Kingdom of Wei
(reigned 227–239) in Northern China.
The presents consisted of articles of
glass in a variety of colours. While
several Roman Emperors ruled
during this time, the embassy, if
genuine, may have been sent by
Alexander Severus; since his
successors reigned briefly and were
busy with civil wars.
Another embassy from Daqin is
recorded in the year 284, as bringing
presents to the Chinese empire. This
embassy presumably was sent by the
Emperor Carus (282–283), whose
short reign was occupied by war with
Persia.
Detail of Asia in Ptolemy's world map. Gulf of the Ganges left, Southeast Asian
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peninsula in the center, China Sea right, with "Sinae" (China).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Originally a city state/kingdom not dependent on
foreign commerce. Small family grain farms.
 Succeeded by
• an aristocratic republic dominated by the Senate to
which democratic elements were added.
• huge agricultural estates of vines and olives cultivated
by slave labor.
 Tyranny emerged from civil wars between the
Senate and a democratic movement inaugurated
by the Gracchi (格拉古) brothers.Emperor Augustus
• disguised the military origin of the imperial
government in the decrees of the Senate
• restored ancient piety and became hostile to free
inquiry
84
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Military origin of decline. The army
• determined victory in civil war depending on the size
of rewards to soldiers often paid with expropriated
property of rich men out of favor
• eventually made and unmade emperors in return for
cash and the promise of life without warfare; usually
selected successful general as emperor;subsequently
assassinated for renewed sale of empire
• ceased to be an effective fighting force against
Northern (German) and Eastern (Persian) barbarian
invaders
• was curbed by Emperor Diocletian (戴克里先) who
made barbarians, mostly Germans, the most effective
fighting forces and commanders in the army, and
divided the Empire between East (Greek) and West
85
(Latin)
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Military origin of decline. The army (cont.d)
• by the 4th century had become mostly Christian and
the apparent cause for Constantine (君士坦丁) to
adopt Christianity as the State religion
• by the 5th century found it more profitable to fight for
itself than for the emperor, and
 destroyed the Western Empire except for the Christian
religion
 enabled North Africa and Spain to later fall to Arabs (拉伯人
) who rejected Christianity but adopted the civilization of the
conquered
• caused fiscal breakdown due to
 increased expenditure for unsuccessful war and bribery of
the army
 diminished resources:
• war & pestilence decreased population by 1/3rd
• officials of the locally self-governed towns escaped because of
inability of the town to pay the town’s tax obligation to central
authorities
• Diocletian forced rich people to be town officials and forbid the 86
rural
population to migrate
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Eastern Roman (Byzantine 拜占庭) Empire
• continued until 15th century when the fall of
Constantinople (君士坦丁堡) to the Turks (土耳骗人)
cut Europe from the Silk Road to China and prompted
 the search for a maritime trade route to China
• to the West and
• around Africa
 and discovery of America
• preserved Greek culture which Arabs (拉伯人)
extended to the West through Spain
87
88
http://www.indiana.edu/~hisdcl/images/diocletian'srome.jpg
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Limited influence of educated Romans (many
spoke Greek) on Greeks (few spoke Latin)
through Punic War hero Scipio Africanus (the
Younger) 小塞庇欧 whose proteges were
• Greek historian Polybius (玻里比乌) who admired the
stability and efficiency of the Roman constitution
compared to the continually changing constitutions of
most Greek cities.
• Stoic philosopher Panaetius (潘尼提乌) who
 because of the hopefulness connected with the opportunity
for political activity in Rome, made his doctrines more
political and less like the Cynics’
 was led by Roman admiration for Plato to abandon the
89
dogmatic narrowness of earlier Stoics
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Influence of Greece on Rome
• Roman superiority only in military tactics and social
cohesion
 invented no art form, no original system of philosophy,
made no scientific discoveries
 good roads, legal codes, efficient armies
• Roman admiration for the Greeks after Roman
victory over Carthage 迦太基 (Punic 布匿 Wars).
Adopted Greek architecture and sculpture.
90
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Influence of Greece on Rome (cont.d)
• Greek influence softened manners as original
Roman farmer virtues of austerity, industriousness
and stubbornness changed with sudden wealth after
the Punic Wars
 Small family farms replaced by scientific agriculture on
huge estates farmed by slaves
 Emergence of a great class of traders and people
enriched by plunder.
 Women became free and dissolute
• divorce became common
• rich ceased to have children
 Eventual semi-barbarian soldiers had no use for culture
 Education
• unnecessary to soldier-State
91
• unsupportable by increasingly impoverished private persons
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Influence of Greece on Rome (cont.d)
• Greek influence channeled Eastern religions,
including Christianity.
 Army-appointed emperors tried to use new religions
favored by the army to stabilize and control the army
• Emperor Alexander, of Syrian (叙利亚的) origin, had a private
chapel with statues of Abraham (亚波罗), Orpheus (奥尔弗斯) and
Christ (亚波罗)
• Religion of Mithras (米斯拉教), a Persian Zoroastrian (拜火教) cult
of war between good and evil, was a close competitor with
Christianity
• Constantine (君士坦丁) successfully instated Christianity
 Eastern religions became popular:
• Traditional Greek and Roman religions were geared to hope in
happiness on earth.
• Religions of Asia, with longer experience of dispair, developed92
other-worldly hopes to bring consolation.
Roman Empire (cont.d)
 Influence of Greece on Rome (cont.d)
• Roman empire embodied the concept of universalism
 Greek and Roman conquerors admired, absorbed and
preserved the civilizations they governed
 Stoic universal human family made the Roman Empire
consider itself worldwide in idea because, if it was not so in
fact, it could be if it decided to. Basis for the concept of one
“catholic” religion.
 Arabs learned Greek culture from the Eastern Empire and
preserved and promoted Aristotle
• less favored than Plato in Greek and Roman antiquity
• learned from contact with Mohammedans (伊斯兰教人) in Spain and
Sicily which prompted
 revival of Christian learning in the 11th century leading to
Scholasticism (Christian Aristotelianism)
93
 access to Greek writings of philosophers since the 13th century
 revival of science in the Renaissance (文艺复兴).
Plotinus (普罗提诺)
 Last great philosopher of Antiquity
• born in Egypt (埃及)
• studied in Alexandria
• lived during the worst of the Roman Empire’s decline
(3rd century AD)
• late bloomer: started writing at age 49
• favored by Emperor Gallienus (加里努斯)
• wrote books called Enneads (九章集)
• beauty in his writing.
 Inward looking
• Enabled a melancholy optimism: strained happiness
requiring power to ignore or despise life of senses.94
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Inward looking (cont.d)
• Culminates a movement toward subjectivity
suggested in Protagoras (普罗塔哥拉), Socrates,
Plato, the Stoics and Epicureans of
 looking within rather than without to the imperfections of the
sensible world
 abandoning the achievement of scientific understanding or
improvement of human institutions promoted by Plato, in
favor of self-realization of the virtuous will. Heavenly bodies
are just the bodies of god-like beings immeasurably
superior to man.
• Never mentions ruin & misery of actual world:
 his attention
• exclusively on world of goodness & beauty, the real world of ideas
(the Kingdom of Heaven to the Christian to be enjoyed after death)
• away from the “illusory” (misguided?) actual world of misery
 his philosophy
• provides a secure refuge for ideals and hopes,
• involving both moral and intellectual effort
95
Plotinus (cont.d)
 While not stimulating to a tired and disappointed
ancient world, constrained the superabundant
energy of the crude barbarian world
 Contributed a beginning philosophical
foundation to Christianity. Primitive Christianity
was
• innocent of metaphysics
• like contemporary evangelical (emotional)
Christianity (very strong in America) whose
practitioners are
 concerned more with social progress in the everyday
world through winning God’s favor,
 than with transcendental hopes to escape terrestrial
despair.
96
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Metaphysics. Three “persons” in a Holy Trinity:
One (supreme, sometimes called God or the
Good), Spirit (nous 心智) and Soul
• the One
 cannot have predicates attributed to it: we can say only “it
is” (like Parmenides 巴门尼德)
 transcends the All, and is both nowhere and not nowhere
 has more truth about it said in silence than in words (like
Ch’an/Zen Buddhism, No Mind)
• Nous (心智)
 is “Mind”, “Intellectual Principle”: as they do for Plato &
Pythagoras (普罗塔哥拉), mathematics, and all thought
about what is not sensible, has something divine
 is in the (Christian) Gospel of St. John (最突出) identified
97
with Christ as the logos (“reason”), translated as the “word”
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Metaphysics. Three “persons” in a Holy Trinity:
One (supreme, sometimes called God or the
Good), Spirit (nous 心智) and Soul (cont.d)
• Nous 心智 (cont.d)
 is the One’s own vision of itself, the light by which the One
sees itself.
 cannot be reasoned or expressed when in contact with the
divine, only afterward
• experience of ecstasy (standing outside the body), like Buddhist
Nirvana, followed by
• moment of descent from intellection to reasoning
 is intellect operating within the gods makes them august
and beautiful and live at ease
• Soul
 when it forgets to look upwards to nous, generates all living
98
things, generates its image which is Nature and the world
of sense.
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Metaphysics. Three “persons” in a Holy Trinity:
One (supreme, sometimes called God or the
Good), Spirit (nous 心智) and Soul (cont.d)
• Soul (cont.d)
 demotes Nature from the high level it had for the Stoics
 creates the material world from memory of the divine.
• in opposition to Gnosticism 诺斯替主义 (the belief that the cosmos
and its creator are bad),
• making
 the visible world not bad, only less good than the intellectual
world
 beauty in the visible world
--contain nothing morose
--inspire with awe in the thought of the vast orderliness
sprung from the divine greatness.
99
 accompanies all matter which does not exist independently
of it.
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Metaphysics. Three “persons” in a Holy Trinity:
One (supreme, sometimes called God or the
Good), Spirit (nous) and Soul (cont.d)
• Soul (cont.d)
 is essence, which is eternal, and
• is not the form of a body as Aristotelians hold. Why? The
•
•
•
•
intellectual act would be impossible if the soul were any form of
body
is not matter as the Stoics hold. Why?
 The unity of the soul would be impossible if it is material
 Since matter is passive, it could not have created itself
is only implicitly stated in Plato’s argument that the soul is immortal
because ideas are eternal.
enters the body through appetite for elaborating order (by
producing something that can be seen by looking without) based
on what it has seen (by looking with)in the Intellectual-Principle
(nous)
100
becomes separated from other souls and chained to a body which
obscures the truth
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Metaphysics. Three “persons” in a Holy Trinity:
One (supreme, sometimes called God or the
Good), Spirit (nous) and Soul (cont.d)
• Soul (cont.d)
 in an individual
• if sinful when it leaves the body, enters another body to be
punished. It will be a victim, in the next body, of the same sin it
committed in the previous one
• grows toward eternal life, forgetting things of this world and itself as
it does in contemplative vision, becoming simultaneously separated
from and one with nous
 Objection. Gnosticism (诺斯替主义): so,creation was
• a mistake (inaccurate image of the divine) and
• prompted by something lacking in the creator?
101
Plotinus (cont.d)
 Answer (better than the Christian answer of
untrammeled exercise of God’s free will): the
nature of Mind made creation inevitable
• The soul is not always at its best, at its best
exclusively when it is content with nous and in
contemplation, and not in the act of creating.
• Act of creation should be excused on the basis that
the created world is the best that is logically possible,
reflecting in the best possible way the beauty of the
eternal world.
• Sin is a consequence of free will (versus determinism
and astrology)
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