CHAPTER IX HISTORICAL SKETCH; OR, HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY § 1. Ir does not enter into the scope of this book to put philosophical problems within the framework of history. It is intended to convey to the cultured reader a general knowledge of the rudiments of Philosophy and its problems. It will, however, not be amiss to add a brief historical sketch showing the gradual development of philosophical problems from the times of the Ionian philosophers to those of the twentieth century, A.D. The sketch will necessarily be as brief as possible. Without entering into the details of the philosophical problems discussed and investigated by the numerous thinkers, it will only trace in broad lines the characteristic features peculiar to various epochs and constituting their essence. It will therefore be quite impossible even to attempt to give an account of all the important and comprehensive philosophical conceptions and systems, or to enumerate all the schools and their founders. The subject-matter is so enormous, the material so infinitely complex, that the attempt at details would miss the aim of this sketch, viz. to give the reader some idea of the existing order and unity in the bewildering mass. The history of Philosophy cannot be compared with the history of other sciences and branches of knowledge. In other branches of knowledge the field of research is fixed, and consequently no extraordinary difficulties are encountered in tracing the gradual development over a determined and limited field. The building up of knowledge upon some basis is also very obvious in all sciences. This is not the case, however, in philosophy. Here the problems are not only manifold, but also different in their kind. There is no subject. matter common to all periods, and, what is more, every new thinker seems, instead of building upon what his predecessor had achieved, to begin to solve his newly formulated problem ab ovo, as if the other systems had scarcely existed. (Cf. Windelband, p. 9.) On the other hand, the development of ideas and the formulation of beliefs and doctrines are always accomplished through the thinking of individual personalities, who, although rooted with their thought in the ideas of an historical period, always add a particular element by their own individuality. This factor is of much more importance in Philosophy than in the positive sciences. It is self-evident that in abstract problems, in the formation of a Weltanschauung, character and experience, activity in life, birth and education will play a very great part and imprint their mark upon a man's trend of thought. From all that has been said it necessarily follows that the history of Philosophy is nothing but a sum-total uniting, in chronological order, all the fundamental conceptions of great personalities and their views of the world and judgments of life; embodying a variety of single movements of thought. Nevertheless, there are not only to be traced order and unity, but also growth and development in the history of Philosophy. As thought proceeds, as humanity advances and evolves, as knowledge accumulates, ideas become richer. The problems might occur over and over again, but they are not treated in the same way. The horizon of human understanding is widened; new questions spring up, new problems are formulated, new answers given. Points of interest unknown to a preceding period are discovered by thinkers living in a later epoch. Each historical period also has a certain peculiar feature of its own, and even a superficial glance will convince the reader that the problems become more and more elaborate and consequently more complicated, as culture and civilization advance in just proportion with the mental and intellectual development of humanity. In regard to the nature of Philosophy it can be divided into the following great periods, each stamped with its own characteristic feature: 1. The Philosophy of the Greeks. 2. Hellenistic Roman Philosophy. 3. Mediæval Philosophy. 4. Modern Philosophy. § 2. Although the Greeks themselves often traced their philosophy to the wisdom of the Egyptian priests, and although it is quite certain that in various branches of science, namely, in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, Greek thought was influenced by the civilization of the Orient and especially by that of Egypt, it is nevertheless beyond doubt that the origin of Philosophy is the outcome of the Hellenic spirit and bears the impress of Hellenic speculation. Reflection upon the world and its phenomena, upon the origin and purpose of the existence of man, is as old as human thought itself. Man had speculated upon the meaning of things long before the time of the Greeks; a considerable development of knowledge took place in Egypt and Chaldea. Before Greek speculation could flourish, a considerable mass of detailed knowledge had been collected among the Babylonians and Egyptians. Those peoples of antiquity were not wanting either in abundance of information on single subjects, or in general views of the universe. The Greeks made use of that material and information afterwards. "Supported on the shoulders of Egypt and Babylon, the genius of Greece could take wing without check or restraint, and could venture on a flight that was to lead it to the highest attainable goals." Among the Oriental nations, however, information was gained in connection with practical needs, and, in consequence of the peculiar restraint of the Oriental mind, it lacked the initiative activity of individuals; among the Greeks was developed the scientific, independent, and self-conscious work of intelligence, seeking knowledge methodically for its own sake. (Cf. Windelband, p. 23.) Pythagoras, Democritus, Plato, and others had visited Egypt and Asia Minor, and had made use of the information obtained; but the scientific development of Philosophy is a peculiarity of the Greek mind. Plato points out that the characteristic " 1 1 Gomperz, "Greek Thinkers," I. 44 (translated by Laurie Magnus). trait of the Greeks is investigation, while that of the Egyptians and Phoenicians is love of gain; he speaks highly of the technical abilities of the latter, of their political institutions, but not of their philosophical doctrines. (Brandis, Ch. A., "Geschichte der Entwickelungen der griech. Philosophie," p. 13.) §3. Three periods can easily be distinguished in Greek Philosophy, showing a gradual intellectual evolution which is in accordance not only with the general state of Greek culture and civilization, but also with the natural process which the human desire for knowledge undergoes. Those periods are: (1) the cosmological, (2) the anthropological, (3) the systematic. The first attempts of Greek Philosophy were occupied with the only world which man can present clearly to himself, i.e. the world of nature. The first Greek philosophers were physicists bringing their hypotheses to bear upon the natural processes and the general course of the world's development. From questions of practical life the reflections of individuals extended themselves to the knowledge of nature. "Greek science," says Windelband, "devoted all the freshness of youthful joy and knowledge primarily to the problems of nature, and in this work stamped out fundamental conceptions, or Forms of Thought, for apprehending the external world." Thus the chief interest of Philosophy was concentrated upon physical, astronomical, and geographical questions, particularly upon the great elementary phenomena. Yet gradually, the explanation not only of concrete physical processes but also of the idea which is in the background of the intellectual formulation of these processes was attempted. The central idea on which the philosophical theories turn is the concept of change; it involves one of the most fundamental problems with which metaphysics has to deal. The fact that things of experience change into one another furnished the first motive for reflection, and the first Greek philosophers endeavoured to find formulæ for this universal mutability of things, and for the sudden change of opposites into each other. (Windelband, p. 31.) Philosophy asked for the abiding ground of all the changes, which experiences all the transformations, from which all individual things arise, and into which they become again transformed (p. 32). The question was clearly formulated: "What is the original ground of things, which outlasts all temporal change, and how does it change itself into these particular things, or change these things back into itself?" Out of the efforts to solve this question and determine the nature of the one world-ground, cosmic matter, world-stuff (Weltstoff), arose the various theories of the first Greek philosophers, like those of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, the Eleatic School, and the Pythagoreans. Various conceptions like those of Being and Becoming, cosmic matter and cognition were formed. § 4. Gradually, however, Greek thought and philosophical research turned their gaze inward and made human action their study. Nature-knowledge, which had hitherto formed the subject-matter of Philosophy, was lost sight of, and the inner activities of man, his ideation and volition, the process of man's thought and will, and the manner in which ideas and volitions arise were investigated. At the same time the question arose whether there is anything universally valid, whether there is anything true and right and good in itself, independently and beyond the individual opinions. Thus this period, which is called the anthropological, from the character of the investigations, in contradistinction to the preceding cosmological period, saw the beginnings of the psychological, logical, and ethical problems. To this period belong Socrates and the Sophists, among whom the best known were Protagoras, Hippias, and Prodicus. Socrates, who coincides with the Sophists in the anthropological direction of his investigation, maintained the existence of a universally valid truth in opposition to the Sophists, and endeavoured, through scientific insight, to gain sure principles for the ethical conduct of human life. On Socratic principles new schools were founded, the most notable being the Megarian, established by Euclid; the Cynic, by Antisthenes; and the Cyrenaic, or Hedonistic, by Aristippus. (Cf. Gomperz, I., trans. Magnus.) |