The Eclectic School

Article 4. The Eclectic School

a) Name; b) Doctrine; c) Notable Eclectics; d) Remarks.

a) Na me: Eclecticism takes its name from the Greek word, “ek-legein” which means “to pick out,” “to choose out.” The Eclectics are those philosophers who professedly hold that true science is contained in no one system, but is scattered through the doctrines of all schools and philosophers. Truth is found by sifting out its elements from various and even opposed philosophical systems. Practically all the philosophy of this time was eclectic in a measure. The Eclectic “School” is a convenient invention of the historian for the ready grouping of those philosophers of all Schools who were of pronounced or professed eclectic views. Most of those we are to name hereafter as Eclectics will be recalled as members of one or other of the Schools already discussed.

b) Doct r ine: Certitude cannot be attained by reasoning upon the data of experience (speculation). Immediate and uncriticized knowledge, i. e., such knowledge as squares with everyday experience and meets the practical requirements of life, is the only truth. The tests of such truth is the direct experience of the individual and an inner voice which attests the truth or falsity of that which presents itself to thought or sense perception. The body of philosophical truth is organized by drawing into some sort of harmony and unity the various elements of truth which are sifted out by the “test” from the doctrines of all philosophers.

c) Notable Ecl ect ics were Philo of Larissa, the Acade-mian (1 century b. c.) ; Antiochus of Ascalon (1 century B. c.) ; Plutarch of Chæronea (1 century after Christ), the author of the famous Lives; Apuleius of Madaura in Africa (2 century after Christ) ; Numenius of Apamea in Syria (2 century after Christ) ; Celsus (2 century after Christ), against whose anti-Christian teachings Origen wrote eight books; Galen (2 century after Christ), the famous physician and philosopher of the Peripatetic School. Cicero (1 century b. c.) was one of the greatest Eclectics. His doctrine will be discussed in the Chapter on Roman philosophy. Other Eclectics—called Neo-Pythagorean because they revived in their system certain parts of the Pythagorean doctrine —flourished in the Roman Empire during the first two centuries after Christ. Among these were, Nigidius Figulus, Quintus Sextius, Apollonius of Tyana, Moderatus of Gades, Nicho-machus of Gerasa, Secundus the Athenian.

d) Remar ks: Eclecticism is only a phase of Skepticism. It may be regarded also as a well-meant but futile attempt to save philosophy from the utter destruction to which absolute Skepticism doomed it. It postulates a purely gratuitous test of truth; it is illogical throughout; it is wholly unstable, and a thinking mind could not hold long by its doctrines without lapsing into utter Skepticism or adhering to some positive theory of truth and certainty as possible. The systems of philosophy discussed in this Chapter have much in common. They are all skeptical; they are all more or less eclectic ; they all propose the question of happiness and the object in which it is to be sought, and all solve the question in pretty much the same fashion. Their solution of the ethical question is, in every instance, a surrender—a surrender to the conviction that certainty is not attainable, and sometimes a surrender to the allurements of moral sensualism. The result of such a surrender was inevitably a loss of the spirit of systematic study and a weakening of scientific method. Naturally, the exact or mathematical sciences broke from philosophy in this circumstance. During the weary period of surrender, decline, and decay in Greek philosophy, the mathematicians and astronomers went busily on with their work, es-pecially in the Greek colonies on the Mediterranean islands and in Egypt. In Sicily, during the 3 century b. c., Hicetas and Archimedes taught a system of astronomy far superior to that of Plato and Aristotle. About the same time Aristarchus of Samos advanced the theory that the earth moves about the sun—a doctrine branded as impious by the Stoics, and later rejected by Ptolemy (2 century after Christ). In Alexandria there developed under the influence of the Ptolemies a new phase of philosophic thought which belongs to the Greco-Oriental philosophy of which we have yet to speak. Side by side with this new philosophy grew up a science, of which Euclid (3 century b. c.) is the chief representative and exponent. Euclid wrote “The Elements of Geometry” and other treatises of a mathematical nature. Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), who lived about the middle of the 2 century after Christ, belonged to the Alexandrian School, and his writings on astronomy were authoritative until the time of Copernicus (15 century).

GRECO-ROMAN PHILOSOPHY (i century b. c. to 2 century after Christ) This Chapter discusses the philosophy which the Romans adopted or adapted from the Greek systems. Although Italy and Sicily had been the home of celebrated Greek philosophers as early as the 6 century b. c., when Pythagoras settled at Crotona, the Romans had developed no philosophy of their own. And it was not until the 2 century b. c. that Greek philosophy achieved notable influence in Rome. Even then Rome did not accept the foreign intrusion without protest, for in 161 b. c. the Senate decreed that no philosopher or rhetorician should reside in Rome. The conquest of Greece, and the military expeditions of Cæsar, Pompey, Antony, and Augustus widened the Roman contacts and made the people of the Capital more susceptible to the beauty and value of even foreign things. Then came the inflow of Greek learning and the establishment in the Eternal City of teachers of Greek philosophy. The Romans were of practical mind. Statecraft and conquest and all the activity of the building of a great empire they could understand and appreciate. Even after they accepted philosophy, they asked of it no deep speculation, but practical rules of action. Thus such philosophical systems as developed among the Romans are largely ethical. It is, however, only fair to the Romans to notice that when Greek philosophy came to be an influence among them, it was already in its decline, and was engaged chiefly with questions of Ethics. Some Roman Philosophers were mentioned in connection 116