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you are here: > Self > 3.
Belief systems and ME
| 3.10 |
Philosophy 100 BCE to 400 CE: The Roman mind
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| Arguably the most powerful and influential civilization to the formulation of human society was (and is) the Roman Empire in all its transformations, from Republic, to Monarchy to Papacy (the Roman Catholic Church). | ||||||||||
| The Romans during the time of the Monarchs (Emperors) we considered master builders, warriors, as well as administrators. Yet, all of these things were only possible by the previous history of Greek philosophies and belief systems. | ||||||||||
| Plato had scoped the belief systems for a model a sustained government of "benevolent dictatorship" either as a republic, or a monarchy with representative institutions (i.e. the Senate) and State hierarchies. Aristotle had shown that the necessary knowledge for efficient trade (laws, measurements, taxes, monetary standards) could be standardized and that standards themselves could be disseminated from a central point into provinces and enforced by local judiciary, tax collectors and military. | ||||||||||
| Yet there were further philosophies that proved to be the hallmarks of the Roman mind that have survived, albeit modified, to this very day. | ||||||||||
| 3.10.1 | Stoics | |||||||||
| The Stoic belief system was created by a Syrian, Zeno of Citium (about the turn of the 3rd century BC), a failed merchant who found himself marooned in Athens with nothing much else to do but listen to the various philosophers and their lectures. Initially, Zeno was attracted to the Cynic philosopher Crates, who taught him that material possessions were of no importance whatsoever for a man's happiness. After a period he absorbed various components of what he had heard and began to teach in a public hall, the Stoa Poikile (hence the name Stoicism). | ||||||||||
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| To take into account issues such as murder, fraud and theft of possessions, the Zeno doctrine was later modified by making among the "indifferent things" distinctions between "preferable things," such as having the necessities of life and health; "completely indifferent things"; and "anti-preferable things," such as lacking the necessities of life or being ill--while insisting still that the happiness of the truly wise man could not be impaired by illness, pain, hunger, or any deprivation of external goods. | ||||||||||
| Initially, Zeno also insisted that either a man is completely wise, in which case he would never do anything wrong and would be completely happy, or he is a fool. | ||||||||||
| Later he modified his stance to consider that there are men not completely wise but progressing toward wisdom. | ||||||||||
| Though the latter might even have true insight, they are not certain that they have it, whereas the truly wise man is also certain of having true insight. The world is governed by divine Logos--a word originally meaning "word" or "speech," then (with Heracleitus) also a speech that expresses the laws of the universe, and, finally, "reason." | ||||||||||
| This Logos keeps the world in perfect order. Man can deviate from or rebel against this order, but by doing so he cannot disturb it but can only do harm to himself. | ||||||||||
| Zeno's philosophy was refined by his successor Cleanthes, and then further by Chrysippus. Chrysippus also created a new kind of logic which we now know as "propositional logic". In the mid-2nd century BC, Panaetius of Rhodes adapted Stoic philosophy to the needs of the Roman aristocracy as did the historian Poseidonius of Apamea. | ||||||||||
| During the time of decay of the republican dream of Rome Stoicism became the religion of the republican opposition. The most famous Stoic of the time was the younger Cato, who committed suicide after the victory of Julius Caesar. | ||||||||||
| It was also the guiding philosophy of Seneca the Younger, the educator and (for a period) the adviser of Nero, who tried to keep Nero on the path of virtue but failed and finally had to commit suicide on the orders of the Emperor. | ||||||||||
| 3.10.2 | Stoicism and the mind of the Roman | |||||||||
| The Stoic ideal of virtue above all other concepts represents a fundamental philosophical base to the evolution of the Roman Mind. While Plato had envisaged the "ideal republic" drawing similarities and references to the apparent model spartan world, Rome was born out of trading cities seeking a greater identity and purpose. | ||||||||||
| As with the world of modern commerce today, trade and merchants are not historically known for their moral fortitude. Nor for that matter are mercenaries (soldiers for hire), as exemplified by the sophist philosophers who espoused personal wealth building and pleasure above higher beliefs hundreds of years before Zeno. | ||||||||||
| Alexander had shown that a sizeable army and even a professional behaving could be amassed and kept focused on fighting so long as the rewards (plunder from sacked cities and towns along the way) were good enough and the penalties for disobedience were tough enough. | ||||||||||
| However, Stoicism offered a perfect model for personal behaviour and self restraint, without having to rely on tradition, or crude mechanisms such as fear. Using stoicism as a tool, a military commander could, in effect create a kind of personal moral code amongst recruits or conscripts so that, given enough time, the benefit of serving might represent a higher set of ideals than fame or fortune. | ||||||||||
| So it was that Stoicism, became a base philosophy for the state apparatus of Rome as well as the organized and disorganized opposition to monarchial rule. | ||||||||||
| 3.10.3 | Epicureans | |||||||||
| In contrast to the philosophy of Zeno, the philosophy of his contemporary Epicurus (Epicureanism) is traditionally considered in direct opposition. Whereas Zeno taught that pleasure and pain are of no importance for a man's happiness, Epicurus made pleasure the very essence of a happy life. The Stoics believed in divine providence; Epicurus taught that the gods pay no attention whatsoever to human beings, because of their superiority. | ||||||||||
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| While Epicurus made pleasure the criterion of a good life, he was far from advocating a dissolute life and debauchery; he insisted that it was the simple pleasures that made life happy. However, during the years of Monarchial rule of the Roman Empire, his philosophy was re-written by the ruling classes to be interpreted as a justification for a lack of moral, physical and social restraint. To this day, the true philosophy of Epicurus is still misconstrued by many text books as lacking moral restraint, even though his simple statement of truth that as human beings we simply strive to be "happy" is common sense. | ||||||||||
| 3.10.4 | Skeptics | |||||||||
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Another contemporary of Zeno was the philosopher Pyrrhon of Elis, known more from the tremendous work of one of the followers of his philosophy named Sextus Empiricus (2nd-3rd century AD), whose work Pros dogmatikous ("Against the Dogmatists"), sought to refute many of the great philosophers of Greece by quoting extensively from their works, hence preserving knowledge of other philosophies that would otherwise have been lost. |
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Pyrrhon essentially espoused that no human can know anything for certain, nor be certain that their senses are not illusionary. Ultimately the only method to be sure of something's existence is ultimately to perceive and sense the experience personally. hence the modern notion of a skeptic as one who is yet to be convinced that a concept is true, or is yet to sense and perceive the result for himself/herself personally. |
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