Chapter Three: Lamentations of Ancient Rome
The death of Aristotle, a generation of heavenly glory, suddenly took away the glory of Greek culture. Ancient Greek philosophy, which began with Thales, reached its peak in Aristotle 300 years later, and in the late Greek and Roman Empires that followed for more than 300 years, the philosophical successors were scarce and demoralized, and only a group of second- and third-rate philosophers were left to pick up the wisdom and exhaustion of the scriptures, and they could no longer create first-class philosophical masterpieces, but could only produce pale and feeble copies of Greek philosophy. Aristotle died in 322 BC, the same year that the greatest ruler of Greece, Alexander the Great, died, and the most famous orator, Demosthines, committed suicide by poisoning himself. With the departure of these great men, there was the fall of Athens. Julius Caesar seized Alexander's whip and drove a large army to conquer the west, establishing a much more powerful Roman Empire than the Greek Empire, and the center of politics, economy, military and culture was transferred from Athens to Rome (now Part of Italy).
The Romans were different from the Athenians, and although they also had ambitions to conquer the world in terms of colonization, commerce, and navigation, they paid more attention to physical and material life than to spiritual life. Compared with the aspiring Greeks, the Romans were nothing more than a bunch of crude ordinary people. It's surprising to talk about the deliciousness of the Romans: The New Testament. The Bible tells people that many of Rome's large buildings had large stone jars behind them, filled with water in case guests had overeaten, spit out food, and then returned to the house to continue drinking. Roman prostitutes roamed the streets and squares in droves, half-naked in broad daylight, teasing their favorite guests, and the government always encouraged them to increase taxes. In the huge circular arena, tens of thousands of spectators roared and watched the bloody battle of man and beast with great interest... The extravagance and indulgence of the Romans made their culture decline day by day.
Moreover, at a time of social unrest, frequent wars, slave revolts, revolts of the poor, mutinies of mercenaries, palace coups, and an emotion of dissatisfaction, fear, helplessness and despair that permeated society. Against this backdrop, thinkers lost the exuberance of the Greek heyday of daring to explore the mysteries of nature and seek objective knowledge, and instead ventured into the heart of the individual, trying to find a spiritual place to live. They are more concerned with the origin of the world and the structure of the universe, but with questions such as what is called happiness, how to achieve peace of mind. As a result, the philosophy of life and the problem of social ethics became more and more prominent, and ethics became the mainstream of the development of philosophy in this period, while the traditional ontology and epistemology were only used as means of arguing ethics. This historic turning point enabled the philosophy of late Greece and Rome to break away from the itinerary of the traditional Greek philosopher "knowing" and embark on the road of the lord's "walk". In this 600-year-long history, in addition to stirring up Greek philosophy as a cold rice, the most important contribution of philosophers is to deepen the study of ethics and clear the theoretical channel for the later convergence of Christianity and Greek thought.
The earliest late Greek philosophy to emerge was Stoicism, whose founder was Zeno of Citium (336–264 BC). When Zeno was lecturing in Athens, the hall was accessed through a colonnade of colored ornaments, and this kind of gallery was called "Stoia" by the Greeks, hence the name of the Stoic school, meaning the gallery school. Stoicism is actually a hodgepodge of philosophies of Heraclitus, Socrates, and Plato, but it particularly highlights the ethics of fatalism and asceticism, which promotes the idea of resignation and resignation, and advocates purity of heart. Zeno admonishes that the trick to peace of mind is not to make our achievements reach our desires, but rather to lower our desires so that they conform to our achievements. Seneca (4 B.C. to 65 A.D.) of the Neo-Stoic school in Rome echoed, "If you are insatiable, then even if you have the whole world, you will feel destitute." Stoicism was not only active in late Greece, but also in the Roman period, and was very popular, even the emperor of the Roman Empire at that time, Marco Polo. Aurelius and some of his ministers also joined the school, making it the official philosophy of the Roman Empire. Ethical preaching advocating abstinence and exhorting people to abandon the pursuit of earthly happiness obviously did not satisfy the minds of the late Greeks and Romans, who needed a philosophy that inspired them to face life bravely and to pursue and enjoy it freely. Thus, Epicurus's philosophy of happiness came into being.
Epicurus (341-270 BC) was a believer in Democritus, who believed that atoms have weight and are deflected in space, producing collisions and unions, thus forming things, supplementing and developing atomism. But what makes him famous is first of all his hedonistic morality. He bought a beautiful garden in Athens, set up a school there, and lived with his disciples while preaching and lecturing, and lived very leisurely. His doctrine was as easy and natural as his life, and unpretentious. In the romantic atmosphere of the garden full of flowers and butterflies, he said to his disciples with his words: Indifference is impossible, abstinence is unnecessary, happiness is the only conceivable and completely legitimate purpose of life and behavior, happy life is the highest goodness of man's nature, and we should pursue and enjoy a happy life without hesitation and freedom. However, he also warned that happiness is not necessarily the pleasure of the flesh senses, but more of a body without pain and without dispute with the soul. Therefore, he praises the pleasure of the intellect, not the pleasure of the senses. He reminded people not to let happiness stir up the soul, but to let happiness soothe and calm the soul, so that the most worthy pursuit is not happiness in the general sense, but the state of "not moving the heart" - quiet, calm, calm. Epicurus also pointed out the way to happiness: First, it is to study and study philosophy and the natural sciences, which is the most important means.
Because happiness comes from knowledge, knowledge is the premise of happiness, ignorance will only make people hurrah by the nose of fate, only knowledge can make people know the world, distinguish between right and wrong, give people the wisdom to guide their own behavior, this is obviously the resurrection of the Socratic tradition. Second, efforts must be made to overcome religious superstitions and fear of death and to shake off the shadow of fatalism and pessimism. This hedonism, because it highlights spiritual pleasure rather than sensual pleasure, cannot be equated with hedonism that encourages people to indulge in sex, and it plays a powerful critical role in the fatalism, pessimism, mysticism, and asceticism of the Stoic school. Epicurus's ideas were carried forward by the later Roman poet Lucretius (99–55 BC). Contrary to Epicurus's idyllic and contemplative demeanor, Lucretius had a passionate poetic temperament. In that famous epic and huge work "The Theory of Material nature", he willfully displayed his vigorous poetic talents, and with vivid language and rich examples, he made a comprehensive and systematic explanation and play of the philosophy of atomistic materialism, and used it to explain various natural phenomena and social life, criticize all religious beliefs and mysticism, and effectively promote the atomistic ideas of Democritus and Epicurus.
Lucretius enshrined Democritus as a "saint" and Epicurus as "the discoverer of truth." He paid special attention to the deviation of the atom when it moved downward, attributed it to the cause of the formation of everything in the world, and used this deviation movement of the atom to argue for man's free will, pointing out that man's fate is not determined by the mandate of heaven, but can be governed by his own will. Proceeding from this idea, he carried forward Epicurus's atheistic view that everything in the world was created and governed by the laws inherent in nature itself, and that the power of God could not resist the commands of nature. In this vision of thought, religion is denounced as the source of poverty, crime and depravity, the "incubator" of all evil deeds, and he calls on people to untie the religious chains that bind people's hearts. Lucretius's critique of religion is arguably the most violent and thorough in the whole of Greco-Roman philosophy.
However, the ancient tradition of god worship, as well as various mystical ideas from the East, constantly invaded the hearts and minds of the Romans, and the clamor of Stoicism and other idealistic schools made Lucretius's atheistic cry drown out and be forgotten like an ant in a thunderbolt. In the midst of a depressed downfall, Lucretius finally committed suicide, ending a short 44-year serious life. His materialist poem, The Theory of Materiality, was banned until it was first published in 1473 AD. The antagonist against Lucretius was first and foremost the famous Roman orator and statesman Cicero (106–43 BC). Cicero, with his eloquent rebuttal of the atomist and atheist views, preaches the theism of the immortality of the soul, and asks people to learn to free the soul from the body that imprisoned it, to become purer and wiser, to get out of the temporary hotel of life, to actively embrace death, and to let the soul rise above its inevitable destination. This view, which is in fact a mixture of ideas such as Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Stoicism and Skepticism, is a mystical idealistic philosophy.
Roman idealism and mysticism reached its zenith in Neoplatonism. Neoplatonism arose in Alexander, the land where Eastern and Western cultures converged. There were religious influences from Persia and Babylon, remnants of Egyptian ritual sacrifices, Jewish communities practicing their teachings, and various denominations of early Christianity that arose in Palestine, all of which mingled and melted together in the context of Hellenistic culture, providing ample ideological soil for the formation of Neoplatonism. The main exponent of Neoplatonism is Plotinus (204-270 AD). Using Plato's theory of ideas as a basis, he incorporated some of the teachings of Pythagoras, Stoics, and Aristotle, and even used certain materials from Epicurean philosophy to form a semi-religious philosophical doctrine full of mysticism, Neoplatonism. This theory regards "Taiyi" as the basis of the universe, and believes that "Taiyi" can produce everything and transcend everything, and is a simple and complete existence that is free and self-sufficient, which is also the supreme good in Plato's conception, that is, synonymous with God.
The "Taiyi" created everything in the world in its own "overflow", just as water overflowed from the container. The process of "overflow" is divided into three stages: the first is the "cosmic reason, that is, Plato's world of ideas; secondly, the flow of the "world soul" from the "cosmic reason"; and finally, the "world soul" flows out of the perceptual phenomenal world, which is the lowest and most despicable thing in the universe and the source of evil. Man's existence belongs to the lowest level of the material world, which is the existence of the soul flowing into the body, and the soul is therefore imprisoned by the body and unable to know the ultimate source of its origin- God (i.e., "Taiyi"). But since the soul comes from "Taiyi", it naturally has a primitive love and sense of belonging to "Taiyi", and is always eager to return to this eternal hometown. Therefore, only by getting rid of the shackles of the physical and sensual worlds as soon as possible, allowing the soul to enter the mysterious state of self-forgetfulness and making it one with God, can we glimpse the truth and realize the ultimate value of life.
Plotinus sees the "Oneness" and the world as a unified whole, and the "Oneness" externalizes itself into three phases of the world in fact relative to three different states of existence: the "Oneness" itself, the "Cosmic Reason" and the "World Soul", and the perceptual world is the illusory illusion of the "Oneness". These three different states of existence constitute the characteristics of the Trinity of the One itself. Thus, Plotinus's doctrine of mysticism revolves around the theory of the Trinity. This Trinity theory and the doctrine of overflow was later exploited by Christian theologians as an important theory in theological doctrine. Neoplatonism was the last school of great influence in the history of ancient Greco-Roman philosophy. The strong mystical color it exudes, the world and mankind that it preaches are about to be destroyed, lamenting man's incompetence, and expressing a pessimistic despair for everything, seems to reflect the spirit of the Roman ruling class and society at that time, and heralded the imminent collapse of the huge Roman Empire.
From Thales proposing the first philosophical proposition in Western history in the depths of the ancient well, to Plotino's Trinity Theory, ancient Western philosophy has gone through about 9 centuries. Traditional Greek philosophy is essentially an Enlightenment liberation movement, which excludes the fears caused by ignorance by describing the world as some form that rational can know, and its motivation is to hope that it can attain a good life under the guidance of knowledge, its activity is the tireless rational exploration of nature, society and life, and its ideological tools are careful and rigorous logic. Arguably, the greek spirit of reason is at odds with religion and mysticism. However, we also see that the superstitions of antiquity have not been completely eliminated, and that there has been a mystic trend within Greek philosophy that originated from Pythagoras, which is an avoidance of ideological tendencies. So naturally, when the Romans took over the glorious treasure of Greek philosophy, what they thought of was not to try to open up and create their own wealth, but to dig up what they liked in the treasure land, and what they found was not gold and jade, but some residue.
Religious belief and mysticism were the main intellectual gains of the late Greek and Roman Empires, harvested from the Exhausted Roman Spirit from indulgence. It was natural to enter the kingdom of Christian ideas from this spiritual atmosphere, and neoplatonic theory laid the ideological bridge for the transition of ancient philosophy to the theological world dominated by God. Thus, the optimistic, open-minded, vibrant Greek spirit gave way to the pessimistic, doomed, languishing Hebrew faith, and a "dark Middle Ages" that enveloped the Western world for thousands of years came naturally.