The Hellenistic Philosophers, Volume 1: Translations of the Principal Sources, with Philosophical Commentary
A. A. Long, D. N. Sedley
Language: English
Pages: 522
ISBN: 0511808054
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Volume I presents the texts in new translations by the authors, and these are accompanied by a philosophical and historical commentary designed for use by all readers, including those with no background in the classical world. With its glossary and indexes, this volume can stand alone as an independent tool of study.
certain w a y relative to the body.' J 3 3 P 2 gives a typical use of the third genus, 'disposed': the phy sicalist analysis of a supposedly abstract entity, scientific knowledge (epistime) as 'the commandingfaculty disposed in a certain way', where the commanding-faculty of the soul is itself corporeal 'breath' (see 53). After all, mental condiuons exert a causal influence on our bodies, and the Stoics find that explicable only if the mental conditions are themselves taken to be corporeal (45C).
accounts of their essence are multiple. (3) For physics should not be studied by means of empty judgements and arbitrary fiat, but in the way that things evident require. W h a t o u r life needs is not private theorizing and empty opinion, but an untroubled existence. (4) N o w in respect of all things which have a multiplicity of explanations consistent with things evident, complete freedom from trepidation results when someone in the proper way lets stand whatever is plausibly suggested about
friendship with others of the same persuasion, can emulate even the paradigmatic bliss of the divinities we worship. Unlike Epicureanism, the Stoic system is not a linear development from first principles, but a self-supporting edifice in which no plank is unambiguously prior to any other (cf. 26). Our detailed organization of the material in 26—67 makes no special claims of authenticity. Overall it does correspond roughly to the official Stoic tripartition into logic (27— 42), physics (43-55),
3 THE EVIDENCE Epicurus and Chrysippus wrote, between them, works amounting to more than a thousand books (i.e. scrolls of papyrus). So the total literary output of Hellenistic philosophy must have run into many thousands of books. From these, ail that survive intact are three epitomes and a set of maxims by Epicurus, and a hymn by Cleanthes. We are also fortunate to possess the brilliant Epicurean poem of the Roman writer Lucretius, a number of Latin works by Cicero presenting outlines of the
n o u r endurance of pains is followed by a greater and long-iasting pleasure. Every pleasure, then, because of its natural affinity, is something g o o d , yet n o t every pleasure is c h o i c e w o r t h y . Correspondingly, every pain is something bad, but not every pain is by nature to be avoided. H o w e v e r , we have to m a k e our j u d g e m e n t on all these points by a calculation and survey of advantages and disadvantages. For at certain times w e treat the good as bad and