A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy

by Herbert Ernest Cushman

MAP OF ATHENS, SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE FOUR SCHOOLS
(The Academy was three quarters of a mile from the city, the Lyceum just outside the city, while the Porch was a colonnade on the market place (Agora). The location of the Gardens is not precisely known, but it was on the road to the Academy, just inside the walls.)

We have already given the names of the four Schools: the Stoic or the Porch, the Epicurean or the Gardens, the Aristotelian (Peripatetic) or the Lyceum, the Platonic or the Academy. The Stoic and Epicurean are called the New Schools in contrast with the Lyceum and the Academy, which are called the Old Schools. The New Schools were of Asiatic rather than Greek origin,and the Old Schools departed very much from the teaching of their founders; so that we find a very different kind of philosophy taught in all four Schools from that taught by the great Greek Systematizers. All the Schools were Sophistic rather than Socratic, and may be characterized as the revival of Greek Sophistry. Besides these Schools there was the group of Skeptics, which cannot be properly called a School, for from the nature of its doctrine it could not form an organization. In influence upon the period, the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics are the most important. They eclipsed the Academy and Lyceum because with partisan clearness they could formulate the attitude of the age. The Stoic School made the mostimportant contribution to succeeding history. The Epicurean School had the most numerous following. Although the four Schools were not endowed until the Empire, their life was most vigorous before the Empire during the Ethical Period. Succession in leadership of the Schools cannot be completely traced—even that of the Academy shows great gaps. All record of leadership in the Aristotelian, Stoic, and Epicurean Schools stops at the close of this period.

The Old Schools—The Academy and the Lyceum. The Academy and Lyceum have a history which in these respects is the same: (1) both abandoned the ideal of an ethical society and turned to that of individual happiness; (2) both deviated to Skepticism; (3) both afterward had a reaction from Skepticism; (4) both developed the Sophistic teaching rather than that of their founders; (5) both were in common opposition to the New Schools.

1. The Academy. There were three Academies after Plato—called three, because of the difference in their doctrines. Perhaps it is better to say that there were three successive epochs of the Academy.

(a) The Older Academy, lasting about seventy years, from 347 B. C. to 280 B. C. The successive leaders of this were Speusippus, the nephew of Plato (d. 339 B. C.), Heracleides of Pontus, Xenocrates (d. 314 B. C.), Polemo, and Crates. This Academy emphasized at first the tendency begun by Plato in the Laws toward the Pythagorean numbers, and later yielded to the contemporary interest in morals.

(b) The Middle Academy, lasting about one hundred and fifty years, from 280 B. C. to 129 B. C. Of this epoch Arcesilaus and Carneades were the mostprominent leaders. This Academy was a form of Skepticism.

(c) The New Academy, lasting three hundred years from 120 B. C. to 200 A. D. Among its leaders were Philo of Larissa, who was at Rome in 87 B. C., and Antiochus of Ascalon, who had Cicero as a pupil in Athens in 79 and 78 B. C. This epoch of the Academy represented a return to the dogmatism of Plato, but it shows the contemporary eclectic tendency by its including elements of Stoic and neo-Platonic teachings.

On the whole, the several epochs of the Academy failed to represent Plato’s theory of the Ideas. The Academy was at first a School of practical ethics, then a Skepticism, then an eclecticism. It was related to Plato as the lesser-Socratic schools were to Socrates. The true developer of Plato was Aristotle and not the Academies.

2. The Lyceum. From the death of Aristotle to 200 A. D. the Lyceum was represented by individuals. The pupils of Aristotle were distinguished from the master himself in being scientific specialists. Theophrastus (370–287 B. C.), who followed Aristotle as leader of the Lyceum, was the most complete representative of Aristotle, and an attempt to drive out the Schools in Athens in 306 B. C. failed solely by reason of the respect in which he was held. His significance lay in natural science, and his two preserved botanical works are of great importance. Eudemus of Rhodes studied history, mathematics, and astronomy. Aristoxenes studied music, ethics, psychology, and history. Dicæarchus showed the first yielding to the contemporary ethical interest by writing history on its practicalside. Science was continued by the Aristotelians in Sicily, Alexandria, and the Mediterranean islands. At Athens the School was most interested in logic, dialectics, and eristics.

The history of the Lyceum was similar to that of the Academy. At first it was centred in Theophrastus, the brilliant disciple of the founder,—an administrator who knew how to give an eminent position to the Lyceum in the intellectual life of Athens. This was followed by the naturalism and pantheism of Strato. The following generations of scholarchs were absorbed in empirical investigations. Then, as in the Academy, came the reaction back to the original purpose of the founder of the Lyceum. This occurred under Andronicus (about 70 B. C.), the eleventh head of the School, and under him the original teachings of Aristotle were reproduced and defended. This went on for several centuries, until the School was merged in neo-Platonism.