The New Schools—The Epicureans and the Stoics. The Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics represent the dogmatic side of this period more truly than the Platonists and Aristotelians, for they give a radical expression to its social aspects. The Epicureans had less philosophical originality; but their doctrine had been born mature in their founder, and had in consequence a unity and compactness. Stoicism, on the other hand, was an eclecticism composed of the successive philosophizings of its champions through many centuries. Stoicism was represented by many independent and notable thinkers, while Epicureanism had only one original thinker,—its founder, Epicurus. Stoicism developed by changing its essentials, while Epicureanismcould change only in its unessentials. Stoicism may be said to have been the characteristic philosophy of this period, from the fact that it was created and developed in Athens on the principles of Attic philosophy by men who had originated in the mixed races of the East, and by the fact that it was easily accepted and developed by the Romans. Consistent with the spirit of the Hellenic-Roman Period, it was by nature an eclecticism that became more eclectic; and as time went on its teaching approached that of the Academy and Lyceum (second century B. C.). Epicureanism, however, always remained Epicureanism. Both Stoicism and Epicureanism were centred at Athens. Epicurus opened his School in the Gardens in 307 B. C., and Zeno began his lectures in the Porch in 294 B. C. Both schools were introduced into Rome in the middle of the second century B. C., or just before the end of the Ethical Period.
Epicureanism in Rome could easily be perverted into an excuse for the luxurious tendencies of the time, and since it advocated absolute government it voiced the feeling of the new Empire—of the Emperor and the people. As a philosophy it was opportune and popular and at the same time easily misunderstood. It made no demands upon its disciples. On the other hand, Stoicism was a discipline and demanded intellectual acumen. Its insensibility to art and culture was an insuperable obstacle to its progress in Greece, but on this account it found congenial soil in Roman society. It made rapid progress among the noble families, and was especially identified with those patrician reactionaries who stood for the old régime of the Republic.
We are not surprised to find that the Stoics andEpicureans were violently opposed to each other. They were the New Schools and contesting the same ground for favor. They had the same aim and, with so much in common, their differences were naturally accentuated. In an age which Adam Smith has likened to the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, they sought as rivals to offer as an ideal the individual independent of his surroundings. The Stoic presented one means of attaining this ideal and the Epicurean another. Both tried to substitute a philosophic creed for the old religion. And the crowds that still went to the Academy and Lyceum, and were taught the old dogmatism, must have looked askance at these new dogmatic Schools. Those crowds had become second-rate men. The New Schools had at first fewer numbers, but deeper thinkers. The Greek pupils in the New Schools listened to foreigners teaching strange creeds in strange tongues. But these new rivals made their way. Not only at Athens, but at Corinth, Elis, Colophon, and Heraclea in Pontus the elegant Platonic style was being superseded by the crude aphorisms of Epicurus and the clumsy arguments of Zeno.
It will be asked, How far did these doctrines during these eight hundred years permeate the people? Did the New Schools reach the rank and file of the people to the same degree that the Sophistic teachings reached the Greeks? Are we to suppose that Stoicism and Epicureanism were common and popular philosophies? By no means. These philosophies reached the people of the Roman world no farther than Greek culture permeated Roman society. Stoicism was consciously taken up by the large patrician class. The patricians were the cultivated Romans; and Stoicism has so much in it like the Roman gravitas that it formulated for the patricianstheir attitude in this hopeless time. Epicureanism, on the other hand, in its pure form as Epicurus taught it, or later as Lucretius poetically expressed it, could find less favor in Rome. But Epicureanism was easily perverted, and no doubt the educated voluptuaries of Rome would find in the vitiated doctrine a support and excuse for their excesses.
A Summary of the Agreements and Differences of the Stoics and Epicureans.
Their Agreements.
1. Both subordinated theory to practice.
2. Both had the same purpose in their practical philosophy:
(a) to gain peace of mind for the individual,
(b) to gain independence of the world for the individual.