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Ancient Philosophy I FIRST EDITION The Liberating Art of Philosophy A Foundational Anthology Written and edited by Ross Reed Missouri University of Science and Technology SAN DIEGO Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Angela Schultz, Senior Field Acquisitions Editor Alisa Munoz, Project Editor Alia Bales, Production Editor Jess Estrella, Senior Graphic Designer Greg Isales, Licensing Associate Natalie Piccotti, Director of Marketing Kassie Graves, Vice President of Editorial Jamie Giganti, Director of Academic Publishing Copyright © 2021 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of reproduction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are used only for identification and explanation without intentto infringe. Cover image copyright © 2019 iStockphoto LP/francescoch. Printed in the United States of America. 3970 Sorrento Valley Blvd., Ste. 500, San Diego, CA 92121 To Brian Glenn Ressler (1961–2018): A friend to all. To John Ellsworth Winter (1926–2019): A mentor to many. Both patient, humble, and reflective leaders of women and men. Thank you. Contents Introduction ix Unit I: Ancient Philosophy 1 Chapter 1. Ancient Philosophy I: What Goes Around Comes Around 3 1.1 Selections from Symposium 4 By Plato 1.2 Selections from Euthyphro 6 By Plato 1.3 Selections from Phaedo 8 By Plato Chapter 2. Ancient Philosophy II: What’s with These Guys? 11 2.1 Book II (Virtue of Character) from Nicomachean Ethics 14 By Aristotle Chapter 3. Ancient Philosophy III: Epicureanism 27 3.1 Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines 29 By Epicurus Chapter 4. Ancient Philosophy IV: Stoicism 35 4.1 Selections from Enchiridion 37 By Epictetus Unit II: Medieval Philosophy 45 Chapter 5. Medieval Philosophy: More Fun than You Can Imagine 47 5.1 Selections from Proslogion, from The Devotions of St. Anselm 49 By Anselm v Chapter 6. Medieval Philosophy II 55 6.1 Selections from Scivias 57 By Hildegard of Bingen Chapter 7. Medieval Philosophy III: Even More Fun (Shocking but True) 67 7.1 “The Existence of God,” from Summa Theologiae 69 By Thomas Aquinas Unit III: Modern Philosophy 77 Chapter 8. Modern Philosophy (It’s Not What You Think) 79 8.1 “Meditations 1–3,” from Meditations on First Philosophy 82 By René Descartes Chapter 9. Modern Philosophy II 105 9.1 Selections from Leviathan 108 By Thomas Hobbes Chapter 10. Modern Philosophy III 121 10.1 “The Effect Which an Early Association of Ideas Has Upon the Character,” from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 123 By Mary Wollstonecraft Chapter 11. Modern Philosophy IV 131 11.1 Selections from A Treatise of Human Nature 134 By David Hume Unit IV: 19th Century Philosophy 143 Chapter 12. Nineteenth-Century Philosophy I 145 12.1 Selections from On Liberty 148 By John Stuart Mill Chapter 13. Nineteenth-Century Philosophy II 161 13.1 “The Concept of Anxiety,” from Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin 166 By Søren Kierkegaard vi P The Liberating Art of Philosophy Chapter 14. Nineteenth-Century Philosophy III 171 14.1 “Estranged Labor,” from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 178 By Karl Marx Chapter 15. Nineteenth-Century Philosophy IV 191 15.1 Preface from On the Genealogy of Morals 195 By Friedrich Nietzsche Unit V: Contemporary Philosophy 203 Chapter 16. Twentieth-Century Philosophy I 205 16.1 “Bad Faith,” from Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology 212 By Jean-Paul Sartre Chapter 17. Twenty-First-Century Philosophy I 229 17.1 “Depression, Anxiety, Powerlessness and Irrational Belief in Unlimited Individual Possibility as a Consequence of Ubiquitous Systemic Terror,” from the International Journal of Philosophical Practice, vol. 4, no. 4 233 By Ross Channing Reed Unit VI: Eastern Philosophy 249 Chapter 18. Chinese Philosophy: Taoism (Or Daoism) 251 18.1 Sections 1–22, from The Tâo Teh King (Daodejing) 254 By Lao Tzu Chapter 19. Asian Philosophy: Buddhism 263 19.1 Selections from The Dhammapada: A Collection of Verses: Being One of the Canonical Books of the Buddhists 266 By Friedrich Max Müller Chapter 20. Philosophy Of The Ancient Near East: The Epic of Gilgamesh 279 20.1 Tablet I from The Epic of Gilgamesh 282 By William Muss-Arnolt Bibliography 289 Contents P vii Introduction If You Think Thinking Is Bad, Try Not Thinking and See Where It Gets You ince i haven’t the faintest notion of how to begin an introduction to an introduction, S I’m just going to dive right in. For starters, philosophy, as a discipline—that is to say, the art of thinking about all aspects of living and dying on planet earth, and then thinking about that thinking—is nearly 3,000 years old, and it’s been practiced all over the world, so, as you might well imagine, there’s an almost unlimited number of texts out there for reading, rumi- nation, study, digestion—thousands of which could be life changing. This means that what you are going to read in this book is a very small segment of what you could be reading. My intention, of course, in choosing these few texts is to pique your curiosity so that you won’t be able to help yourself, and you’ll simply have to read more. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll guide and direct you so that you can find more. Reading philosophy could even become a bad habit, but a bad habit you can be proud to share with others. Really, what could be better? If you already know the answers, there’s no point in doing philosophy. Philosophy is expressly reserved for those who, admittedly, don’t know all the answers. You might think, then, that it’s for everyone. I think you would be right. But, like anything else, you can’t make someone think independently. The whole notion is so oxymoronic it’s laughable. It’s like forc- ing someone to get into shape, or go on a diet, or get therapy. Recalcitrance will be rewarded with absolutely no progress whatsoever. So, you could read the texts in this book, but think- ing about them and applying them to your life? That’s on you. Face it, no matter what he or she tells you, every philosopher is out to change the world. But they can’t do it without your help. Once you catch the feeling of what goes on when you philosophize, even for a glimpse, a shudder, a flash, you’ll be all in, for there’s nothing more exhilarating than the experience of an expanding mind. I could write all day about why you should get on the love train, but it wouldn’t necessarily be anything more than the sound of verbiage in the night, a tree fall- ing in an empty forest. What matters is getting engaged in the process for yourself, taking the ix journey meant only for you that only you can take to places you haven’t yet dreamed about and never knew existed. It makes no sense at all. Until it does, that is. It’s like trying to tell a stranger ’bout rock n’ roll.1 The contents of this volume include some of the most important writings you could ever read—especially if you’re just starting out. The major issues and topics in the history of phi- losophy will be front and center, so you won’t have to wander off into the tall grass, weeds, and dark forest—unless you want to. You’ll notice that almost every chapter has links to readings that are in the public domain—which means that you can follow the links to another location where you can read the source for free. Readings that are contained in this book, for the most part, are excerpts of longer works that are not yet in the public domain. We’ll be using a combination of both of these types of readings. What will we cover? As you can see from the table of contents, we are going to do a whirl- wind tour of Western philosophy from Socrates and Plato in the fourth and fifth centuries BCE up through the modern era and then go back and look at some Asian and Ancient Near Eastern philosophies from China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq: Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Vasubandhu, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. When you engage in the process of philosophy, you are exhibiting active concern for your- self, your fellow travelers, and the planet. What better way to spend your time? My intention is not for you, as a reader, to merely read the thoughts of the philosophers. My intention is for you to philosophize for yourself, to actually do philosophy so that you may, through the pro- cess, come to ever increasing comprehension of yourself and the world around you. Thank you for your time, your thoughtfulness, and your tenacity. 1 The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Do You Believe in Magic?” This song was written by John Sebastian, produced by Erik Jacobsen, and released on the Kama Sutra label in 1965. x P The Liberating Art of Philosophy TIMELINE 3000 600 500 400 300 200 100 1/1(C.E.) 100 200 300 400 500 600 The Epic of Gilgamesh Epictetus (C.A.
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