STOICS, EPICUREANS AND SCEPTICS This study gives a comprehensive and readable account of the principal doctrines of the Stoics, Epicureans and various sceptical traditions from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to about AD 200. The discussion is arranged according to topics, rather than schools, in order to bring out the underlying issues and make clear what the schools have in common and how they differ. At the same time, the coherence of each system as a whole is emphasised. The Hellenistic philosophers and schools of philosophy have emerged from the shadow of Plato and Aristotle and are increasingly studied for their intrinsic philosophical value. Yet not only are they interesting in their own right, but they also form the intellectual background of the late Roman Republic and the early Empire. A thorough understanding of them is therefore essential for the appreciation of Latin thought and literature. Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics provides an introduction to the subject for all who are interested in understanding the significance of this period of ancient thought. R.W.Sharples holds a personal Chair in Classics at University College London. He has published widely in Classical Studies and Philosophy. STOICS, EPICUREANS AND SCEPTICS An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy R.W.Sharples London and New York First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing company © 1996 R.W.Sharples All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Sharples, R.W. Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics/R.W.Sharples. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Ancient. 2. Stoics. 3. Epicurus. 4. Skeptics (Greek philosophy) I. Title. B505.S52 1996 180–dc20 95–26248 CIP ISBN 0-203-41075-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-71899-2 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-11034-3 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-11035-1 (pbk) He who knows the limits of life knows that what removes pain due to want and renders the whole of life complete is easily obtained; so that there is no need of deeds which involve competition. Epicurus, Principal Doctrines 21 Empty is the word of that philosopher by whom no affliction of men is cured. For as there is no benefit in medicine if it does not treat the diseases of the body, so with philosophy, if it does not drive out the affliction of the soul. Epicurus fr. 54 Bailey=LS 25C Just don’t go on discussing what sort of person a good person ought to be; be one. Marcus Aurelius, 10.16 CONTENTS Preface ix List of abbreviations xiii 1 HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY: AIMS, CONTEXT, PERSONALITIES, SOURCES 1 2 HOW DO WE KNOW ANYTHING? 11 3 WHAT IS REALITY? 33 4 WHAT ARE WE? 59 5 HOW CAN I BE HAPPY? 82 6 WHAT ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE? 116 7 EPILOGUE 128 Notes 134 Suggestions for further reading 146 Index 149 vii PREFACE There are already general books on Hellenistic philosophy of several different types. This one has the following aims: to introduce the subject in a way which requires no previous knowledge either of the ancient world or of contemporary philosophy, but which will be of interest to students who already have knowledge of either or both of these; and to bring out the interest of this period of philosophical thought not only in the historical context of the ancient culture which it influenced, but also for us now. The present time is one in which the proper questioning of unthinking ethical dogmas, and the practical self-refutation of more than one ‘-ism’ peddled as a universal solution for all problems, may have led to a more sincere search for ethical signposts. Ancient philosophies may have something to teach us here, not indeed by way of precept but by way of illuminating—and sometimes cau-tionary—examples. It is in this spirit that the present introduction to Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics is offered; its arrangement, by topics rather than by schools, reflects this purpose. Whether we like it or not, students of classical antiquity will bring, and always have brought, their own preoccupations and concerns along with them to their involvement with the past—consciously or uncon-sciously; it is better to recognise this as inevitable than to seek to deny it. This book has grown out of two decades of teaching Hellenistic philosophy to Classics undergraduates in the University of London. In the structure of the London Classics degree as I first encountered it, ‘post-Aristotelian philosophy’ as it was then called (extending even then to Plotinus, rather than just to Marcus Aurelius as in some universities, but leaving the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries AD as terra incognita into which Classics students did not venture) was the ancient philosophy option for Latin specialists, as Greek ix PREFACE philosophy up to and including Aristotle was for Greek specialists. Hellenistic philosophy does indeed provide an important part of the background to Roman literature, and students of that literature who want to know more about the philosophies Roman authors studied and alluded to will form an important part of the readership of this book. But not only Roman authors. Colleagues twenty years ago could still remember a time when the subject had been examined by a paper including a series of quotations from English literature in which candidates were asked to identify Stoic or Epicurean tendencies. It had become fashionable to ridicule such exercises; those who did so were happily unaware that familiarity with English literature of past centuries was something they were lucky to be able to take for granted, and the belittled exercise recognised that Stoic, Epicurean and indeed Sceptic ideas have come to form an important part of our own cultural background—often misunderstood or altered, but then which thoughts of earlier generations are immune to that? The hostile reaction can however only be understood in terms of the history in the twentieth century of study of this period of philosophy, of which more in Chapter One. In accordance with the aims and intended readership of this book, annotation has been kept to a minimum. The ‘Suggestions for further reading’ are precisely that—they make no claim to constitute even a selective bibliography; but the items listed there in turn contain bibliographies which will help readers to pursue their studies further. One note of warning is perhaps in order here. This book is an attempt to interpret philosophical positions, rather than simply reporting their proponents’ own words (in so far as that is possible anyway, given the state of our sources); as with any such attempt, this involves a (necessarily one-sided) debate with the ancient thinkers, bringing out the apparent implications of their actual statements and endorsing or objecting to them. The reader should thus not take everything in this book as a straightforward recording, or even an attempted reconstruction, of the Stoics’, or the Epicureans’, or the Sceptics’ very own words. Citation of specific evidence will clarify this distinction to some extent, but neither space nor the character of the book allow full documentation and discussion of the extent to which every interpretative claim rests either on evidence or on informed specu-lation. Those who wish to x PREFACE pursue these issues further—and it is hoped that many readers will— are urged to refer to the original sources themselves. This book is not intended as a source-book of translations from the original texts; that would be superfluous given the ease with which much of the evidence can now be consulted in Long and Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (see List of Abbreviations), and I have accompanied citations of original works by references to Long and Sedley’s collection wherever appropriate. I have, however, included a considerable number of translations of original texts, with the intention not so much of presenting the whole range of evidence as of giving some idea of the flavour of the original writings. To attempt to reproduce in English the grandeur of Lucretius or the pointed rhetoric of Seneca would be a tall order indeed; and the translations here are ‘philosophers’ translations’, giving priority to accurate rendering of the arguments rather than to literary graces. Even so, the presence of ancient voices in however barbarised a form may make the book more readable than it would otherwise be. I have endeav-oured where possible, both in the translations and in my own discussions, to use gender-inclusive language, I hope not too jar-ringly; the presuppositions of the societies which provided the context for the theories discussed in this book sometimes make this difficult, but it seems not inappropriate given that one of the themes of this book is the timeless and hence contemporary relevance of Hellenistic ethical thought. Moreover, both the Stoics and the Epicureans held that both women and men could be philosophers; see note 12 to Chapter Two and notes 4 and 9 to Chapter Six. All translations in this book are my own. That of Gellius 7.2.7-11 in Chapter Four is reproduced with permission from p.