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The Hellenistic World and Plato’s Successors

Jeffrey L. Richey, Ph.D.

GSTR 220-BWestern Traditions I

Berea College

Fall 2003

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THE HELLENISTIC WORLD• By late 400s BCE, increasing

conflict between Greek poleis opens way for ascendance of Macedonia, northern “barbarian” state

• Philip II, king of Macedonia, defeats Athens in 338 BCE

• Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE), Philip II’s son, conquers remainder of Greece as well as Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Persia, and India by 326 BCE

• After his death, his generals divide his empire among themselves

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CONSEQUENCES OF ALEXANDER’S CONQUESTS

• Revival of monarchy as Greek form of government

• Creation of truly global society

• Diffusion of Greek art, architecture, language, and philosophy throughout eastern Mediterranean and western Asia

• Establishment of Greek (Hellenic) culture as primary point of access to power and status in ancient Western world

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HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE IN AFRICA AND ASIA

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PLATO’S SUCCESSORS (I):ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)

• Native of Macedonia• Student of Plato for 20 years

(from ages 17 to 37)• Tutor to teenaged Alexander

the Great• Established his own

philosophical school in Athens, the Lyceum, in competition with Plato’s Academy

• Expelled from Athens in later years due to anti-Macedonian sentiment and died in exile

• Rivals Plato for influence on later Western thought

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THE ARISTOTELIAN PERSON

• Unlike Plato, Aristotle rejects abstract ideals as guides for life

• Goal of life: happiness• Path to happiness: based on virtue

(arête) – inborn characteristics of human excellence that can be developed through education

• Happiness can be achieved by keeping one’s virtues in balance – e.g., a deficit of courage leads to cowardice, while an excess leads to foolhardiness

• Doctrine of the Mean: “Moderation in all things”

• Structure of human nature:1. Irrational element (“vegetative,”

producing nutritive virtue or physical growth – shared with animals)

2. Rational-irrational element (“appetitive,” producing emotions and desires or moral virtue – shared with animals)

3. Rational element (“calculative,” producing contemplation and logical reasoning or intellectual virtue – unique to humans)

• Friendship is essential for cultivation of moral and intellectual virtues

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PLATO’S SUCCESSORS (II):PLOTINUS (204-270 CE)

• Born in Greek-speaking Egypt• Studied in Alexandria, center of

Hellenistic learning• After unsuccessful attempt to

visit Persia and study philosophy there, established himself as philosophical teacher in Rome

• Became foremost advocate of Plato’s thought in ancient world

• His interpretation forms the basis of revived Platonism known as “neo-Platonism”

• Enormously influential on early Christian thought

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THE NEO-PLATONIC UNIVERSE

• Three sources of cosmos:1. The One – unknowable through

ordinary reason, completely self-sufficient, totally transcendent, source of all things

2. The Intelligence – that which is able to contemplate the One, and in so doing, comes to be (“to think and to be are one and the same”), giving rise to the Soul

3. The Soul – both embodied (in physical form) and disembodied (in communion with the Intelligence and the One)

• Humans, as Souls in bodies, come into contact with crude matter and forget their origins in Intelligence and the One

• Love (eros) is the Soul’s desire to return to the One

• Threefold process of return:1. Cultivation of virtue (reminding the

Soul of the One’s divine beauty)2. Practice of dialectic (philosophical

inquiry that reveals the Soul’s true nature)

3. Contemplation of the One (the union of the Soul and the Intelligence)

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