Ambiguity of the Doctrine that Contemplation is Higher than Action—Sense in which it is True—Religion as a Consciousness which is beyond the Distinction of Theory and Practice—Possibility of attributing this View to Aristotle—His Idea of the Life of God—Its Contrast with the Life of the World—How Aristotle connects them—The Unmoved Mover—God as the Object of Love to the World—Difficulty of attributing to God a Transeunt Activity—The Metaphor of the Army and its General—The Dilemma of Aristotle—The Simplicity of the Divine Thought—That it includes all the Forms of Things—Difficulty of conceiving them as realised in Matter—The Identity and Difference of Thought and its Object—Conflict of Idealism and Dualism in Aristotle—“The Earnest Expectation of the Creature”—Final Ambiguity of Aristotle's Thought
Efforts of Plato and Aristotle after System—Their Failure to attain Unity—New Effort to attain Unity by Abstraction—The Opposite Dogmatisms of the Stoics and Epicureans and the Sceptic Inference—The Formal Inferiority of their Philosophies—Advance in the Content of their Thought—Their Concentration on the Practical Problem—Their Relation to the Minor Socratics—Their Individualism and Renunciation of Social Ethics—Their Religious Significance—Modern Character of their Problems
Relations of Stoicism to the Cynic Philosophy—Antisthenes and his Relation to Socrates—His Individualism—His Doctrine of Judgment—The Criticisms of Antisthenes by Plato and Aristotle—His Doctrine of Formal Freedom—His Conception of Nature—Negative Attitude of the Cynics towards Society and the State—Their Self-contradiction—Ambiguities of their Doctrine—Relation of Stoicism to the Megarian Philosophy—The Abstract Universalism of the Megarians—The Megarian Philosophy the Opposite Counterpart of Cynicism—Zeno's Synthesis of these two Philosophies—The Unity of the Individual and the Universal in Stoicism—Its Religious Character
The Stoic Monism—Its Dogmatic Suppression of Difference—Its Doctrine of the Identity of Matter and Mind—Its Inability to explain their Relative Opposition—The Stoics not Materialists—Comparison of their Doctrine with that of Spinoza—Their Relation to Heraclitus—Materialistic and Idealistic Aspects of Stoicism—The Unity of the World and the Unity of the Self—The Conatus in suo esse perseverandi—How it separates itself from the Particular Desires and their Objects—The Actual and Potential in Man not distinguished by the Stoics
Stoic Doctrine of the Unity of the Self—Will and Reason not Separated—Advance upon the Aristotelian View—Reason present in Sense and Passion—Relation of the Animal to the Rational Life—Defect of Hume's Doctrine as to Reason and Passion—In what Sense Man can be Irrational—Stoic Rejection of the Idea of Unconscious Reason—Two Kinds of Knowledge necessary for Morality, Universal and Particular—Knowledge of the Universal Innate, but requiring to be made Explicit by Reflexion—Distinction of Science and Opinion—The Stoic in Cicero's Treatise De Finibus—The Prima Naturae—The κατρθωμα—Morality based on Self-consistency or on Consistency with Nature—Cleanthes and Chrysippus—Comparison with the Kantian Formulae for the Moral Law—The Abstractness of the Stoic Conception of Good—Their Optimism in general and Pessimism in particular—Marcus Aurelius
The Minor of the Practical Syllogism—How it is determined by the Stoics—ϕαντασία καταληπτική as the Criterion of Truth—Academic and other Objections to their Theory of Knowledge—The Knowledge of the Value of Things as Practical Ends the only Thing Important—Their Dissection of Things in order to show their Worthlessness—The Things in our Power and the Things not in our Power—The Good Will the only Unconditional Good—The Indifference of all other Things in comparison with it—Their Relative Value—Absolute Renunciation as an Ideal not Required of all Men—Outward Things as Materials—Misfortune often the best Material—The World as a Stage—Contrast with the Aristotelian View of Outward Things—Tendency of the Stoic to Separate the Self from the Not-self—Absence of the Distinction of the Potential and the Actual in Man—Stoicism as a Movement of Transition between two Forms of Life
Negative Effect of Stoicism—Its Influence upon Roman Law—Its Religious Effect—Similarity in the Spirit of Later Judaism—The Subjective Tendency in both—The Civitas Deorum, et Hominum and the Messianic Kingdom—Subjective Religion—The Soul and God—The Stoic Self-confidence and its Transition to Self-despair—The Mediation of this Change by Scepticism—The Self-contradiction of Scepticism—The Regress upon the Unity beyond the Difference of Subject and Object—The Abstract Form of this Unity in Neo-Platonism—Pessimism of the Pre-Christian Era—Rise of the Idea of Mediation—The Logos—Confluence of Greek and Jewish Thought
Philo's place in the History of Thought—His Allegorical Interpretation of Scripture—The Allegorical Method, its Advantages and Defects—Characteristics of Greek and of Hebrew Thought—Effect of their Fusion in Philo—Philo's Idea of God—The two Texts: God is not as a Man, and God is as a Man—Difficulties as to the Transcendence and the Immanence of God—The Conception of the Logos in Philo—Whether the Logos is Personal or Impersonal—The two Powers of God, Wisdom and Sovereignty—Conflict of the Idea of the Logos with the Idea of God—Philo's Account of the Creation of Man—Relation of Man to God—The Division in Human Nature—The Via Negativa as leading to Ecstatic Unity with God—The Problem of Neo-Platonism as stated by Philo
Plotinus as the Mystic par excellence—Mysticism as Religion in its most Abstract Form—Its Contrast with Judaism and with other Religions—The Consciousness of the Absolute One as exclusive of all other Consciousness—The Impossibility of Defining or Expressing it—Embarrassment of the Mystic—Relations of Mysticism to Pantheism—Tennyson, Goethe, and Spinoza—Positive Aspect of Spinoza's Philosophy—The Restoration of Finite Reality through its Negation—The Presence beyond Knowledge—The Centre of the Soul in God—The Choragus and the Choir—Plotinus' Struggle for Utterance—The Transcendent God of Mysticism and the Immanent God of Pantheism
The Unity of Plotinus and that of Spinoza—Eastern Influences upon Plotinus—Apparent Opposition between him and the main Greek Philosophers—Tendencies towards his Mysticism in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics—Transition from the Stoics to Plotinus through the Sceptics—Necessity of Regress of Thought to the Absolute Unity—Different Ways in which this Regress is conceived by Plotinus and Hegel—The Degrees in the Hierarchy of Powers in Plotinus as summing up the History of Greek Philosophy—The Movement from Materialism to Idealism and Spiritualism and from both to Mysticism—The Logical Procedure of Plotinus in his Ascent to the One—His Descent by the aid of Metaphors and Images—The Law of the Outflow of Energy from the Higher to the Lower
The Five-fold Hierarchy of Existence—The Higher related to the Lower as Form to Matter—Intelligible and Sensible Matter—Contrast of the Intelligible and Sensible Worlds—The Categories of the Intelligible World and its Organic Character as a World of Spirits—The Externality and Changefulness of the Sensible World—The World-Soul as a Mediating Principle—Its Relation to the Particular Souls—Defect of its Mediation—The Conflict of Mysticism with Itself—The Influence of Plotinus on St. Augustine
Man as a Microcosm—His Ordinary Consciousness of Himself as identified with Discursive Reason—This Identification as the Result of a Fall from the Intelligible World—The Possibility of Ascending again—The Way Upward through Intelligence to the One—The Actual and the Potential in Man—The Development of a deeper Self-consciousness—The Goal beyond Self-consciousness—The True and the Apparent in the Religious Consciousness—Error of taking the Higher as exclusive of the Lower—Comparison and Contrast of the Regressive Movement in Ancient and Modern Philosophy—From Kant to Hegel—The Relation of God to the World in Plotinus and in Christianity
Collision of Plotinus with the Gnostics—The Difficulties of this Controversy for Plotinus—His Objection to the Idea of an evil Demiurgus—His Defence of the Sensible World against the Gnostic Pessimism—The Heavenly Bodies and Man—Opposition of Plotinus to the Optimistic Aspect of Christianity—His Explanations of Evil—His Attack upon Fatalism—The Individual as Master of his Fate—Difficulty as to the Accidental Action of the Absolute—Possibility of Regarding the Fall into the Sensible World as a Stage in the Soul's Development—Evil and Matter—The Idea of the Necessity of Difference and Antagonism—The Stage-play of Life and the Soul's Transmigration through various Personae—Evil as Self-seeking and Ignorance—Evil as a Means to Greater Good—The Last Word of Plotinus as to the Relation of Man's Freedom to the Divine Unity
The Double Aspect of Christianity as Optimism and as Pessimism—Its Opposition to Gnosticism in both aspects—Christianity presented at first as Embodied in an Individual—The Power of such an Individual Presentment—Its Hidden Meaning—Change from the Social Religion of earlier times—The Christian Church as a Society of Individuals—Its Hope of the Messianic Kingdom or State—Transition from the Messianic Idea to the Logos—The Controversies about the Person of Christ and the Trinity—Their Significance as to the Relation of God and Man—How Neo-Platonism influenced their Development—Tendency to emphasise the Negative Side of Christianity—St. Athanasius and St. Augustine—Elements in Christianity antagonistic to Neo-Platonism—Ultimate Effect of Neo-Platonism
