Philosophy

It is the object of the following article to give some account (I.) of that development of thought among the Jews which answered to the philosophy of the West; (II.) of the systematic progress of Greek philosophy as forming a complete whole; and (III.) of the contact of Christianity with philosophy. I. THE PHILOSOPHIC DISCIPLINE OF THE JEWS.—Philosophy, if we limit the word strictly to describe the free pursuit of knowledge of which truth is the one complete end is essentially of western growth. In the East the search after wisdom has always been connected with practice. The history of the Jews offers no exception to this remark: there is no Jewish philosophy, properly so called. The method of Greece was to proceed from life to God; the method of Israel (so to speak) was to proceed from God to life. The axioms of one system are the conclusions of the other. The one led to the successive abandonment of the noblest domains of science which man had claimed originally as his own, till it left bare systems of morality; the other, in the fullness of time, prepared many to welcome the Christ—the Truth. The philosophy of the Jews, using the word in a large sense, is to be sought for rather in the progress of the national life than in special books. Step by step the idea of the family was raised into that of the people; and the kingdom furnished the basis of those wider promises which included all nations in one kingdom of heaven. The social, the political, the cosmical relations of man were traced out gradually in relation to God. The philosophy of the Jews is thus essentially a moral philosophy, resting on a definite connection with God. The doctrines of Creation and Providence, of an infinite divine person and of a responsible human will, which elsewhere form the ultimate limits of speculation, are here assumed at the outset. The Psalms, which, among the other infinite lessons which they convey, give a deep insight into the need of a personal apprehension of truth, everywhere declare the absolute sovereignty of God over the material and the moral world. One man among all is distinguished among the Jews as “the wise man”. The description which is given of his writings serves as a commentary on the national view of philosophy (1 Kings 4:30-33) The lesson of practical duty, the full utterance of “a large heart,” ibid. 29, the careful study of God’s creatures,—this is the sum of wisdom. Yet in fact the very practical aim of this philosophy leads to the revelation of the most sublime truth. Wisdom was gradually felt to be a person, throned by God and holding converse with men. (Proverbs 8:1) ... She was seen to stand in open enmity with “the strange woman”), who sought to draw them aside by sensuous attractions; and thus a new step was made toward the central doctrine of Christianity:—the incarnation of the Word. Two books of the Bible, Job and Ecclesiastes, of which the latter at any rate belongs to the period of the close of the kingdom, approach more nearly than any others to the type of philosophical discussions. But in both the problem is moral and not metaphysical. The one deals with the evils which afflict “the perfect and upright;” the other with the vanity of all the pursuits and pleasures of earth. The captivity necessarily exercised a profound influence. The teaching of Persia Jewish thought. The teaching of Persia seems to have been designed to supply important elements in the education of the chosen people. But it did yet more than this. The contact of the Jews with Persia thus gave rise to a traditional mysticism. Their contact with Greece was marked by the rise of distinct sects. In the third century B.C. the great Doctor Antigonus of Socho bears a Greek name, and popular belief pointed to him as the teacher of Sadoc and Boethus the supposed founders of Jewish rationalism. At any rate we may date from this time the twofold division of Jewish speculation, The Sadducees appear as the supporters of human freedom in its widest scope; the Pharisees of a religious Stoicism. At a later time the cycle of doctrine was completed, when by a natural reaction the Essenes established as mystic Asceticism. II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY.—The various attempts which have been made to derive western philosophy from eastern sources have signally failed. It is true that in some degree the character of Greek speculation may have been influenced, at least in its earliest-stages, by religious ideas which were originally introduced from the East; but this indirect influence does hot affect the real originality of the Greek teachers. The very value of Greek teaching lies in the fact that it was, as far as is possible, a result of simple reason, or, if faith asserts ifs prerogative, the distinction is sharply marked. Of the various classifications of the Greek schools which have been proposed, the simplest and truest seems to be that which divides the history of philosophy into three great periods, the first reaching to

PHILOS'OPHY. During his visit to Athens, Paul was encountered by certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics, Acts 17:18, the two great moral schools of Greek philosophy. This is the only instance related in the N.T. of an encounter between Christianity and Western speculation. But Eastern speculation, in many ways and under many forms, tried from the earliest times to penetrate into the mysteries of Christianity, and in the philosophy against which Paul warned the Colossians, Col 2:8 et seq., we recognize not only an outgrowth of Eastern speculation, but the prototype of that phantastic mysticism which afterward played so conspicuous a part in the history of the Eastern Church under the name of Gnosticism. Comp. 1 Tim 6:20.

PHILOS'OPHY. During his visit to Athens, Paul was encountered by certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics, Acts 17:18, the two great moral schools of Greek philosophy. This is the only instance related in the N.T. of an encounter between Christianity and Western speculation. But Eastern speculation, in many ways and under many forms, tried from the earliest times to penetrate into the mysteries of Christianity, and in the philosophy against which Paul warned the Colossians, Col 2:8 et seq., we recognize not only an outgrowth of Eastern speculation,

but the prototype of that phantastic mysticism which afterward played so conspicuous a part in the history of the Eastern Church under the name of Gnosticism. Comp. 1 Tim 6:20.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Literally, the love of, including the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws.

2. A particular philosophical system or theory; the hypothesis by which particular phenomena are explained. [Books] of Aristotle and his philosophie. Chaucer. We shall in vain interpret their words by the notions of our philosophy and the doctrines in our school. Locke.

3. Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment; equanimity; fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune with philosophy. Then had he spent all his philosophy. Chaucer.

4. Reasoning; argumentation. Of good and evil much they argued then, . . . Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. Milton.

5. The course of sciences read in the schools. Johnson.

6. A treatise on philosophy. Philosophy of the Academy, that of Plato, who taught his disciples in a grove in Athens called the Academy. -- Philosophy of the Garden, that of Epicurus, who taught in a garden in Athens. -- Philosophy of the Lyceum, that of Aristotle, the founder of the Peripatetic school, who delivered his lectures in the Lyceum at Athens. -- Philosophy of the Porch, that of Zeno and the Stoics; -- so called because Zeno of Citium and his successors taught in the porch of the Poicile, a great hall in Athens.