The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

PHYSICS: NATURE, GOD, THE SOUL 99
with Plato, left it to Seneca to appreciate
Plato s teach
ing in this connexion, and to advance upon it. 1
IV
But now comes the inevitable criticism.
First, the Cosmology of the Stoics, although in many
ways remarkable, is not in its ultimate principle philo
sophically satisfactory. The origin of the world is not
really explained by the doctrine of Matter, even when
the materialism is not mechanical but dynamic.
As to the conception of Matter, in relation to Active
Reason or the Supreme Mind, one of four conceivable
views may be maintained : (i) First, we may posit two
distinct entities God on the one side, and matter on
the other ;
each of them independent, and each eternal.
(2) Secondly, we may posit two distinct entities God
and matter ;
but the latter, though eternal, not inde
pendent of the other, but eternally derived from it.
(3) Thirdly, we may posit God as the alone independent
and eternal, and matter as the product of His creative
power, brought into
existence through His efficiency.
(4) Fourthly, we may posit one sole existence, eternal
and self-contained ; and, if we favour Idealism, this
sole existence will be God as Mind or Spirit, if Material
ism, it will be matter or the world (mundus).
Now, as to the first of these, two independent and
eternal existences, though
the words seem to have
sense before we consider them, yield
a contradiction in
terms. For, by the supposition, matter is exclusively
1
See S. Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius,
bk. iv. chap. ii.