The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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THE SOCRATIC IMPULSE i|
art was psychology
,
a distinct view of human thought
and human volition, implying a knowledge of men s
passions, interests, and motives, and a familiarity with
the various springs of human action. Even the phi
lological researches of the Sophists, in which they
excelled, point in this direction. More still, the Sophists
had their own view of the nature of thought. They
held that Reason was a powerful instrument for criticism
and destruction, but was not competent to reach
absolute truth. It is limited in its extent, and deals
necessarily with the impressions of sense, which are
different to different individuals and relative to the
percipient ;
so that knowledge, in the strict sense of the
term, is impossible, and there is no greater justification
for the opinion that one may hold than there is for its
opposite ; or, to put it in express sophistic phraseology,
an assertion and its contradictory are equally defensible.
But if there is no such thing as
absolute truth, neither
is there any such thing as absolute morality. Here as
there, all may be questioned, and belief may
be im
pugned. The logical result, therefore, is universal
scepticism
scepticism in cognition and in morals alike.
Gorgias of Leontini (date about B.C. 483 to 375) put
it bluntly, on the intellectual side, when he said :
Nothing is if
; anything is, it cannot be known if it
;
be known, it cannot be communicated." Thus being,
cognition, and articulate speech fell at a stroke, each
and all came under the ban of nescience. But the
formula of sophistic negation that most deeply affected
subsequent thought,
and is
prominent
in the history of
philosophy, is that of Protagoras (born about 490 B.C.).
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Man,"
said he,
is
the measure of all things