The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE SOCRATIC IMPULSE 17
relative, and things are as they appear to each to be :
there is no universally valid knowledge. That con
clusion was drawn by Plato and by Aristotle alike. 1
Whence it follows logically, also, that Ethics has no
unimpeachable groundwork, but varies with the in
dividual and the age, according to circumstances, and
expediency or self-interest becomes the supreme virtue :
that is right or wrong to each man as it seems to each
to be. That Protagoras himself drew these conclusions
is very far from obvious ;
but they were implicit in the
ordinary rendering
of his formula. Here the historic
Socrates, in his principles and method, stood forth as
the defender of Reason. In discussion, he demanded
as the criterion of truth clear concepts, and enforced
the dictum that, given clear concepts, consistent and
coherent thinking becomes possible, and high-principled
and coherent action too; and this just means uncon
ditional knowledge and absolute or objective moral law.
He did not, any more than Protagoras, desert the
subjective standpoint the standpoint of the conscious
self or ego he had simply a more : just idea of what
the self or ego meant. He fully admitted that error
is possible, and that the senses may deceive us and
convention mislead ;
but, at the same time, he insisted
that Reason has in itself the power of detecting and
correcting error, and so of reaching certainty. Sub
jective conviction, he practically maintained, rests on
objective grounds what is true for me is true for
you and for other intelligent beings (intelligence itself
secures that, for intelligence is not a mere individual
or private possession, but is shared by others and
1
See Plato, Thecetetus ;
and Aristotle, Metaphysics, bk. x. 6.
2