Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE STOIC CREED AND TEMPER. 235partments of ethic, logic, and physic, and though theycentered their interest and energy upon the first, theywere far from neglecting the two others. It is true thatAriston of Chios, Zenon'spupil, compared logic to aspider's web, which is as useless as it is curious ;andlikened those who studied it to people eating lobsters,who took much trouble for the sake of a little morselsheltered in its fence of shell. Natural science heregardedas an ambitious effort to transcend thelimits of our human powers, and likely therefore tobear little fruit. Yet others of the school were notdeterred from much intellectual activity in thesedirections, though if we looked only to the value of theresults which they obtained, we might feel inclinedto sympathize with the pessimism of Ariston. Logicthey regarded in the light of the egg's shell, or thewall of a city or a garden, because itmight help toguard the truth from rude assaults, but they couldadd nothing of solid use to the analysis of the formalprocesses of thought which Aristotle had alreadymade, and could only multiply fine-drawn distinctionsand subtleties of grammatical nomenclature.In dealing with the fundamental question of thestandard or criterion of truth, they formulated a sortof philosophy of common sense, which may remind usof some later systems, such as those of Locke or Reid.Sensation is the only source of all our knowledge ;the soul is a blank leaf, sensation is the hand whichcovers it with writing. From the memoryof ourperceptions we pass onward to experience and generalnotions (7rpo\i)\peit:, KoivalEyyoLai), OUt of which