{"id":357,"date":"2019-12-24T15:10:13","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T15:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-philosophy1\/?post_type=chapter&p=357"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:18:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:18:02","slug":"2-3-hellenistic-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-philosophy1\/chapter\/2-3-hellenistic-philosophy\/","title":{"raw":"1.5: Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy","rendered":"1.5: Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy"},"content":{"raw":"The Hellenistic age is defined negatively, as the interregnum between two empires. It starts with the death of Alexander the Great in 323\u00a0bc\u00a0and the collapse of his empire, and ends with the battle of Actium in 31\u00a0bc, the official start of the Roman Empire. Its main positive feature is the \u2018Hellenization\u2019 of \u2013 that is, the spread of Greek culture to \u2013 much of the Mediterranean world, especially the East. A high proportion of the converts to the Hellenistic philosophical schools flocked to Athens from the cities of western Asia, and a sense of excitement about Greek culture was one factor in the emergence of new philosophical schools. A favoured alternative explanation is that the collapse of the old Greek\u00a0<\/span>polis<\/i>, or city state, had left people feeling lost and in need of philosophical succour, but it is doubtful whether that hypothesis, even if sustainable, could account for more than a fraction of the new converts.<\/span>\r\n
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Although Alexandria eclipsed it as a centre of learning, Athens remained the headquarters of philosophy almost throughout the era. Hence in many ways Hellenistic philosophy would better be dated from 306\u00a0bc, when\u00a0Epicurus<\/a>\u00a0founded his school in Athens, to 88\u00a0bc, when the Athenian schools were badly weakened in war, never fully to recover their institutional supremacy. The succeeding era was marked by a philosophical diaspora throughout the Roman Empire.<\/p>\r\n

A Hellenistic doctrinal philosophy was a complete system, which had to offer: (1) an understanding of the world\u2019s origins, components and organization, and of our place in it; (2) a methodology of discovery, which included in particular naming one or more \u2018criteria of truth\u2019; (3) an account of what the \u2018goal\u2019, happiness (see\u00a0Eudaimonia<\/a>), consists in. These three areas correspond to what had become the standard tripartition of philosophy into (1) physics, (2) logic and (3) ethics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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\r\n\r\nPhilosophy was one strategy for steadying oneself\u2026. Consequently, the schools of Plato and Aristotle had lost prestige as a result of their increasingly specialized pursuits, seemingly so detached from the everyday concerns that motivated Socrates and their own founders. Many people were impatient with speculation and relied more on what their senses could tell them. People required philosophies that were portable, easily learned, and plainly engaged with the fortunes and misfortunes of everyday life. Eclecticism and syncretism characterize Hellenistic culture as much as Greek domination.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Hellenistic philosophy can be broken down into five movements:<\/div>\r\n