The Sciences

¹⁵¹ The ancient Greek philosophy was divided into 3 great branches:

1. Physics or natural philosophy
2. Ethics or moral philosophy
3. Logic

This general division is perfectly agreeable to the nature of things.

Physics

¹⁵² The great phenomena of nature necessarily make people curious about their causes.

Superstition first tried to satisfy this curiosity by referring them all to the gods.

Afterwards, philosophy tried to account for them from more familiar causes.

• The first recorded philosophers were natural philosophers.

Ethics

¹⁵³ In every age and country, men must have attended to one another’s characters, designs, and actions.

People then laid many reputable rules and maxims for the conduct of human life. This was then approved of by common consent.

As soon as writing came into fashion, wise men would naturally write those those maxims down and multiply them.

• The artificial form of writing them was in the form of apologues, like Aesop’s fables,
• The simpler form was of apophthegms or wise sayings like:
  • The Proverbs of Solomon
  • The verses of Theognis and Phocyllides
  • The works of Hesiod

These did not:

• arrange them in any methodical order, and
• connect them by general principles as done in natural pholosophy

In time, the maxims of common life were arranged in some methodical order. This led to moral philosophy as the science which explains those connecting principles.

Logic

¹⁵⁴ Different authors gave different systems of natural and moral philosophy.

Speculative systems have always been adopted for frivolous reasons.

• Gross sophistry has never influenced mankind’s opinions, except in matters of philosophy and speculation.
• Gross sophistry was frequently the greatest in philosophy and speculation.

The patrons of each system of natural and moral philosophy naturally tried to expose the weakness of the arguments of opposing systems.

In examining those arguments, they had to consider the difference between:

• a probable and a demonstrative argument, and
• a fallacious and a conclusive one.

Logic is the science of the general principles of good and bad reasoning.

• It arose out of the scrutiny of this examination.
• It was originally posterior to physics and ethics.
• It was commonly taught in most of the ancient schools of philosophy, before physics and ethics.*

The student was supposed thoughtto understand the difference between good and bad reasoning before he could reason on important subjects.

Metaphysics

¹⁵⁵ This ancient division of philosophy into 3 parts was changed into 5 parts in most European universities.

¹⁵⁶ In the ancient philosophy, whatever concerned the nature of the human mind or the Deity was a part of physics.

But in European universities, philosophy was taught as subservient to theology.

Physics was gradually extended and divided into:

1. Physics

2. Metaphysics or Pneumatics

This was opposed to Physics as the more sublime and useful science than Physics.

This is because Physics required experiment and observation which required careful attention which was neglected in those days.

In contrast, Metaphysics had a few very simple and obvious truths that did not require careful attention.

• In fact, careful attention on these truths would lead to subtleties and sophisms.

Ontology

¹⁵⁷ Ontology was created out of the natural comparison between Physics and Metaphysics.

This is the science which studied the qualities common to both Metaphysics and Physics subjects.

• This cobweb was made up of subtleties and sophisms

Ontology was sometimes also called Metaphysics*.

¹⁵⁸ The most important branch of philosophy is moral philosophy.

The ancient moral philosophy investigated the happiness and perfection of a man considered, in the current life, as an individual and a member of:

• a family
• a state
• the great human society

When moral and natural philosophy became subservient to theology, the duties of human life were treated as subservient to afterlife.

• In the ancient philosophy, virtue led to happiness in this life.
• But in the modern philosophy, virtue was frequently inconsistent with happiness in this life.
  • Heaven was to be earned only by:
    • penance and mortification, and
    • the austerities and abasement of a monk.
  • Heaven was not to be earned by the liberal, generous, and spirited conduct of a man.
  • Casuistry and an ascetic morality made up most of the moral philosophy of the schools.
  • In this way, moral philosophy became the most corrupted science.