HISTORY 329 



of truth was taught by him and hie followers, who con- 

 stituted the Cyrenaic school. 



In Plato (from 427 B.C.) the diverse tendencies of the 

 Socratic teaching were combined into a system. The 

 highest good, he taught, to be neither pleasure nor know- 

 ledge, but the greatest possible likeness to God as the 

 absolutely good. 



Of his method, his theory of " ideas," his psychology 

 and theology, nothing can here be said, except that his 

 conceptions were in many respects so lofty, refined, and 

 admirable, as to have largely been made use of by most 

 esteemed Christian teachers at different times in later ages. 



The same was the case to a still further extent with 

 respect to Aristotle (born 384 B.C.), the tutor of Alex- 

 ander the Great. He was perhaps the most wonderful 

 genius the world has ever seen his mental activity 

 was so acute, profound, and manifold. His treatises not 

 only on philosophy but also on ethics, politics, physics, 

 psychology, and various other subjects, are all in various 

 respects admirable. To him we also owe the science 

 of logic, while he was the father of biological science, 

 and many of his descriptions of animal anatomy are 

 amazingly accurate. 



Pyrrho (from about 360 to 270 B.C.) was the founder 

 of the philosphical sect known as the Sceptics. His 

 scepticism was so great as to include scepticism of 

 his own system, and he declined to enunciate any 

 affirmation. He and his school said: "We assert 

 nothing, not even that we assert nothing." Thus it 

 was necessarily impossible for them logically to even 

 attempt to sustain their own cause. 



As we have seen, the Cyrenaics affirmed that the 

 greatest good was happiness. This was translated by 

 Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) into pleasure the sole good 



