330 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



and true end in life to his followers, the Epicurean, who 

 taught that the gods were also divinely happy, and 

 never deigned to occupy themselves about human actions 

 and affairs. 



The greatest contrast to the Epicureans were the 

 Stoics, a philosophic sect, which arose out of the school 

 of the Cynics, being a refined and elevated modification 

 thereof. Their founder, Zeno of Cyprus, alarmed at the 

 spread of scepticism, taught publicly (about 308 B.C.) 

 that the aim of man's existence is neither to be wise 

 nor to enjoy, but to be virtuous, to which end both 

 knowledge and pleasure are to be employed as means, 

 while being kept strictly subordinate. The aim set 

 forth was an eminently practical one to become a 

 " perfect man." Zeno was succeeded in turn by 

 Cleanthes and Chrysippus (282-209 B.C.). 



Meantime a fresh development of scepticism called 

 the New Academy took place. It was promoted by 

 Arcesilaus (315 241 B.C.) and later by Carneades (214- 

 129 B.C.). This school did not adopt the absurd, self- 

 contradictory scepticism of Pyrrho. It did not profess to 

 deny that we can affirm anything with certainty, but only 

 that we can so affirm nothing except appearances and 

 our own feelings. Thus it admitted a certain kind of 

 knowledge, but denied we could know anything other- 

 wise than as related to ourselves and to other things. It 

 was a doctrine affirming " the relativity of knowledge," 

 and logically resulted in more uncertainty and scepticism 

 than its upholders themselves admitted. Such were the 

 main features of Greek philosophy in Greece. 



But Grecian Egypt, at Alexandria, developed yet a 

 third school of philosophy, known as Neo-platonism. It 

 was essentially religious, and was largely influenced by the 

 speculations of certain Jewish thinkers who had imbibed 



