IV. Skeptics—Pyrrho Undermines Basis of Immortal-Soulism

Just as the pre-Platonic philosophy was challenged by the appearance and arguments of the skeptical Sophists, so now the post-Platonic developments climax with the Pyrrhonian Skeptics, who doubted everything. So a distrust of the powers of reason now followed the period of speculative excesses. The confusion and contradiction of the conflicting standard schools had resulted in the feeling that there are no determining criteria of truth. This induced widespread doubt.CFF1 614.1

Such was the situation when PYRRHO of Elis (c. 365-c. 275 B.C.), founder of the Skeptics, who, capitalizing on the principle of doubt, added to the confusion produced by the contentions of the Stoics and Epicureans. Pyrrho insisted that, inasmuch as there is no certainty in dogmatic belief, happiness consists in perfect freedom from all mental perturbation. (See Tabular Chart A, page 532.)CFF1 614.2

Using the weapons devised by the earlier Sophists, the Skeptics now directed them chiefly against ethics. The inductive system, they held, is at best only a probability. Thus the conflicting speculations involved everything in doubt and uncertainty. So the Pyrrhonists, the avowed Skeptics of the age—who boldly questioned the distinctions between true and false, virtue and vice, right and wrong, and advocated emancipation from any sort of moral and religious restraint—held that definitions and inductions add nothing to knowledge.CFF1 614.3

But in discarding definitions and inductions, they too struck at the heart of the philosophical method. ^{4646) Draper, op. cit., vol. 1, pp, 164, 165.} Thus indirectly Pyrrho likewise struck at the dogma of the immortal soul, as premised upon the speculations of philosophy. Pyrrhonism, however, was short-lived. Such skepticism was too negative to satisfy any save a peculiar few. But it helped to prick the bubble of conceit that had developed among the dominant philosophies, including Platonism.CFF1 614.4

The persistence of the Platonic postulate becomes evident when one sees how it lived on despite the combined opposition of strong reactionary groups. When the conflict of views subsided, Plato’s Innate Immortal-Soulism, inconsistent as it was, continued on, conquering and to conquer—next penetrating the ranks of the Roman conquerors. And while the form changed, the essence remained the same.CFF1 615.1

Chart B:
Roman Writers and Philosophers Follow Greek Predecessors
Philosophic Positions Perpetuated; but Materialistic Reactions Predominate; Adroit Recasting Undertaken, Followed by Final Emergence of Modified Neoplatonic School
1. Manilius (1st cent. B.C.)—fatalistic pantheism; soul part of World-Soul
2. Cicero (106-43 B.C.)—Platonist; eternal pre-existence, or eternal sleep
3. Lucretius (c. 96-c. 55 B.C.)—materialist; eternal death-sleep
4. Catullus (c. 84-54 B.C.)—sleep of eternal night
5. Horace (65-8 B.C.)—eternal sleep in nether world
6. Vergil (70-19 B.C.)—spark of World-Soul returns to source
7. Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 18)—divine spark produced man
8. Cato (95-46 B.C.), and Julius Caesar—death is utter end
9. Seneca (4 B.C.-A.D. 65)—Stoic; soul continues till next conflagration
10. Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79)—part of pantheistic world
11. Tacitus (c. A.D. 55-117)—believer in fatalism
12. Epictetus (c. A.D. 60-120)—Stoic; refusion of soul
13. Plutarch (c. A.D. 46-120)—Platonist; Dualist; souls eternal
14. Juvenal (c. A.D. 60-c. 140)—death an everlasting sleep
15. Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180)—last Stoic; reabsorption into World-Soul
16. Lucian (c. A.D. 126-200)—Greek philosophy imported from East
17. Plotinus (c. A.D. 205-270)—Dualism; emanation; fusion with the absolute
18. [Porphyry (c. A.D. 232-c. 304); Lamblichus (c. A.D. 250-c. 333); Julian (A.D. 332-363)]
19. A.D. 529—Justinian closes academy; pagan philosophy forbidden; philosophers exiled
Pathetic Despair Predominant Among Roman Thinkers
Except for occasional Platonic, Stoic, or Pythagorean hold-overs (among whom pantheism, emanation, reincarnation, and reabsorption were common), the ultimate loss of all personality was a recurring view.