Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE GKEEK PHILOSOPHY.427work first of Pythagoras, and then of Plato, Aristotle,Zeno, Epicurus, and their successors, was.oth the conception indeed and the realisationseem to have been most complete in Pythagoras.The philosophic living together was its basis. Instructionwas oral. Learnin was effected by thecollision of mind wi$i mind, by objection and answer.It was the Socratic principle inherited fromthese schools that nothing passed muster for knowledgewhich did not stand the test of cross-examination:87but an unchangeable text was utterlyunsuited, according to Plato, to debate the questionunder treatment in such fashion, while on theother hand the mind of the reader was passive inreceiving the impression which it conveyed. Onneither side therefore did the conditions of knowledgeexist, but this was reached under the circumstancesof personal intercourse above mentioned,and might I be recalled in the written formto the minds of those who had thus first attainedit.Down to the end of Greek philosophy the sameconception as to the method of teaching prevailed.87 Grote, Plato, i. 229. " When we see by what standard Plato testathe efficacy of any expository process, we shall see yet more clearly howhe came to consider written exposition unavailing. The standard whichhe applies is, that the learner shall be rendered able both to apply toothers and himself to endure a Socratic Elenchus or cross-examinationas to the logical difficulties involved in all the steps and helps to learning."Without this " Plato will not allow that he has attained trueknowledge" (Armschools and universities.