academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
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academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
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they be got at second hand through Antiochus. Cf. Zeller 137, Stob. I. 22, 3. The partes mundi are<br />
spoken <strong>of</strong> in most <strong>of</strong> the passages just quoted, also in N.D. II. 22, 28, 30, 32, 75, 86, 115, 116, all<br />
from Stoic sources. Effectum esse mundum: Halm adds unum from his favourite MS. (G). Natura<br />
sentiente: a clumsy trans. <strong>of</strong> a?s??t? ??s?a = substance which can affect the senses. The same<br />
expression is in N.D. II. 75. It should not be forgotten, however, that to the Stoics the universe<br />
was itself sentient, cf. N.D. II. 22, 47, 87. Teneantur: for contineantur; cf. N.D. II. 29 with II. 31 In<br />
qua ratio perfecta insit: this is thorough going Stoicism. Reason, God, Matter, Universe, are<br />
interchangeable terms with the Stoics. See Zeller 145—150 By an inevitable inconsistency, while<br />
believing that Reason is the Universe, they sometimes speak <strong>of</strong> it as being in the Universe, as<br />
here (cf. Diog. Laert. VII. 138, N.D. II. 34) In a curious passage (N.D. I. 33), Cic. charges<br />
Aristotle with the same inconsistency. For the Pantheistic idea cf. Pope "lives through all life,<br />
extends through all extent". Sempiterna: Aristotle held this: see II. 119 and N.D. II. 118, Stob. I.<br />
21, 6. The Stoics while believing that our world would be destroyed by fire (Diog. Laert. VII. 141,<br />
R. and P. 378, Stob. I. 20, 1) regarded the destruction as merely an absorption into the Universal<br />
World God, who will recreate the world out <strong>of</strong> himself, since he is beyond the reach <strong>of</strong> harm<br />
(Diog. Laert. VII. 147, R. and P. 386, Zeller 159) Some Stoics however denied the e?p???s??.<br />
Nihil enim valentius: this is an argument <strong>of</strong>ten urged, as in N.D. II. 31 (quid potest esse mundo<br />
valentius?), Boethus quoted in Zeller 159. A quo intereat: interire here replaces the passive <strong>of</strong><br />
perdere cf. a?ast??a?, e?p?pte?? ??p? t????.<br />
§29. Quam vim animum: there is no need to read animam, as some edd. do. The Stoics give their<br />
World God, according to his different attributes, the names God, Soul, Reason, Providence, Fate,<br />
Fortune, Universal Substance, Fire, Ether, All pervading Air-Current, etc. See Zeller, ch. VI.<br />
passim. Nearly all these names occur in N.D. II. The whole <strong>of</strong> this section is undilutedly Stoic,<br />
one can only marvel how Antiochus contrived to fit it all in with the known opinions <strong>of</strong> old<br />
Academics and Peripatetics. Sapientiam: cf. N.D. II. 36 with III. 23, in which latter passage the<br />
Stoic opinion is severely criticised. Deum: Cic. in N.D. I. 30 remarks that Plato in his Timaeus<br />
had already made the mundus a God. Quasi prudentium quandam: the Greek p?????a is<br />
translated both by prudentia and providentia in the same passage, N.D. II. 58, also in N.D. II. 77<br />
—80. Procurantem ... quae pertinent ad homines: the World God is perfectly beneficent, see Ac.<br />
II. 120, N.D. I. 23, II. 160 (where there is a quaint jest on the subject), Zeller 167 sq. Necessitatem:<br />
a?a????, which is e??µ?? a?t???, causarum series sempiterna (De Fato 20, cf. N.D. I. 55, De<br />
Div. I. 125, 127, Diog. VII. 149, and Zeller as before). This is merely the World God apprehended<br />
as regulating the orderly sequence <strong>of</strong> cause upon cause. When the World God is called Fortune,<br />
all that is expressed is human inability to see this orderly sequence. ???? therefore is defined as<br />
a?t?a ad???? a????p???? ????sµ?? (Stob. I. 7, 9, where the same definition is ascribed to<br />
Anaxagoras—see also Topica, 58—66). This identification <strong>of</strong> Fate with Fortune (which sadly<br />
puzzles Faber and excites his wrath) seems to have first been brought prominently forward by<br />
Heraclitus, if we may trust Stob. I. 5, 15. Nihil aliter possit: on posse for posse fieri see M.D.F.<br />
IV. 48, also Ac. II. 121. For the sense <strong>of</strong> Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus (i.e. the Stoic World-God), ??de<br />
t? ????eta? e???? ep? ????? s?? d??a da?µ??. Inter quasi fatalem: a trans. <strong>of</strong> the Gk. ?at??a??<br />
asµe???. I see no reason for suspecting inter, as Halm does. Ignorationemque causarum: the<br />
same words in De Div. II. 49; cf. also August. Contra Academicos I. 1. In addition to studying the<br />
reff. given above, the student might with advantage read Aristotle's Physica II. ch. 4—6, with M.<br />
Saint Hilaire's explanation, for the views <strong>of</strong> Aristotle about t??? and t? a?t?µat??, also ch. 8—9<br />
for a?a???. Plato's doctrine <strong>of</strong> a?a???, which is diametrically opposed to that <strong>of</strong> the Stoics, is to<br />
be found in Timaeus p. 47, 48, Grote's Plato, III. 249—59.<br />
§§30—32. Part iv. <strong>of</strong> Varro's Exposition: Antiochus' Ethics. Summary. Although the<br />
old Academics and Peripatetics based knowledge on the senses, they did not make<br />
the senses the criterion <strong>of</strong> truth, but the mind, because it alone saw the permanently<br />
real and true (30). The senses they thought heavy and clogged and unable to gain<br />
knowledge <strong>of</strong> such things as were either too small to come into the domain <strong>of</strong> sense,<br />
or so changing and fleeting that no part <strong>of</strong> their being remained constant or even the<br />
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