“Therefore the Master says: I let go of the law, and people become honest. I let go of economics, and people become prosperous. I let go of religion, and people become serene. I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass”
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 57
(This is Part 6 in a series. Links to the other parts can be found at the end of this article.)
We are on a journey. We started off with a difference of opinion between myself and Pope Francis regarding libertarian ideas, and decided to look at the reasons behind that difference of opinion. To that end, we are taking a look at history. My story begins in the 1800’s but we have some philosophical ground to cover before we begin that story.
To understand why Francis and I see libertarian ideas so differently we will need to take a look at those ideas and what they mean, and where they came from. The concept of Liberty requires that we first discuss free will, and for that we are going to have to talk about the Greeks.
Thales of Miletus was born in Greece in the 7th century BC and was regarded by Aristotle as the first philosopher. He broke from mythology to begin describing the natural world in terms of science and observations. He applied deductive reasoning to geometry.
Anaximander and Pythagoras followed Thales and further expanded the study of mathematics and science. Heraclitus introduced the notion that change is a fundamental part of the universe with his famous saying, “No man ever steps in the same river twice”. Heraclitus introduces the concept of Logos and hints at the idea of free will. Parmenides takes exception to Heraclitus’ idea of change. Anaxagoras described the sun as a fiery rock and as a result was charged with impiety.
The pre-Socratic philosophers were moving from mysticism to science and rational thought, trying to determine the rational order of the universe. As they did so they had to be careful not to offend the pagans, who worshipped the Greek gods, and they also had no rational basis to start with; they had to reason it out. Philosophers such as Democritus actually worked out the theory that everything is comprised of atoms.
At the same time that Thales and the other early Greeks were working out these philosophical problems, the great Eastern philosophers were doing the same. Confucius and Lao Tzu and Buddha each lived and formed their philosophy at about this same time in India and China. These would be the three dominant belief systems in China for the next two millennia.
In South America the Chavin culture is building temples and creating art. The Mayans in Central America are building cities and monuments as well.
But the history of western thought begins in earnest with the birth of Socrates, some 200 years after Thales. Those Greek philosophers before Socrates did a good job of setting up the question, ‘Is there a moral order to the cosmos’? Socrates, and Plato and Aristotle after him, answered the question with a definitive YES, although in vastly different ways.
It is hard to overstate the importance of Socrates to western thought. Socrates taught us to think rationally; he provided an orderly way of thinking about the world that was not based on mythology. The Socratic Method would lead to the scientific method. He insisted on the importance of reflecting on the meaning of our existence.
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
-Socrates
The Greeks had a democratic society, but Socrates was not a fan of democracy. He believed that democracy lead to demagoguery, or an appeal to emotion and prejudice, rather than rationality. This would lead politicians to become demagogues and manipulate people based on their worst natures. (Sound familiar?)
Socrates believed that Knowledge = Virtue = Happiness. He believed in One Supreme Good, which was Virtue. He saw evil as being ignorance. We are all familiar with the story of his death; his philosophy was critical of the belief in the Athenian Gods, and he was eventually charged with impiety. Because Athens was a democracy, the people voted on whether or not he was guilty, and he lost by a small margin. After some sarcastic comments from Socrates, they then voted for his penalty to be death.
There was an escape available; the Athenians really did not want to see Socrates dead but he insisted that the legally imposed sentence be carried out. He also wanted to make it clear that as a philosopher he did not fear death.
“I shall never give up philosophy or stop exhorting you and pointing out the truth to any of you whom I meet, saying in my most accustomed way, “Most excellent man, are you...not ashamed to care for the acquisition of wealth and for reputation and honor, when you neither care nor take thought for wisdom and truth and the perfection of your soul?”
-Socrates
Socrates was put to death legally, by a democratic society, for failure to profess belief in the Athenian gods.
Plato was a student of Socrates, and the primary source of our information about him. Plato then taught Aristotle, who later went on to teach Alexander the Great. Plato and Aristotle represent two very different schools of philosophical thought. In fact, most people will find that their basic philosophy will tend to line up with the thoughts of one of these two great philosophers.
Plato introduced the idea of forms. The basic idea is that things in the “real world” are just imperfect examples of the perfect form in the ideal realm. For example, you can look at many different examples of “chair”, and some may be short or tall or wide or narrow, or different colors or shapes but they all share the concept of being a “chair”. Likewise we may see lots of circles in our daily life but they are all just crude examples of the IDEA of a circle.
Circles or chairs in the natural world are imperfect; we cannot draw a perfect circle, for example. But we can IMAGINE a perfect circle. The perfect “form” of a “circle” exists in the ideal realm but not in the natural world. This idea of “forms” lead Plato to formulate the idea that there is an “ideal” world where these forms exist perfectly and the material world is just a reflection of the ideal world.
Plato also argued that knowledge comes from the ideal world, and that we do not learn from the natural world; instead we “remember” knowledge from the “ideal” world. Plato’s philosophy included a creator of the ideal world, which Plato called the Demiurge. Plato does not call this God, but later thinkers will. This ideal place is called the “world of being”, while the material world is the “world of becoming”.
Plato believed there must be more to reality than what can be sensed. He expanded on the idea of the Logos being “ The Good”. Plato envisioned ideal forms of concepts like Justice, Truth, Beauty, and Fairness. Like Socrates, he was not a fan of democracy.
Aristotle disagreed with Plato. He argued that the components of the real world were not shadows of the ideal form but inherently contained that which is essential to their being, whether that be “chair” or “circle” or whatever. Aristotle argued that we learn about the natural world by studying the natural world.
Aristotle was an empiricist. He studied nature to learn the truth of nature and the principles under which it operated. He did amazing work in a number of areas including physics, biology, politics, and rhetoric. He invented the study of Logic and is responsible for the basics of the scientific method. It is impossible to understate the importance of Aristotle historically.
Platonism would be immensely influential in western culture, and would leave its mark on the theology of the Christian Church as well as the philosophies of great thinkers for centuries to come. The idealism of Plato and his vision of another world that is perfect as opposed to the material world which is imperfect will form the basis of numerous ideologies as history moves forward.
Likewise, the empirical thinking of Aristotle will form the basis of rational thought for the next two and a half millennia. And in the thoughts of Aristotle lie the basis of libertarian thought. Aristotle throws off the shackles of mysticism and idealism and begins investigating the principles of the natural world using his senses, and trusting in them. He relies on his senses and the logical thoughts of his rational mind to inform his philosophy.
Platonism will lead to determinism, but Aristotelian philosophy will lead to free will and a reliance on the mind of the individual to use reason to determine morality.
Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.
-Aristotle
Free Will was embraced by many who followed Aristotle. Cicero would embrace free will over fate:
"If all things happen by fate, all things happen with an antecedent cause; and if this is true of desire, it is true also of what follows desire, and therefore true of assent. But if the cause of desire is not within us, desire itself is not in our power; and if this is so, then those things which are brought about by desire are not within us. Therefore neither assent nor action is in our power; and from this it follows that neither praise nor blame are just, nor honours nor punishment”
-Cicero
Origen, one of the early leaders in the Christian Church, had this to say:
“This also is clearly defined in the teaching of the Church, that every rational soul is possessed of free-will and volition; that it has a struggle to maintain with the devil and his angels, and opposing influences, because they strive to burden it with sins; but if we live rightly and wisely, we should endeavor to shake ourselves free of a burden of that kind.”
-Origen
Tertullian expressed similar thoughts:
I find, then, that man was constituted free by God. He was master of his own will and power…For a law would not be imposed upon one who did not have it in his power to render that obedience which is due to law. Nor again, would the penalty of death be threatened against sin, if a contempt of the law were impossible to man in the liberty of his will…Man is free, with a will either for obedience of resistance.
-Tertullian
As did Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, and Clement of Alexandria and Ignatius, and Justin Martyr:
”But although we shall be understood, from our argument, to be only so affirming man’s unshackled power over his will, that what happens to him should be laid to his own charge, and not to God’s, yet that you may not object, even now, that he ought not to have been so constituted, since his liberty and power of will might turn out to be injurious…Therefore it was proper that (he who is) the image and likeness of God should be formed with a free will and a mastery of him self;… At present, let God’s goodness alone occupy our attention, that which gave so large a gift to man, even the liberty of his will.”
-Irenaeus
Each one of us who sins with his own free will, chooses punishment. So the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame.
-Clement of Alexandria
Neither do we maintain that it is by fate that men do what they do, or suffer what they suffer. Rather, we maintain that each man acts rightly or sins BY HIS FREE CHOICE….Since God in the beginning MADE THE RACE OF ANGELS AND MEN WITH FREE WILL, they will justly suffer in eternal fire the punishment of whatever sins they have committed.
-Justin Martyr
The early Christian Church believed in free will, but the ideas of Plato were being revived, and movements such as Gnosticism had embraced its concepts. Specific types of gnostic thought were prevalent in the time of the early church, and they generally saw the material world as tainted and unclean and the ideal world was the home to that which was pure and untainted.
One gnostic movement that had a lot of followers was Manichaeism, named after a gnostic named Mani. One of those followers in the third century was a young man with a penchant for debauchery by the name of Augustine. We will discuss Augustine and his changing views on free will and original sin in Part 7.
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