THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS DID NOT BELIEVE THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 13, 1869

THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS DID NOT BELIEVE THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

THIS, I know, is the reverse of what is generally asserted of them, but yet it can be maintained. We will briefly notice a few of the leading ones, and the schools or sects founded by them. Among these Aristotle is one of the most prominent. He was a Greek, born at Stagira, B. C. 384. He was a disciple of Plato, and founded a flourishing school whose influence has been mighty through many ages, and is felt to this day. His school was called the Peripatetic. That he rejected the notion of the soul's immortality is abundantly proved. Says Dr. Horne, "Concerning the nature of the human soul, various and most contradictory sentiments prevailed: its existence after death was denied by many of the Peripatetics, or followers of Aristotle, and this seems to have been that philosopher's own opinion." The Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge says of Aristotle, "The soul of man he considered as an emanation from the Deity, but says nothing of its immortality." Tatian says, "Aristotle impugns the immortality of the soul." Though I have before me many more testimonies to the same effect, this must suffice as I have not room for them.

THE EPICUREANS.

Epicurus, the founder of this school, was a Greek, born B. C. 341. Says Enfield, "The Epicurean sect . . . continued to flourish through a long course of years under the Roman emperors." They were very numerous. Mosheim says that whole armies could be formed of them in the first century, they were so numerous. Paul met them at Athens, and they mocked at the resurrection. To them he refers when he says, "If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." This was their doctrine,—nothing after death. Their disbelief in the immortality of the soul is so notorious that we need to offer but little proof of it. Buck, in his Theological Dictionary, says of the Epicureans, "They denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of angels." Dr. Alger writes, "Pliny, in his Natural History, affirms that death is an everlasting sleep. The whole great sect of the Epicureans united in supporting that belief by the combined force of ridicule and argument." Knapp, and Enfield, and others, say the same. Here, then, was a whole great sect for ages who denied the soul's immortality.

THE ACADEMICS.

This school originated with Socrates and Plato. In time it was divided into the Old, the Middle, and the New. They held everything to be uncertain, and that nothing could be positively known. Of them the learned Bishop of Gloucester says, "This they held to be the case even in the most important subjects, such as the soul. And in the most interesting question concerning it, as whether it was, in its nature, mortal or immortal." The Religious Encyclopedia bears this testimony: "Among the Academics, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the preferableness of virtue to vice, were all held as uncertain. This sect and that of the Epicureans were the chief that were in vogue in the time of Christ's appearing, and were embraced and supported by persons of high rank and wealth." Then the soul's immortality must have been generally discarded at that time.

THE PYRRHONISTS.

They were professed skeptics,—believed nothing, much less the immortality of the soul. Says Warburton, "The ancient Greek philosophy may be all ranged into the Eleatic, the Italic, and the Ionic lines. The Eleatic line was wholly composed of Atheists of different kinds, as the Democritic, the Pyrrhonian, the Epicurean, &c., so these come not into the account" as believers in the immortality of the soul.

THE STOICS.

Another celebrated sect of philosophers was the Stoics founded by Zeno, at Athens. He died B. C. 264. It became much noted and greatly patronized. Paul met them at Athens. The Stoic, as well as the Academic school, was patronized by many eminent men in the Roman republic. The most distinguished lawyers were, as we have seen, inclined toward this sect. A few testimonies will show what position they took on the subject before us. Says Mr. Jones, "The Stoics denied the immortality of the soul." Warburton says of Zeno, "We know too that the philosophical principle of his school was, that

the soul died with the body." Mosheim writes of the Stoics, "It is well known to the learned world that this sect denied the immortality of the soul." Alger says of them, "They all agreed that there was no real immortality for the soul." Here then was another great sect who flourished for ages, that denied this doctrine.

Thus we have seen that of the different sects of philosophers, the Aristotelians, the Epicureans, the Academics, the Pyrrhonists, and the Stoics, all denied the immortality of the soul. This leaves only the Pythagoreans and Platonists. Did they believe it? They professed to teach it, but it was only on the plan of emanation and absorption, which, as I have shown, is virtually annihilation. In the face of these facts how can men have the assurance to assert that this doctrine has been universally believed in all ages of the world? This assertion cannot be maintained, as it is contrary to the facts in the case. The very learned Bishop Warburton, who has studied and written so largely upon this point, though a firm believer in the soul's immortality, makes these very candid statements about these ancients who professed to believe in future rewards and punishments, such as the Platonists, and Pythagoreans, the only ones who can be claimed as believing the soul immortal. He says, "Now, though after reading their history, reflecting on their character, and examining their writings, with all the care I was able, it appeared to me that these men believed nothing of that future state which they so industriously propagated in the world; and, therefore, on this, as well as other accounts, deserved all that asperity of language with which they are treated by the sacred writers; yet the contrary having been long and generally taken for granted, and their real opinion often urged by our ablest divines, as conformable and favorable to the Christian view of a future state, I suspect that what I have here said, will be exclaimed against as an unreasonable and licentious paradox. But, for all this, I do not despair of proving it a certain, though an unheeded, truth."

Yes, it is an unheeded truth which facts fully prove. Very few indeed of the human race have ever believed the immortality of the soul. D. M. CANRIGHT.

Sigourney, Iowa.