Post No.20: Gifts from Greeks: Part Four, Martin's Maxims 3

The last post described in more detail three of these maxims (numbers 6, 7 & 9). This post will provide a more in-depth look at the remaining maxims, and wrap-up the exploration of the ancient Greek thinkers. The maxims from Post No. 18 are:

1. Every life form seeks the positive (well-being), if not confused.

2. Having awareness of one's thoughts and emotions allows one to steer them in the direction of well-being.

3. Approach life armed with virtue: wisdom, justice, temperance, courage.

4. Virtue is the soothing balm that vanishes angst, and is practiced in the "now"

5. Focus on what you can control.

6. You are the captain of the ship.

7. The search for "being" or "essence" is a fool's errand.

8. Don't take yourself seriously and always have an open mind.

9. You go as you come.

10. Maxims aren't axioms; axioms aren't axioms

Because this post is also a wrap-up of Ancient Greek thinkers, we need to revisit Parmenides, who, I believe, had a fundamental influence on the metaphysics of Christianity and the Western world. Parmenides is a seminal figure in much of Plato's writings, in particular his "Parmenides Dialog" that described a discussion among Socrates, Parmenides and Zeno, Parmenides' disciple. It is estimated that Parmenides lived a decade or so before the Buddha and may also have had some influence on his philosophy. At the time, the Persian empire connected Greece to India, the birthplace of Buddha. Over a century later Alexander the Great conquered most of the old Persian empire and Greek influence in Western Asia flourished. In summary, Parmenides had a huge influence on the West, and most likely on Buddhism in the East.

We know of Parmenides only because of fragments of his epic poem, "On Nature", and the writings of some of his disciples. "On Nature" imagines a goddess who reveals to him the nature of reality, which is described in two parts of his poem, "The Way of Truth" and "The Way of Seeming/Appearance". In the "Way of Truth" the goddess states that reality is one and undifferentiated: there is only "being", timeless, whole, without motion, unchangeable. Parmenides reasons that either something "is" or "is not"; there is no in between. Things that are differentiated into this/that, up /down, good/bad etc. are automatically not "being" since if "this" "is" then "that" "is not". In "The Way of Seeming" Parmenides asserts that the appearances arising out of our senses are an illusion, including time itself. For example, in the poem the goddess states "And there is not, and never shall be any time other than that which is present, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immoveable. Wherefore all these things are but the names which mortals have given, believing them to be true." The goddess then seems to present a dilemma to Parmenides by reflecting on the words of the poem itself, which is comprised of names (terms/concepts) derived by mortals. It is this dilemma about which Socrates, Plato and Aristotle wrote extensively. It is the Gordian Knot described in Post No. 11. It is for this reason I wrote Maxim No. 10: "Maxims aren't axioms; axioms aren't axioms". A maxim is a short statement expressing a general truth, but an axiom is something accepted as self-evidently true. Parmenides' goddess gives us pause about accepting anything parsed by words as existential truth. It is in this sense that "axioms are not axioms".

The ancient Greeks, especially during the Socratic period, are perhaps more well known for their study of ethics, of how one can live a good life, a life of well being. Pyrrho was influenced by Parmenides but took an arguably more practical approach. He reasoned that one can always find alternate opinions about virtually anything. Therefore to achieve ''ataraxia", peace of mind, one should always suspend judgment and not have fixed opinions. This is Maxim No. 8: "Don't take yourself seriously and always have an open mind". This would include having an open mind about your own opinions as well as the opinions of others, which you should never assume you know or understand without full discussion. Perhaps this would be a good maxim for the current environment we find ourselves in.

Maxim No. 1, "Every life form seeks the positive (well-being)" was something the Greeks took as given, but the Epicureans took this more to heart and focused on ways of enjoying life which included a sense of well-being. I described a more scientific reason for this in Post No. 4, Reba the Amoeba. Even a single-celled organism, like Reba, moves toward nutrients and avoids toxins in a scientist's petri dish.

The last four maxims (Nos. 2-5), that have yet to be discussed, reflect the essence of ancient Greece's view of ethics and living a human life. One might say that the Stoics and Epicureans are the inheritors of the wisdom of Greek philosophers who have gone before them on this topic. Several people commented on my previous post regarding Stoics and pointed out there is a popular website called the daily stoic. The daily stoic website is a good site for "how to's" based on Stoic philosophy. This post, however, focuses soley on the reasoning behind the last four maxims and the core Stoic and Epicurean beliefs. One might describe these core priciples as:

1. Human beings think

2. Thinking affects behavior

3. Humans have some control over how they think and behave in society

4. Thinking occurs only in the ever changing "now"

Thus Maxim No. 2 is "Having awareness of one's thoughts and emotions allows one to steer them in the direction of well-being". Maxim No. 3 is a very general maxim that the Greeks supposed would lead to a life of well-being: "Approach life armed with virtue: wisdom, justice, temperance and courage". Wisdom is knowing what is right and what is wrong, Justice is being kind and acting to right obvious wrongs, Temperance is being moderate in all things and Courage is having the fortitude to address difficult issues as they arise.

Maxim No. 5 emerges out of the principle that one has only limited control, so one should "Focus on what you can control". The final maxim, Maxim No. 4, might be a favorite of the Stoics: "Virtue is the soothing balm that vanishes ANGST and is practiced in the now". The Stoics worried more about how we can maintain our sense of well-being and be less anxious in the face of adversity. The modern definition of Stoic is a person who can endure hardship without complaining. Marcus Aurelius, who had his share of adversity as Emperor, goes further and states that misfortune can be turned into fortune if one can "bear this worthily", i.e. with virtue.

Our thinking and our behavior only happen in the "now", as Parmenides many centuries before the Stoics and Epicureans, made clear through the goddess in his poem. This perhaps should give us some sense of well-being, as it means that at any given moment in our life, we always have a new "now" moment to practice virtue (or not).

A final note before we finish with the wisdom from ancient Greece and Martin's Maxims: none of this works if one is not "Captain of the Ship." As long as one is the Captain one can steer one's ship in the direction of wisdom described by the Greek philosophers. This does not mean one has full control of the ship. Lots of things affect this control, for example weather and the condition of the boat. A good captain will head to port in bad weather or steer the boat into a Marina for assistance. But if one gives up responsibility, such as becoming a victim, blaming others, making excuses, etc., the wisdom of the Ancient Greeks will not work.

This post concludes the somewhat deep dive into ancient Greek philosophers. I'm contemplating that my next posts will explore either the culture wars or artificial intelligence. The topic of artificial intelligence might be safer, even if the machines take over!