Page:Philosophical Review Volume 2.djvu/126

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
112
THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW.
[Vol. II.

the only mention of the Demokritean word we have in the remains of Epikuros, and it furnishes Hirzel (who in his Untersuch. über Cic. phil. Schriften argues the derivation of Epikuros' ethical philosophy from Demokritos) with a proof from original sources. In the Epitome of the physics (24) the fragments from Epikuros' sketch of primitive cultures and the doctrine of the natural origin of language correspond with Epikuros' fragm. i. 75, Lucretius v. 925 ff., and Diodoros i. 8. The exposition of Diogenes is fuller; it adds to our knowledge of Epikuros in informing us of his rejection of the popular mythology which referred the arts and language to the gods, and contains the polemic against the doctrine that language originates in convention (0eV). No. 26 combats the Stoic doctrine of ghosts. No. 31 is concerned with the doctrine, which in Epikuros' philosophy holds an important place, that psychical suffer- ing is greater and more dangerous than bodily suffering. No. 40 is an important fragment dealing with the rejection of ct/xap/xevjy. No. 41 con- tains a polemic against the Stoical doctrine of the continuance of the soul after death.

W. H.


Hindu Monism. Who were its Authors, Priests, or Warriors? A. Binet. Monist, III, 1, pp. 51-67.

India was ruined by priestly rule, but the philosophy of her Brahmans was original and profound. From the beginning the priests were powerful, but they formed no caste until the Yajur-vedas, the Brahmans, and Sûtras. Of these the Brahmans claimed divine relations, and put themselves above the king and nobility. They ruled indirectly only, through possession of the rights of sacrifice. Civil law could not be enforced against them, and they were so depraved that it became necessary to forbid adultery during religious rites. Below the Brahmans were the Kshattriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Súdras, the latter with neither civil nor religious rights. The book of Manu shows great increase in the power of the Brahmans and merciless burdens on the lower castes. With the advent of the older Upanishads, came a great revival of interest in the problems of thought, the results of which may be summed up thus: Being, as it is in itself, the ground of all existence, immanent in man, and perceived directly in thinking, is the only reality. The phenomenal world is a sense-delusion. This was the first monism propounded. The remainder of the essay attempts to prove that this monism originated with the warrior class and not with the Brahmans. B. refers to Bk. II. of the Brihadâranyaka Upanishad; to Bk. V. of Chândogya; Bk. VI. of Brihadâranyaka; the beginning of the Kaushîtaka, and to the eleventh and following chapters of Bk. V. of Chândogya. These references show the origin of this monism in the warrior class.