ABSTRACT
After Aristotle, Greek philosophy changed its character, and a period ensued in which the main philosophical schools—the Epicureans, Stoics and Sceptics—were concerned first and foremost to present a way of life, a remedy for men's fears. The Epicureans and Stoics carried out this programme by prefacing their ethical views with a theory about nature and man's place in it. Epicurus took atomism to the extreme. According to the Epicurean theory, all sense-perception is the result of a direct contact with the atoms of the soul which permeate the sense-organs on the part of atoms which are emitted from objects. The Stoics were opposed to the school of Epicurus in nearly every way. The Stoics maintained that everything which either acts or is acted upon is corporeal. Plotinus is a Platonist only in a certain sense. He relies most heavily upon the more mystical passages in Plato's dialogues, especially those which suggest a transcendent world.
