ABSTRACT
Materialistic modes of thought dominated the philosophy of the fifth century BC, the age of Demokritos and Hippokrates. It was toward the end of this century that a spiritual movement was inaugurated by Sokrates, which, after undergoing various modifications in the systems of Plato and Aristotle, dominates the succeeding century. The historical circumstances which prepared the way for the new influence were the destruction of Greek freedom and the collapse of Hellenic life that brief but unique flowering-time, at the conclusion of which arises the Athenian philosophy. Sokrates and Plato were Athenians, and men of that genuine Hellenic spirit which was beginning to disappear before their eyes. Anthropomorphism, therefore, teleology, and optimism profoundly dominate the Stoic system, and its true character must be described as Pantheistic. But, in fact, Materialism was for the ancients an almost inevitable consequence of rigorous Monism and Determinism; for they were still far removed from the modern Idealism of a Descartes, Leibniz, or Kant.
