Megarians
The Megarian School is one of the imperfectly Socratic Schools, so
called because they developed in a one-sided way the doctrines of
Socrates. The Megarians, of whom the chief representatives were
Euclid, the founder of the school, and Stilpo, flourished at
Athens, during the first half of the fourth century B.C. Borrowing
from the Eleatics, especially from Parmenides, the doctrine that
there is no change or multiplicity in the world, they combined
this principle with the Socratic teaching that knowledge by means
of concepts is the only true knowledge. It follows from this that
the only reality is the unchangeable essential nature, that the
world of our sense experience is an illusion, and that there is
nothing possible except what actually exists. The affirmation of
the existence of "bodiless forms", which seems to have been the
Megarian designation for the unchangeable essential natures of
things, is the school's most important contribution to speculative
thought. Its analogy with the Platonic doctrine of ideas is
evident. In the practical portion of their teaching the Megarians
emphasized the supremacy of the notion of goodness. Knowledge,
Socrates taught, is the only virtue; it is identical with moral
excellence. The highest object of knowledge is the highest good.
But, as the Eleatics taught, the highest object of knowledge is
the highest reality, being. Therefore, the Megarians conclude, the
highest good and the highest reality are one and the same.
Whatever Parmenides predicated of being, namely oneness,
immutability, etc., may be predicated of the good also. The good
is insight, reason, God; it alone exists. In order to defend these
tenets, which to the popular mind seemed not only untrue but
absurd, the Megarians developed to a high degree the art of
disputation. This art (the eristic method, or method of strife, as
it was called in contradistinction to the heuristic method, or
method of finding, advocated by Socrates), was introduced into
philosophy by the Eleatic, Zeno, surnamed the Dialectician. It was
adopted by the Megarian School, and carried by the followers of
Euclid to a point where it ceased to serve any useful or even
serious purpose. To Euclid himself we owe the use of the method of
argumentation known as the reductio ad absurdum, which consists in
attacking, not the premises, but the conclusion, of the opponent's
argument and showing the absurd consequences which follow if his
contention is admitted. This method, however, was germinally
contained in Zeno's procedure by which, in a series of specious
fallacies he had striven to show that motion, change, and
multiplicity are illusions.
WILLIAM TURNER
Transcribed by Rick McCarty
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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