Note 19 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

(c) Practical turn of the Stoic philosophy the cause. The real causes for these views must therefore be sought elsewhere, and will be found in the central idea of the whole system of the Stoics—the practical character of their philosophy. Devoting themselves from the outset with all their energies to practical enquiries, the Stoics in their theory of nature occupied the ground of common views, which know of no real object excepting what is grossly sensible and corporeal. Their aim in speculation was to discover a firm basis for human actions.19 In action, however, men are brought into direct and experimental contact with objects. The objects thus presented to the senses we are brought face to face with in naked reality, nor is an opportunity afforded for doubting their real being. Their reality is proved practically, inasmuch as it affects us and offers itself for the exercise of our powers. In every such exercise of power, both subject and object are always material. Even when an impression is conveyed to the soul of man, the direct instrument is something material—the voice or the gesture. In the region of experience there are no such things as non-material impressions. This was the ground occupied by the Stoics: a real thing is what either acts on us, or is acted upon by us. Such a thing is naturally material; and the Stoics with their practical ideas not being able to soar above that which is most obvious, declared that reality belongs only to the world of bodies.