In one form or another it appears in the ancient works of Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates and Seneca. For thousands of years it has been held by man as a standard of ethical conduct. The versions given in this booklet are newly worded, however, as in earlier wordings it was thought to be too idealistic to be kept. It is possible to keep the version contained in The Way to Happiness . The theories seek to explain away such things as minds by saying they can be reduced to physical things or their motions.
Materialism is a very ancient idea.
There are other ideas. Upholders of this philosophy felt they had to neglect religion because they could not reduce it to mathematics. They were attacked by religious interests and in their turn attacked religions. All Rights Reserved.