[MOD] The Five Schools (Philosophy)

[GloryGloryByzantium]

In the ancient world, philosophy was primarily a way of life. While many Hellenistic schools laid the foundations for what would become modern fields of Western ontology, epistemology, ethics, the schools were not focused on building bodies of knowledge which were abstracted from this life (or the life to come). What the schools taught about the gods, nature, or the soul affected the moral choices an adherent would take. For this reason, the initial focus in embracing a philosophical school will entail character development.

The first step would be to embrace the teachings of a certain school. Here, the option to embrace Epicureanism is available because there is an Epicurean philosopher within the nations borders (more on the existence of these philosophers later).

Once selected, a scheme will be triggered where the character will embrace the teachings of the school. The timing here will simulate sitting through lectures. Selecting another scheme during this time will abort the training. (Modifier subject to change).

Once initiated into the teachings, a series of character development ambitions will become available. These are distinctive to each school and depend on what traits a member of the school would have. Once selected, a scheme will be triggered which will run for 120-or-so days. During this time, the player will have to meet certain certain conditions before the scheme ends (if failed, the scheme can be tried again). These can be related to character interactions or something required on the national-level. Again, they will vary depending on which trait is being pursued.

Spoiler: Epicurean Values

Once these virtues have been achieved, the character can complete their training and become a full-fledged member of the school.

Spoiler: Epicurean Member

This modifier will be used to track members of the various schools for interesting character interactions, which is a subject for a future post.

 

[GloryGloryByzantium]

To perform all the character interactions described above, a philosopher needs to be present within the nation. To obtain the steady presence of philosophers, a school can be founded where their teaching will be carried out:

Once a school is founded, the player must decide which philosophical teaching will be done there. Based on the decision, the province where the school is located will receive modifiers which are specific to the philosophical school chosen as well as a general unrest reduction that all schools grant:

Based on the choice, an event will trigger which will search for available philosophers to start the school. Only philosophers either resident in the nation or within the diplomatic range of the country can be contacted for the founding of the school. If a foreigner is chosen, they will move countries. If there is no one available for a particular philosophy, then that philosophy will not be available for school founding. This creates a dynamic playstyle, because not all philosophies will be available at all places at all times. It will be up to the player to find out the conditions - but Athens might be a good place to find a lover of wisdom.

Once a school is generated, a recurring event will ensure that there will be a steady production of teachers and students at the school:

Finally, it is possible to have many schools simultaneously with a given amount of investments in academies. The scholarchs may be given wages in future updates, but do not currently have them as of now.

Future updates will discuss tutoring heirs and the possibility of temporary or 'wandering' philosophers, but the mod is getting close to completion for its current state.

 

[GloryGloryByzantium]

A collaborator, MattTheLegoman, has generously created a 3D model of the academy that can be added when a school is founded in select capitals in the Hellenic world. Here is an academy as found in Athens at the game start:

This model is currently available for the following cities: Pella, Lysimacheia, Byzantion, Antioch / Antigoneia, Alexandria, Cyrene, and Rome. More cities can be added at mod players' request.

 

[GloryGloryByzantium]

While scripting has slowed down, there are many ideas I want to implement but wanted to get potential feedback from the community. The mod was released a little over 2 weeks ago, with the steam link in the original post. As for next steps, here are some of the ideas in place:

1. The 'Laertius Project':
Historical events based on changes to Plato's Academy and its turn towards skepticism and its latter revival as Middle Platonism. Similar events are planned for the decline and restoration of Pyrrhonism and the loss of Aristotle's manuscripts.
2. More schools:
In addition to the 5 schools already available, there could be potentially added: Cyrenaicism, Cynicism, Pythagoreanism, and Indian Gymnosophism. There could also be an expansion to mathematics and sophistry that would be more tied to state-sponsored research but I'm waiting to see if 1.6 will include an invention overhaul.
3. Libraries:
Creating a new building with a new 3D model which houses manuscripts of various writings. It would cost gold and availability of papyrus to copy a text from a philosopher. In addition to the prestige of the library, these texts could then be read by a ruler which would trigger an event series related to the teaching being read.
4. National / Cultural Ideas and Effects:
These could include the teaching of Stoic cosmopolitanism, which would reduce unintegrated unhappiness or Epicurean hedonism, where output is reduced but happiness increased and could open character interactions for revelry.

Let me know if any of these ideas excite you or if you'd like to see the mod go in a different direction. I'd also like feedback if you have enjoyed joining one of the five schools in the mod already and how immersive the experience was.

Be farsighted in all things.
- Periander

 

[GloryGloryByzantium]

Some have asked about philosophy in the Western Med. There is an event for a ‘hometown’ philosopher for those not in the immediate Hellenistic vicinity, but I want to add some flavor specifically for Rome. Historically, when interactions in Macedonia and Greece increased there were philosophical contacts made and even a delegation of Athenian philosophers sent to Rome: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/plut_carneades.asp . I hope to add an event similar to this which should spawn some schools or at least give the opportunity to found some more directly. This will somewhat interact with the above-mentioned Laertius project.

I expect that the mod should be fully functional when 2.0 hits as all features are events and character interactions.

 

[GloryGloryByzantium]

The mod has been 'updated' for 2.0 (there were some lingering UI ideas that were incomplete and causing issues). As part of the future focus, I want to shift the philosophical aspects into more of a national and civilizational focus. One immediately area this can be implemented is in the innovation trees. Some may have noticed that several of the inventions that came along with 2.0 refer to specific philosophies by name (Pythagorean mathematics, Stoicism, or militant Epicureanism). Naturally, I am reworking the invention trees so that different themes are categorized on the basis of a school. The first set to be reworked are the Civic Inventions, which now have focuses related to Pythagoreanism and Stoicism. Here's the former:

As you can see, an early mathematical focus branches into a mechanical branch and a surveying-type branch. Mechanics then leads to practical options related to various building and construction aspects of building a city. I was particularly pleased that I could work in a natural progression from water pumps to fire hoses and clean water access. All of these trends are required for urban or rural planning. The survey-type branch which include astronomy features dovetails into commerce-based inventions (mathematics -> astronomy -> safer seafaring -> more trade). Here's that branch, which can be accessed with or without a Pythagorean focus:

Players of this mod might recall that I do not currently have a Pythagorean school available yet. So I will give access to the Platonists, who are big fans of mathematics and Pythagoreanism until I can further develop the distinctions and interplay between the two. Working through this tree should bring to mind the spirit of Archimedes and Euclid and the culture of Alexandria that would later produce Ptolemy (the astronomer). I should also note that these trees are subject to slight change, as some of these inventions require Hellenic cultural or cultural integration and /or the HoA DLC. I want most of the inventions accessible to non-philosophers, but am ok with locking some behind a certain school (because that adds to their importance and it makes sense for this mod; but I don't want to cause AI issues).

Next, the Stoic tree is based in pop happiness, promotion, and cultural harmony. While Stoicism may be commonly known for its emphasis on self-control, part of its ethical teaching emphasized an ancient cosmopolitan attitude (related, with distinction, to its corresponding modern attitude) and an equality that emphasized the primacy of ethics which leveled social hierarchy. It is a feature, not an accident, that among the two most famous Stoics, one was a slave (Epictetus) and the other an emperor (Marcus Aurelius). These ideas were tied to their physical theories, which proposed that there is a sympathy among the various parts of nature. Hopefully the player can feels a sense of these themes as they unlock the innovations in this tree:

(There is another branch innovations here that interwoven with some other civic advances that are thematically related but less relevant to Stoicism.)

Next time, I'll visit the Oratory tree and see what the Peripatics might have in store for teaching us about rhetoric.

 

[GloryGloryByzantium]

Just wanted to leave a note that there is still future planning and an active discussion of this mod on the discord.
While there is still a desire to rework the innovation trees along lines of philosophical schools, a few other ideas have come to light. The overall goal is to give this portion of the mod more of a "national" feel that expands upon the character (and province) -based content thus far.
One idea is to have flavor events about related to the direction of the school and its importance to national focus. These types of events are currently lacking and the immersion may be therefore hidden behind character interactions for those players not looking for them. More details about how this might look will have to wait a few more weeks.
Secondly, I recently played through the Hellenistic mission tree, which has several tasks related to founding a school of philosophy. Here's some screenshots from my vanilla playthrough:

Spoiler: Hellenistic Empire School Tasks

These events overlap with some of the same aims of the Five Schools: establishing a school, choosing a curriculum, obtaining some kind of bonus for the existence of the school, and teaching the ruler and other nobles. There is then a natural synthesis with this mission tree and the existing decisions of this mod. The pursuit of the Anthologia Philosophike decision is also related to the idea of libraries I floated here. I can expand upon this decision and require finding various texts of Plato, Aristotle (a few of his works are referenced in Anthologia Philosophike), or others (Epicurus and Zeno the Stoic are alive at game start; so these schools might have a different kind of library to build). Of course, this would require locking most of the mod behind the Heirs of Alexander DLC; but you really should buy the DLC (on sale as always) anyway. Perhaps then I can revisit whether mission tree might then open some of the avenues related to innovations or national ideas. But for now, I'm going to dream of the sound of scribbles on papyrus in the temple of the Muses overlooking the sea.