Epicurus born on Samos 341 to 270 BC

Transcription

1 Epicurus born on Samos 341 to 270 BC x

2 Epicurus Born on Samos. Describes himself as self taught Saw most educabon as indoctrinabon: too constrained to the master s way of thinking. Put him at odds with most other philosophers of his Bme.

3 Epicurus modifed Democritus atomism Gave atoms weight (source of downward mobon) Added swerve: random deviabon from predicted mobon Developed the idea of emergence: atoms do not possess properbes but these properbes develop in structures composed of many atoms.

4 Platonists and Aristotelians Taught in big publically supported insbtubons: geometry, dialecbcs and rhetoric. Epicurus rejected these schools as sources of indoctrinabon. Rejected Plato s theory of forms (geometry) which postulated a perfect and eternal world. But studied and appreciated his contemporary, Euclid s, geometry.

5 Plato s rhetoric and dialecbcs In Plato s dialogues Socrates plays down his knowledge of the world and asks quesbons in the end leading his interlocutors to his posibon. Epicurus cribcized this ironic perspecbve as basically dishonest: Socrates was hiding his expert skills as a debater.

6 Plato s dialecbcs and epistemology Reason as the arbiter of truth SensaBons are misleading Phenomena (appearances) decepbve Ideas are real and eternal Reason as the charioteer with horses represenbng appebtes and spirit

7 An excellent web source of informabon on Epicurus. Includes all of the extant wribngs of Epicurus as well as wribngs about him and his philosophy.

8 8 th Principal Doctrine No pleasure is a bad thing in itself, but some pleasures are only obtainable at the cost of excessive troubles.

9 Epicurus and Democritus Karl Marx The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature, with an Appendix. Published Understood Epicurus embrace of dialecbcal thinking which later formed a centerpiece for Marxist analysis of human affairs.

10 Swerve.

11 Emergence Democritus: sensabons are misleading. E.g. a sweet drink may taste bi[er to a sick man. Epicurus: sensabons are not inthemselves misleading though our interpretabon of them is. Atoms are not sweet or of a certain colour. These properbes only emerge through their interacbon to produce more complex structures AND our percepbon of such structures.

12 Epicurus Epistemology We never sense the object in itself but rather we sense the object as it dies away. SensaBons are not decepbve; all are equally valid. We are deceived instead by our interpretabons of sensabons. We apprehend the world through prolepsis (preconcepbon), which is compared/modified with the object perceived.

13 Epicurus and Plato Plato believed in a priori knowledge which he thought came from our past lives. Epicurus concept of prolepsis involves a preconcepbon built through our individual lives. We learn and modify our concepbons according to perceived nature. This leads us to truth.

14 Epicurus at odds with Aristotle Rejected teleology: e.g. Aristotle: woodpecker has a well developed bill to allow it to find grubs and insects in wood and under bark. Epicurus: because woodpeckers use their bills to search for insects in wood, those that have survived have well developed bills (cf Empidocles)

15 God and Gods Aristotle idenbfied 40 or more unmoved movers (endowed with circular mobon) in the skies Epicurus: Gods are perfect and fully sated beings and therefore have no interest in humans. They are irrelevant to human affairs.

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17 On the nature of the mind and soul Aristotle: the soul is a disbnct substance; Aristotle was a pluralist. Epicurus was a materialist: the mind and the soul are like any other objects composed of atoms. The mind is in the chest and extends throughout the body as a spirit (reminiscent of central and peripheral nervous system)

18 Epicurus was the first pragmabst Thought and reason do not funcbon to directly perceive and describe reality. Rather they are tools we use to find our way in the world, which we can never know directly. Empirical skepbcism

19 Epicurus engaged and publically challenged other philosophers early in his career. Was openly contemptuous of the idea of eternal and perfects forms. Put him at odds with the establishment thinkers.

20 Later in his career Became more reclusive and advised one not to prod or challenge one s enemies. To avoid those who might wish you harm. 39) He who desires to live in tranquility with nothing to fear from other men ought to make friends. Those of whom he cannot make friends, he should at least avoid rendering enemies; and if that is not in his power, he should, as much as possible, avoid all dealings with them, and keep them aloof, insofar as it is in his interest to do so.

21 Epicurus Metaphysics Nothing comes from nothing; nothing disappears to nothing (conservabon law) Tiny incremental changes reach crisis points leading to major changes. QuanBtaBve changes result in qualitabve changes. (emergence) Chance (swerve) renders our futures unpredictable. (free will and chance) Our understanding comes from appreciabng the world through preconcepbons that are changed in response to perceived nature. PercepBon as a creabve act.

22 Epicurus wri[en legacy Of 300 books only small fragment remain h[p:// Check out: Principal Doctrines, Le[er to Menoeceus LucreBus On the Nature of Things is taken directly from Epicurus. Books IV,V concerns aspects of biology

23 DialecBcal thinking Interdependence/interpenetraBon of opposites. QuanBtaBve change leads to qualitabve change: i.e. qualitabve change emerges out of iterabve quanbtabve change Nature is best understood through processes and their relabonships rather than through things, causes and events.