Pierre Gassendi ( French: [pjɛʁ gasɛ̃di] ; also Pierre Gassend , Petrus Gassendi, Petrus Gassendus ; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher , Catholic priest , astronomer , and mathematician . While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist , publishing the first data on the transit of Mercury in 1631. The lunar crater Gassendi is named after him.
154-515: Epicurus ( / ˌ ɛ p ɪ ˈ k j ʊər ə s / , EH -pih- KURE -əs ; Ancient Greek : Ἐπίκουρος Epikouros ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism , a highly influential school of philosophy . He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced by Democritus , Aristippus , Pyrrho , and possibly the Cynics , he turned against
308-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
462-408: A Garden variety civic religion . However, clear evidence of an Epicurean hero cult, as well as the cult itself, seems buried by the weight of posthumous philosophical interpretation. Epicurus never married and had no known children. He was most likely a vegetarian . Diogenes Laërtius records that, according to Epicurus's successor Hermarchus , Epicurus died a slow and painful death in 270 BC at
616-544: A child, Epicurus would have received a typical ancient Greek education. As such, according to Norman Wentworth DeWitt, "it is inconceivable that he would have escaped the Platonic training in geometry, dialectic, and rhetoric." Epicurus is known to have studied under the instruction of a Samian Platonist named Pamphilus, probably for about four years. His Letter of Menoeceus and surviving fragments of his other writings strongly suggest that he had extensive training in rhetoric. After
770-468: A custom of celebrating his birthday annually with common meals, befitting his stature as heros ktistes ("founding hero") of the Garden. He ordained in his will annual memorial feasts for himself on the same date (10th of Gamelion month ). Epicurean communities continued this tradition, referring to Epicurus as their "saviour" ( soter ) and celebrating him as hero. The hero cult of Epicurus may have operated as
924-523: A gatekeeper to the Garden of Delights, the "proprietor of the kitchen, the tavern, and the brothel." He appears in this guise in Martianus Capella 's Marriage of Mercury and Philology (fifth century), John of Salisbury 's Policraticus (1159), John Gower 's Mirour de l'Omme , and Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales . Epicurus and his followers appear in Dante Alighieri 's Inferno in
1078-446: A great teacher of ethics, a savior, and even a god. His image was worn on finger rings, portraits of him were displayed in living rooms, and wealthy followers venerated likenesses of him in marble sculpture. His admirers revered his sayings as divine oracles, carried around copies of his writings, and cherished copies of his letters like the letters of an apostle. On the twentieth day of every month , admirers of his teachings would perform
1232-596: A human being cannot perceive, such as the motion of atoms. In line with this principle of non-contradiction, the Epicureans believed that events in the natural world may have multiple causes that are all equally possible and probable. Lucretius writes in On the Nature of Things , as translated by William Ellery Leonard: There be, besides, some thing Of which 'tis not enough one only cause To state—but rather several, whereof one Will be
1386-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
1540-521: A less overtly hostile assessment of Epicurus himself. Nonetheless, "Epicureanism" remained a pejorative, synonymous with extreme egoistic pleasure-seeking, rather than a name of a philosophical school. This reputation discouraged orthodox Christian scholars from taking what others might regard as an inappropriately keen interest in Epicurean teachings. Epicureanism did not take hold in Italy, France, or England until
1694-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
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#17328510890661848-503: A member of the dispute, Valla lent Epicureanism credibility as a philosophy that deserved to be taken seriously. None of the Quattrocento Humanists ever clearly endorsed Epicureanism, but scholars such as Francesco Zabarella (1360–1417), Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), Cristoforo Landino (1424–1498), and Leonardo Bruni ( c. 1370–1444) did give Epicureanism a fairer analysis than it had traditionally received and provided
2002-711: A motore translato (1642). In 1643 Mersenne also tried to garner support from the German Socinian and advocate of religious tolerance Marcin Ruar . Ruar replied at length that he had already read Gassendi but was in favour of leaving science to science not to the church. In 1645 he accepted the chair of mathematics in the Collège Royal in Paris, and lectured for several years with great success. In addition to controversial writings on physical questions, there appeared during this period
2156-949: A negative view of Epicureanism, seeing its advocacy of the pursuit of voluptas ("pleasure") as contrary to the Roman ideal of virtus ("manly virtue"). The Romans therefore often stereotyped Epicurus and his followers as weak and effeminate. Prominent critics of his philosophy include prominent authors such as the Roman Stoic Seneca the Younger ( c. 4 BC – AD 65) and the Greek Middle Platonist Plutarch ( c. 46 – c. 120), who both derided these stereotypes as immoral and disreputable. Gordon characterizes anti-Epicurean rhetoric as so "heavy-handed" and misrepresentative of Epicurus's actual teachings that they sometimes come across as "comical". In his De vita beata , Seneca states that
2310-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
2464-425: A rare departure from Democritus's physics, Epicurus posited the idea of atomic "swerve" ( παρέγκλισις parénklisis ; Latin : clinamen ), one of his best-known original ideas. According to this idea, atoms, as they are travelling through space, may deviate slightly from the course they would ordinarily be expected to follow. Epicurus's reason for introducing this doctrine was because he wanted to preserve
2618-458: A rule rather than an exception, and the biography of Epicurus by Diogenes Laërtius lists female students such as Leontion and Nikidion . An inscription on the gate to The Garden is recorded by Seneca the Younger in epistle XXI of Epistulae morales ad Lucilium : "Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure." According to Diskin Clay, Epicurus himself established
2772-418: A separate edition entitled Disquisitio Metaphysica with rejoinders. Though Descartes is often credited with the discovery of the mind-body problem , Gassendi, reacting to Descartes' mind-body dualism, was the first to state it. Gassendi's tendency towards the empirical school of speculation appears more pronounced here than in any of his other writings. Jean-Baptiste Morin attacked his De motu impresso
2926-671: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek , and Koine may be classified as Ancient Greek in a wider sense. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
3080-529: A single spark can be struck from them." While the ideas of Plato and Aristotle could easily be adapted to suit a Christian worldview, the ideas of Epicurus were not nearly as easily amenable. As such, while Plato and Aristotle enjoyed a privileged place in Christian philosophy throughout the Middle Ages , Epicurus was not held in such esteem. Information about Epicurus's teachings was available, through Lucretius's On
3234-428: A social contract. Justice, Epicurus said, is an agreement neither to harm nor be harmed, and we need to have such a contract in order to enjoy fully the benefits of living together in a well-ordered society. Laws and punishments are needed to keep misguided fools in line who would otherwise break the contract. But the wise person sees the usefulness of justice, and because of his limited desires, he has no need to engage in
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#17328510890663388-435: A solemn ritual to honor his memory. At the same time, opponents of his teachings denounced him with vehemence and persistence. However, in the first and second centuries AD, Epicureanism gradually began to decline as it failed to compete with Stoicism, which had an ethical system more in line with traditional Roman values. Epicureanism also suffered decay in the wake of Christianity , which was also rapidly expanding throughout
3542-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
3696-459: A translation of Diogenes Laërtius , Book X on Epicurus, and appeared with a commentary, in the form of the Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri . His labors on Epicurus have historical importance, but he has been criticized for holding doctrines arguably irreconcilable with his strong expressions of empiricism. In the book, he maintains his maxim "that there is nothing in the intellect which has not been in
3850-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
4004-401: A way between skepticism and dogmatism . Richard Popkin indicates that Gassendi was one of the first thinkers to formulate the modern "scientific outlook", of moderated skepticism and empiricism . He clashed with his contemporary Descartes on the possibility of certain knowledge. His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity . Gassendi
4158-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
4312-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
4466-454: Is attractive, but the hypothesis of the calor vitalis (vital heat), a species of anima mundi (world-soul) which he introduces as a physical explanation of physical phenomena, does not seem to throw much light on the special problems which he invokes it to solve. Nor is his theory of the weight essential to atoms as being due to an inner force impelling them to motion in any way reconcilable with his general doctrine of mechanical causes. In
4620-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
4774-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
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4928-491: Is considered to be a pioneer physician in psychotherapy, physical therapy and molecular medicine. Epicurus writes in his Letter to Herodotus (not the historian) that " nothing ever arises from the nonexistent ", indicating that all events therefore have causes, regardless of whether those causes are known or unknown. Similarly, he also writes that nothing ever passes away into nothingness, because, "if an object that passes from our view were completely annihilated, everything in
5082-442: Is entirely made of extremely tiny particles called " atoms " ( Ancient Greek : ἄτομος ; atomos , meaning "indivisible"). For Epicurus and his followers, the existence of atoms was a matter of empirical observation; Epicurus's devoted follower, the Roman poet Lucretius , cites the gradual wearing down of rings from being worn, statues from being kissed, stones from being dripped on by water, and roads from being walked on in On
5236-411: Is full after eating), the pleasure quickly goes away and the suffering of wanting to fulfill the desire again returns. For Epicurus, static pleasures are the best pleasures because moving pleasures are always bound up with pain. Epicurus had a low opinion of sex and marriage, regarding both as having dubious value. Instead, he maintained that platonic friendships are essential to living a happy life. One of
5390-515: Is infinite and eternal and that all matter is made up of extremely tiny, invisible particles known as atoms . All occurrences in the natural world are ultimately the result of atoms moving and interacting in empty space. Epicurus deviated from Democritus by proposing the idea of atomic "swerve" , which holds that atoms may deviate from their expected course, thus permitting humans to possess free will in an otherwise deterministic universe. Though popular, Epicurean teachings were controversial from
5544-434: Is kind and just to others, however, will have no fear and will be more likely to attain ataraxia . Epicurus distinguished between two different types of pleasure: "moving" pleasures (κατὰ κίνησιν ἡδοναί) and "static" pleasures (καταστηματικαὶ ἡδοναί). "Moving" pleasures occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire and involve an active titillation of the senses. After one's desires have been satisfied (e.g. when one
5698-464: Is not after the lesson that enjoyment comes: learning and enjoyment happen at the same time." Epicurus distinguishes between three types of desires: natural and necessary, natural but unnecessary, and vain and empty. Natural and necessary desires include the desires for food and shelter. These are easy to satisfy, difficult to eliminate, bring pleasure when satisfied, and are naturally limited. Going beyond these limits produces unnecessary desires, such as
5852-558: Is not come, and, when death is come, we are not." From this doctrine arose the Epicurean epitaph: Non fui, fui, non-sum, non-curo ("I was not; I was; I am not; I do not care"), which is inscribed on the gravestones of his followers and seen on many ancient gravestones of the Roman Empire . This quotation is often used today at humanist funerals. The Tetrapharmakos presents a summary of the key points of Epicurean ethics: Although Epicurus has been commonly misunderstood as an advocate of
6006-472: Is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them? In Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779), David Hume also attributes the argument to Epicurus: Epicurus’s old questions are yet unanswered. Is he willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil? No extant writings of Epicurus contain this argument. However,
6160-437: Is the end of existence, that the terrifying stories of punishment in the afterlife are ridiculous superstitions, and that death is therefore nothing to be feared. He writes in his Letter to Menoeceus : "Accustom thyself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply sentience, and death is the privation of all sentience;... Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death
6314-415: Is to these last things that praise and blame naturally attach. For Epicurus, the "swerve" of the atoms simply defeated determinism to leave room for autonomous agency. In his Letter to Menoeceus , a summary of his own moral and theological teachings, the first piece of advice Epicurus himself gives to his student is: "First, believe that a god is an indestructible and blessed animal, in accordance with
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6468-428: Is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious , which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone
6622-478: Is uncertain and it may be a later pro-Epicurean forgery intended to paint an admirable portrait of the philosopher to counter the large number of forged epistles in Epicurus's name portraying him unfavorably. I have written this letter to you on a happy day to me, which is also the last day of my life. For I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to
6776-465: The Academic Skeptic and statesman Cicero . Epicurus asserted that philosophy's purpose is to attain as well as to help others attain happy ( eudaimonic ), tranquil lives characterized by ataraxia (peace and freedom from fear) and aponia (the absence of pain). He advocated that people were best able to pursue philosophy by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that
6930-698: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
7084-725: The Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as "the Garden", in Athens . Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects. He openly allowed women and slaves to join the school as a matter of policy. Of the over 300 works said to have been written by Epicurus about various subjects, the vast majority have been destroyed. Only three letters written by him—the letters to Menoeceus , Pythocles , and Herodotus —and two collections of quotes—the Principal Doctrines and
7238-726: The Principal Doctrines (Κύριαι Δόξαι), which are likewise preserved through quotation by Diogenes Laërtius, and the Vatican Sayings , preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library that was first discovered in 1888. In the Letter to Herodotus and the Letter to Pythocles , Epicurus summarizes his philosophy on nature and, in the Letter to Menoeceus , he summarizes his moral teachings. Numerous fragments of Epicurus's lost thirty-seven volume treatise On Nature have been found among
7392-411: The Principal Doctrines states, "Of the things wisdom acquires for the blessedness of life as a whole, far the greatest is the possession of friendship." He also taught that philosophy is itself a pleasure to engage in. One of the quotes from Epicurus recorded in the Vatican Sayings declares, "In other pursuits, the hard-won fruit comes at the end. But in philosophy, delight keeps pace with knowledge. It
7546-557: The Society of Jesus took over the University of Aix. They filled all positions with Jesuits, so Gassendi was required to find another institution. He left, returning to Digne on 10 February 1623, and then returned to Aix to witness an eclipse of the moon on 14 April and the presence of Mars in Sagittarius on 7 June, from which he returned again to Digne. He travelled to Grenoble on behalf of
7700-412: The Syntagma , the physics, appears the most glaring contradiction between Gassendi's fundamental principles. While approving of the Epicurean physics, he rejects the Epicurean negation of God and particular providence . He states the various proofs for the existence of an immaterial, infinite, supreme Being, asserts that this Being is the author of the visible universe, and strongly defends the doctrine of
7854-588: The University of Aix-en-Provence , to study philosophy under Philibert Fesaye, O.Carm. at the Collège Royal de Bourbon (the Faculty of Arts of the University of Aix). In 1612 the college of Digne called him to lecture on theology . While at Digne, he travelled to Senez , where he received minor orders from Bishop Jacques Martin. In 1614 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the University of Avignon , and
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#17328510890668008-542: The Vatican Sayings —have survived intact, along with a few fragments of his other writings. As a result of his work's destruction, most knowledge about his philosophy is due to later authors, particularly the biographer Diogenes Laërtius , the Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius and the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus , as well as the hostile but largely accurate accounts by the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus , and
8162-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
8316-531: The "sect of Epicurus... has a bad reputation, and yet it does not deserve it." and compares it to "a man in a dress: your chastity remains, your virility is unimpaired, your body has not submitted sexually, but in your hand is a tympanum ." Epicureanism was a notoriously conservative philosophical school; although Epicurus's later followers did expand on his philosophy, they dogmatically retained what he himself had originally taught without modifying it. Epicureans and admirers of Epicureanism revered Epicurus himself as
8470-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
8624-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
8778-626: The Cathedral Chapter of Digne had become disgusted at the wasteful behavior of Provost Blaise Ausset, and they voted to replace him. They obtained an arrêt of the Parliament of Aix, dated 19 December 1634, which consented to his deposition and to the election of Gassendi as provost of the Cathedral Chapter . Gassendi was formally installed on 24 December 1634. He held the Provostship until his death in 1655. During this time he wrote some works, at
8932-885: The Chapter of Digne for a lawsuit, most reluctantly, since he was working on his project on Aristotle's paradoxes. In 1624 he printed the first part of his Exercitationes paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos . A fragment of the second book later appeared in print at The Hague (1659), but Gassendi never composed the remaining five, apparently thinking that the Discussiones Peripateticae of Francesco Patrizzi left little scope for him. He spent some time with his patron Nicolas Peiresc . After 1628 Gassendi travelled in Flanders and in Holland where he encountered Isaac Beeckman and François Luillier . He returned to France in 1631. In 1634
9086-543: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Pierre Gassendi He wrote numerous philosophical works, and some of the positions he worked out are considered significant, finding
9240-420: The Collège Royal. Around this time he became reconciled to Descartes, after years of coldness, through the good offices of César d'Estrées . He travelled in the south of France, in the company of his protégé , aide and secretary François Bernier , another pupil from Paris. He spent nearly two years at Toulon , where the climate suited him. In 1653 he returned to Paris and resumed his literary work, living in
9394-476: The Epicurean doctor Asclepiades of Bithynia , who was the first physician who introduced Greek medicine in Rome. Asclepiades introduced the friendly, sympathetic, pleasing and painless treatment of patients. He advocated humane treatment of mental disorders, had insane persons freed from confinement and treated them with natural therapy, such as diet and massages. His teachings are surprisingly modern; therefore Asclepiades
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#17328510890669548-424: The Nature of Things . In this poem, Lucretius declares that popular religious practices not only do not instill virtue, but rather result in "misdeeds both wicked and ungodly", citing the mythical sacrifice of Iphigenia as an example. Lucretius argues that divine creation and providence are illogical, not because the gods do not exist, but rather because these notions are incompatible with the Epicurean principles of
9702-445: The Nature of Things as evidence for the existence of atoms as tiny, imperceptible particles. Also like Democritus, Epicurus was a materialist who taught that the only things that exist are atoms and void. Void occurs in any place where there are no atoms. Epicurus and his followers believed that atoms and void are both infinite and that the universe is therefore boundless. In On the Nature of Things , Lucretius argues this point using
9856-654: The Nature of Things in his Essays . His interest in Lucretius, however, seems to have been primarily literary and he is ambiguous about his feelings on Lucretius's Epicurean worldview. During the Protestant Reformation , the label "Epicurean" was bandied back and forth as an insult between Protestants and Catholics. In the seventeenth century, the French Catholic priest and scholar Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) sought to dislodge Aristotelianism from its position of
10010-513: The Nature of Things , quotations of it found in medieval Latin grammars and florilegia , and encyclopedias, such as Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae (seventh century) and Hrabanus Maurus 's De universo (ninth century), but there is little evidence that these teachings were systematically studied or comprehended. During the Middle Ages, Epicurus was remembered by the educated as a philosopher, but he frequently appeared in popular culture as
10164-469: The Platonic idea of "Reason" as a reliable source of knowledge about the world apart from the senses and was bitterly opposed to the Pyrrhonists and Academic Skeptics , who not only questioned the ability of the senses to provide accurate knowledge about the world, but also whether it is even possible to know anything about the world at all. Epicurus maintained that the senses never deceive humans, but that
10318-610: The Platonic idea of hypostatic Reason and instead relied on nature and empirical evidence for knowledge about the universe. During Epicurus's formative years, Greek knowledge about the rest of the world was rapidly expanding due to the Hellenization of the Near East and the rise of Hellenistic kingdoms . Epicurus's philosophy was consequently more universal in its outlook than those of his predecessors, since it took cognizance of non-Greek peoples as well as Greeks. He may have had access to
10472-749: The Roman Empire. Of all the Greek philosophical schools, Epicureanism was the one most at odds with the new Christian teachings, since Epicureans believed that the soul was mortal, denied the existence of an afterlife, denied that the divine had any active role in human life, and advocated pleasure as the foremost goal of human existence. As such, Christian writers such as Justin Martyr ( c. 100– c. 165 AD), Athenagoras of Athens ( c. 133– c. 190), Tertullian ( c. 155– c. 240), and Clement of Alexandria ( c. 150– c. 215), Arnobius (died c. 330), and Lactantius (c. 250-c.325) all singled it out for
10626-534: The Sixth Circle of Hell, where they are imprisoned in flaming coffins for having believed that the soul dies with the body. In 1417, a manuscript-hunter named Poggio Bracciolini discovered a copy of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things in a monastery near Lake Constance . The discovery of this manuscript was met with immense excitement, because scholars were eager to analyze and study the teachings of classical philosophers and this previously forgotten text contained
10780-471: The age of seventy-two from a stone blockage of his urinary tract. Despite being in immense pain, Epicurus is said to have remained cheerful and to have continued to teach until the very end. Possible insights into Epicurus's death may be offered by the extremely brief Epistle to Idomeneus , included by Diogenes Laërtius in Book X of his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers . The authenticity of this letter
10934-490: The anti-Aristotelian works of this period, the objections show the usual ignorance of Aristotle's own writings . The second book, which contains the review of Aristotle's dialectic or logic , throughout reflects Ramism in tone and method. One of the objections to Descartes became famous through Descartes's statement of it in the appendix of objections in the Meditations . His book Animadversiones , published in 1649, contains
11088-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
11242-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
11396-465: The beginning. Epicureanism reached the height of its popularity during the late years of the Roman Republic . It died out in late antiquity, subject to hostility from early Christianity . Throughout the Middle Ages , Epicurus was popularly, though inaccurately, remembered as a patron of drunkards, whoremongers, and gluttons. His teachings gradually became more widely known in the fifteenth century with
11550-470: The biographer Grimarest, these included Molière , Cyrano de Bergerac (whose participation in classes is disputed), Jean Hesnault and Claude-Emmanuel Chapelle , son of Lullier. In 1640 Mersenne engaged him in controversy with René Descartes . His objections to the fundamental propositions of Descartes appeared in print in 1641; they appear as the Fifth Set of Objections in the works of Descartes and as
11704-597: The capacity to form "general notions"; the conception of universality (ib. 384), which he says brutes never are able to partake in, though they utilize phantasia as truly as men; the notion of God , whom he says we may imagine as corporeal , but understand as incorporeal; and lastly, the reflex by which the mind makes the phenomena and operations within it the objects of its attention. The English Epicurean Walter Charleton produced an English free adaptation of this book, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charletonia , in 1654. The Syntagma philosophicum sub-divides, according to
11858-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
12012-518: The charred papyrus fragments at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum . Scholars first began attempting to unravel and decipher these scrolls in 1800, but the efforts are painstaking and are still ongoing. According to Diogenes Laertius (10.27-9), the major works of Epicurus include: Epicureanism was extremely popular from the very beginning. Diogenes Laërtius records that the number of Epicureans throughout
12166-485: The comic playwright Menander . Epicurus's Letter to Menoeceus , possibly an early work of his, is written in an eloquent style similar to that of the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates (436–338 BC), but, for his later works, he seems to have adopted the bald, intellectual style of the mathematician Euclid . Epicurus's epistemology also bears an unacknowledged debt to the later writings of Aristotle (384–322 BC), who rejected
12320-559: The company of friends, etc. Plutarch elaborated on this theme in his essay Is the Saying "Live in Obscurity" Right? ( Εἰ καλῶς εἴρηται τὸ λάθε βιώσας , An recte dictum sit latenter esse vivendum ) 1128c; cf. Flavius Philostratus , Vita Apollonii 8.28.12. Epicurus was an extremely prolific writer. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he wrote around 300 treatises on a variety of subjects. Although more original writings of Epicurus have survived to
12474-415: The concepts of free will and ethical responsibility while still maintaining the deterministic physical model of atomism. Lucretius describes it, saying, "It is this slight deviation of primal bodies, at indeterminate times and places, which keeps the mind as such from experiencing an inner compulsion in doing everything it does and from being forced to endure and suffer like a captive in chains." Epicurus
12628-603: The conduct prohibited by the laws in any case. Laws that are useful for promoting happiness are just, but those that are not useful are not just. ( Principal Doctrines 31–40) Epicurus discouraged participation in politics, as doing so leads to perturbation and status seeking. He instead advocated not drawing attention to oneself. This principle is epitomised by the phrase lathe biōsas ( λάθε βιώσας ), meaning "live in obscurity", "get through life without drawing attention to yourself", i.e., live without pursuing glory or wealth or power, but anonymously, enjoying little things like food,
12782-546: The consumption of meat, considering it a significant obstacle to achieving a divine vision. Drawing support from scripture and the natural world, he envisioned a restored paradise where humans and animals coexisted in peaceful dominion, contrary to the tyranny displayed in the butchering of animals for pleasure. Gassendi supported his case for vegetarianism with arguments from medicine, history, and scripture. Inspired by Neoplatonic vegetarians and early Christian thinkers, he aligned vegetarianism with Christian doctrines, emphasizing
12936-646: The contemporary philosophical school of Cynicism . The Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope was still alive when Epicurus would have been in Athens for his required military training and it is possible they may have met. Diogenes's pupil Crates of Thebes ( c. 365 – c. 285 BC) was a close contemporary of Epicurus. Epicurus agreed with the Cynics' quest for honesty, but rejected their "insolence and vulgarity", instead teaching that honesty must be coupled with courtesy and kindness. Epicurus shared this view with his contemporary,
13090-841: The death of Alexander the Great , Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers on Samos to Colophon , on the coast of what is now Turkey. Epicurus joined his family there after the completion of his military service. He studied under Nausiphanes , who followed the teachings of Democritus , and later those of Pyrrho , whose way of life Epicurus greatly admired. Epicurus's teachings were heavily influenced by those of earlier philosophers, particularly Democritus. Nonetheless, Epicurus differed from his predecessors on several key points of determinism and vehemently denied having been influenced by any previous philosophers, whom he denounced as "confused". Instead, he insisted that he had been "self-taught". According to DeWitt, Epicurus's teachings also show influences from
13244-593: The desire for luxury foods. Although food is necessary, luxury food is not necessary. Correspondingly, Epicurus advocates a life of hedonistic moderation by reducing desire, thus eliminating the unhappiness caused by unfulfilled desires. Vain desires include desires for power, wealth, and fame. These are difficult to satisfy because no matter how much one gets, one can always want more. These desires are inculcated by society and by false beliefs about what we need. They are not natural and are to be shunned. Epicurus' teachings were introduced into medical philosophy and practice by
13398-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
13552-594: The diocese of Digne, Gassendi participated and made the speech on behalf of the Chapter. He lectured principally on the Aristotelian philosophy , conforming as far as possible to the traditional methods while he also followed with interest the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler . He came into contact with the astronomer Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette (1564–1647), the Grand Vicar of the Archbishopric of Aix. In 1623
13706-632: The end, even in the midst of his suffering. It would also indicate that he maintained a special concern for the wellbeing of children. Epicurus and his followers had a well-developed epistemology , which developed as a result of their rivalry with other philosophical schools. Epicurus wrote a treatise entitled Κανών , or Rule , in which he explained his methods of investigation and theory of knowledge. This book, however, has not survived, nor does any other text that fully and clearly explains Epicurean epistemology, leaving only mentions of this epistemology by several authors to reconstruct it. Epicurus rejected
13860-557: The enjoyment of boys and women, nor by fish and the other items on an expensive menu, but by sober reasoning." He also wrote that a single good piece of cheese could be equally pleasing as an entire feast. Furthermore, Epicurus taught that "it is not possible to live pleasurably without living sensibly and nobly and justly", because a person who engages in acts of dishonesty or injustice will be "loaded with troubles" on account of his own guilty conscience and will live in constant fear that his wrongdoings will be discovered by others. A person who
14014-408: The example of a man throwing a javelin at the theoretical boundary of a finite universe. He states that the javelin must either go past the edge of the universe, in which case it is not really a boundary, or it must be blocked by something and prevented from continuing its path, but, if that happens, then the object blocking it must be outside the confines of the universe. As a result of this belief that
14168-494: The existence of deities. Furthermore, religion was such an integral part of daily life in Greece during the early Hellenistic Period that it is doubtful anyone during that period could have been an atheist in the modern sense of the word. Instead, the Greek word ἄθεος ( átheos ), meaning "without a god", was used as a term of abuse, not as an attempt to describe a person's beliefs. Epicurus promoted an innovative theory of justice as
14322-459: The existence of the gods, but emphatically rejecting the idea of divine providence. Their criticisms of popular religion, however, are often less gentle than those of Epicurus himself. The Letter to Pythocles , written by a later Epicurean, is dismissive and contemptuous towards popular religion and Epicurus's devoted follower, the Roman poet Lucretius ( c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC), passionately assailed popular religion in his philosophical poem On
14476-551: The extent to which Gassendi subscribed to the so-called libertinage érudit , the learned free-thinking that characterised the Tétrade , the Parisian circle to which he belonged, along with Gabriel Naudé and two others ( Élie Diodati and François de La Mothe Le Vayer ). Gassendi, at least, belonged to the fideist wing of the sceptics, arguing that the absence of certain knowledge implied
14630-436: The first century BC, it had established a strong foothold in Italy. The Roman orator Cicero (106 – 43 BC), who deplored Epicurean ethics, lamented, "the Epicureans have taken Italy by storm." The overwhelming majority of surviving Greek and Roman sources are vehemently negative towards Epicureanism and, according to Pamela Gordon, they routinely depict Epicurus himself as "monstrous or laughable". Many Romans in particular took
14784-414: The first of the works for which historians of philosophy remember him. In 1647 he published the well-received treatise De vita, moribus, et doctrina Epicuri libri octo . Two years later appeared his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laërtius . In the same year he had published the more important commentary Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri . In 1648 ill-health compelled him to give up his lectures at
14938-443: The foreknowledge and particular providence of God. At the same time he holds, in opposition to Epicureanism, the doctrine of an immaterial rational soul , endowed with immortality and capable of free determination . Friedrich Albert Lange claimed that all this portion of Gassendi's system contains nothing of his own opinions, but is introduced solely from motives of self-defence. The positive exposition of atomism has much that
15092-663: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
15246-479: The fourth, his Institutio astronomica , and his Commentarii de rebus celestibus ; the fifth, his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laërtius , the biographies of Epicurus, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc , Tycho Brahe , Nicolaus Copernicus , Georg von Peuerbach , and Regiomontanus , with some tracts on the value of ancient money, on the Roman calendar , and on the theory of music, with an appended large and prolix piece entitled Notitia ecclesiae Diniensis ;
15400-460: The general conception of god commonly held, and do not ascribe to god anything foreign to his indestructibility or repugnant to his blessedness." Epicurus maintained that he and his followers knew that the gods exist because "our knowledge of them is a matter of clear and distinct perception", meaning that people can empirically sense their presences. He did not mean that people can see the gods as physical objects, but rather that they can see visions of
15554-496: The gods are so utterly perfect and removed from the world that they are incapable of listening to prayers or supplications or doing virtually anything aside from contemplating their own perfections. In his Letter to Herodotus , he specifically denies that the gods have any control over natural phenomena, arguing that this would contradict their fundamental nature, which is perfect, because any kind of worldly involvement would tarnish their perfection. He further warned that believing that
15708-440: The gods as anthropomorphic beings who walked the earth like ordinary people, fathered illegitimate offspring with mortals, and pursued personal feuds. Instead, he taught that the gods are morally perfect, but detached and immobile beings who live in the remote regions of interstellar space. In line with these teachings, Epicurus adamantly rejected the idea that deities were involved in human affairs in any way. Epicurus maintained that
15862-439: The gods control natural phenomena would only mislead people into believing the superstitious view that the gods punish humans for wrongdoing, which only instills fear and prevents people from attaining ataraxia . Epicurus himself criticizes popular religion in both his Letter to Menoeceus and his Letter to Herodotus , but in a restrained and moderate tone. Later Epicureans mainly followed the same ideas as Epicurus, believing in
16016-407: The gods punish or reward them for their actions but because, due to the power of guilt, amoral behavior would inevitably lead to remorse weighing on their consciences and as a result, they would be prevented from attaining ataraxia . Epicurus derived much of his physics and cosmology from the earlier philosopher Democritus ( c. 460– c. 370 BC). Like Democritus, Epicurus taught that the universe
16170-414: The gods sent from the remote regions of interstellar space in which they actually reside. According to George K. Strodach, Epicurus could have easily dispensed of the gods entirely without greatly altering his materialist worldview, but the gods still play one important function in Epicurus's theology as the paragons of moral virtue to be emulated and admired. Epicurus rejected the conventional Greek view of
16324-536: The gods' indestructibility and blessedness. The later Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus ( c. 160 – c. 210 AD) rejected the teachings of the Epicureans specifically because he regarded them as theological "Dogmaticists". The Epicurean paradox or riddle of Epicurus or Epicurus' trilemma is a version of the problem of evil . Lactantius attributes this trilemma to Epicurus in De Ira Dei , 13, 20-21: God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and
16478-541: The greatest literary man among philosophers). Henri Louis Habert de Montmor published Gassendi's collected works, most importantly the Syntagma philosophicum (Opera, i. and ii.), in 1658 (6 vols., Lyons). Nicolaus Averanius published another edition, also in 6 folio volumes, in 1727. The first two comprise entirely his Syntagma philosophicum ; the third contains his critical writings on Epicurus , Aristotle , Descartes , Robert Fludd and Herbert of Cherbury , with some occasional pieces on certain problems of physics ;
16632-419: The highest dogma by presenting Epicureanism as a better and more rational alternative. In 1647, Gassendi published his book De vita et moribus Epicuri ( The Life and Morals of Epicurus ), a passionate defense of Epicureanism. In 1649, he published a commentary on Diogenes Laërtius's Life of Epicurus . He left Syntagma philosophicum ( Philosophical Compendium ), a synthesis of Epicurean doctrines, unfinished at
16786-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
16940-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
17094-433: The history of science, because Epicurus was trying to explain natural phenomena using natural explanations, rather than resorting to inventing elaborate stories about gods and mythic heroes. Epicurus was a hedonist , meaning he taught that what is pleasurable is morally good and what is painful is morally evil. He idiosyncratically defined "pleasure" as the absence of suffering and taught that all humans should seek to attain
17248-542: The house of Montmor , publishing in that year lives of Copernicus and of Tycho Brahe . The disease from which he suffered, a lung complaint, had, however, established a firm hold on him. His strength gradually failed, and he died at Paris in 1655. A bronze statue of him (by Joseph Ramus) was erected by subscription at Digne in 1852. A large crater on the Moon is named after him. As part of his promotion of empirical methods and his anti- Aristotelian and anti- Cartesian views, he
17402-416: The idea of thing or substance by inductive reasoning . He holds that the true method of research is the analytic, rising from lower to higher notions; yet he sees and admits that inductive reasoning, as conceived by Francis Bacon , rests on a general proposition not itself proved by induction. The whole doctrine of judgment, syllogism and method mixes Aristotelian and Ramist notions. In the second part of
17556-459: The immortality of the soul. Gassendi, a Catholic priest, advocated for a plant-based diet without dogmatism, asserting that decisions in this lifetime were crucial for preparing the body and mind for the next. He admired the historical virtue of vegetarian practitioners and urged scholars to extract and follow the best ideas from throughout history, asserting that, especially among humanists, a vegetarian lifestyle should be embraced. Gassendi himself
17710-690: The insistence of Marin Mersenne . They included his examination of the mystical philosophy of Robert Fludd , an essay on parhelia , and some observations on the transit of Mercury . Gassendi then spent some years travelling through Provence with the duke of Angoulême , governor of the region. During this period he wrote only the one literary work, his Life of Peiresc, whose death in 1637 seemed to afflict him deeply; it received frequent reprintings and an English translation. He returned to Paris in 1641, where he met Thomas Hobbes . He gave some informal philosophy classes, gaining pupils or disciples; according to
17864-555: The most comprehensive account of Epicurus's teachings known in Latin. The first scholarly dissertation on Epicurus, De voluptate ( On Pleasure ) by the Italian Humanist and Catholic priest Lorenzo Valla was published in 1431. Valla made no mention of Lucretius or his poem. Instead, he presented the treatise as a discussion on the nature of the highest good between an Epicurean, a Stoic, and a Christian. Valla's dialogue ultimately rejects Epicureanism, but, by presenting an Epicurean as
18018-471: The most vitriolic criticism. In spite of this, DeWitt argues that Epicureanism and Christianity share much common language, calling Epicureanism "the first missionary philosophy" and "the first world philosophy". Both Epicureanism and Christianity placed strong emphasis on the importance of love and forgiveness and early Christian portrayals of Jesus are often similar to Epicurean portrayals of Epicurus. DeWitt argues that Epicureanism, in many ways, helped pave
18172-434: The now-lost writings of the historian and ethnographer Megasthenes , who wrote during the reign of Seleucus I Nicator (ruled 305–281 BC). During Epicurus's lifetime, Platonism was the dominant philosophy in higher education. Epicurus's opposition to Platonism formed a large part of his thought. Over half of the forty Principal Doctrines of Epicureanism are flat contradictions of Platonism. In around 311 BC, Epicurus, when he
18326-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
18480-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
18634-493: The present day than of any other Hellenistic Greek philosopher, the vast majority of everything he wrote has still been lost, and most of what is known about Epicurus's teachings come from the writings of his later followers, particularly the Roman poet Lucretius. The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are three relatively lengthy letters, which are quoted in their entirety in Book X of Diogenes Laërtius 's Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers , and two groups of quotes:
18788-415: The rampant pursuit of pleasure, he, in fact, maintained that a person can only be happy and free from suffering by living wisely, soberly, and morally. He strongly disapproved of raw, excessive sensuality and warned that a person must take into account whether the consequences of his actions will result in suffering, writing, "the pleasant life is produced not by a string of drinking bouts and revelries, nor by
18942-543: The rediscovery of important texts, but his ideas did not become acceptable until the seventeenth century, when the French Catholic priest Pierre Gassendi revived a modified version of them, which was promoted by other writers, including Walter Charleton and Robert Boyle . His influence grew considerably during and after the Enlightenment , profoundly impacting the ideas of major thinkers, including John Locke , Thomas Jefferson , Jeremy Bentham , and Karl Marx . Epicurus
19096-451: The room for faith. In his dispute with Descartes he did apparently hold that the evidence of the senses remains the only convincing evidence; yet he maintains, as is natural from his mathematical training, that the evidence of reason is absolutely satisfactory. Gassendi acknowledged that while the complete realisation of the continual pursuit of ultimate pleasure through communion with God might not occur in one's lifetime, he argued against
19250-479: The root of all human neuroses is denial of death and the tendency for human beings to assume that death will be horrific and painful, which he claimed causes unnecessary anxiety, selfish self-protective behaviors, and hypocrisy. According to Epicurus, death is the end of both the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared. Epicurus taught that although the gods exist, they have no involvement in human affairs. He taught that people should act ethically not because
19404-519: The senses can be misinterpreted. Epicurus held that the purpose of all knowledge is to aid humans in attaining ataraxia . He taught that knowledge is learned through experiences rather than innate and that the acceptance of the fundamental truth of the things a person perceives is essential to a person's moral and spiritual health. In the Letter to Pythocles , he states, "If a person fights the clear evidence of his senses he will never be able to share in genuine tranquility." Epicurus regarded gut feelings as
19558-562: The senses" ( nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu ), but he contends that the imaginative faculty ( phantasia ) is the counterpart of sense, because it involves material images, and therefore is intrinsically material, and that it is essentially the same both in men and brutes. However, he also admits that the classic qualifier of humanity, intellect , which he affirms as immaterial and immortal, comes to an understanding of notions and truths that no effort of sensation or imagination could have attained (Op. ii. 383). He illustrates
19712-465: The seventeenth century. Even the liberal religious skeptics who might have been expected to take an interest in Epicureanism evidently did not; Étienne Dolet (1509–1546) only mentions Epicurus once in all his writings and François Rabelais (between 1483 and 1494–1553) never mentions him at all. Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) is the exception to this trend, quoting a full 450 lines of Lucretius's On
19866-524: The sixth volume contains his correspondence . The Lives , especially those of Copernicus, Tycho and Peiresc, received much praise. The Exercitationes excited much attention, though they contain little or nothing beyond what others had already advanced against Aristotle. The first book expounds clearly, and with much vigour, the evil effects of the blind acceptance of the Aristotelian dicta on physical and philosophical study; but, as occurs with so many of
20020-470: The specially empirical positions which Gassendi afterwards neglects or leaves out of account. The senses, the sole source of knowledge, supposedly yield us immediate cognition of individual things; phantasy (which Gassendi takes as material in nature) reproduces these ideas; understanding compares these ideas, each particular, and frames general ideas. Nevertheless, he admits that the senses yield knowledge—not of things—but of qualities only, and that we arrive at
20174-526: The state of ataraxia , meaning "untroubledness", a state in which the person is completely free from all pain or suffering. He argued that most of the suffering which human beings experience is caused by the irrational fears of death, divine retribution , and punishment in the afterlife. In his Letter to Menoeceus , Epicurus explains that people seek wealth and power on account of these fears, believing that having more money, prestige, or political clout will save them from death. He, however, maintains that death
20328-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
20482-454: The third part, the ethics, over and above the discussion on freedom, which on the whole is indefinite, there is little beyond a milder statement of the Epicurean moral code. The final end of life is happiness, and happiness is harmony of soul and body ( tranquillitas animi et indolentia corporis ). Probably, Gassendi thinks, perfect happiness is not attainable in this life, but it may be in the life to come. According to Gabriel Daniel , Gassendi
20636-504: The time of his death in 1655. It was finally published in 1658, after undergoing revision by his editors. Gassendi modified Epicurus's teachings to make them palatable for a Christian audience. For instance, he argued that atoms were not eternal, uncreated, and infinite in number, instead contending that an extremely large but finite number of atoms were created by God at creation. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes
20790-783: The true: lo, if thou shouldst espy Lying afar some fellow's lifeless corse, 'Twere meet to name all causes of a death, That cause of his death might thereby be named: For prove thou mayst he perished not by steel, By cold, nor even by poison nor disease, Yet somewhat of this sort hath come to him We know—And thus we have to say the same In divers cases. Epicurus strongly favored naturalistic explanations over theological ones. In his Letter to Pythocles , he offers four different possible natural explanations for thunder, six different possible natural explanations for lightning, three for snow, three for comets, two for rainbows, two for earthquakes, and so on. Although all of these explanations are now known to be false, they were an important step in
20944-602: The ultimate authority on matters of morality and held that whether a person feels an action is right or wrong is a far more cogent guide to whether that act really is right or wrong than abstracts maxims, strict codified rules of ethics, or even reason itself. Epicurus believed that any statement that is not directly contrary to human perception can be considered possibly true. On the other hand, anything contrary to experience can be ruled out as false. Epicureans often used analogies to everyday experience to support their argument of so-called "imperceptibles", which included anything that
21098-578: The universe and the number of atoms in it are infinite, Epicurus and the Epicureans believed that there must also be infinitely many worlds within the universe. Epicurus taught that the motion of atoms is constant, eternal, and without beginning or end. He held that there are two kinds of motion: the motion of atoms and the motion of visible objects. Both kinds of motion are real and not illusory. Democritus had described atoms as not only eternally moving, but also eternally flying through space, colliding, coalescing, and separating from each other as necessary. In
21252-505: The usual fashion of the Epicureans , into logic (which, with Gassendi as with Epicurus , is truly canonic), physics and ethics. The logic contains a sketch of the history of the science De origine et varietate logicae , and is divided into theory of right apprehension ( bene imaginari ), theory of right judgment ( bene proponere ), theory of right inference ( bene colligere ), theory of right method ( bene ordinare ). The first part contains
21406-510: The vast majority of Epicurus's writings have been lost and it is possible that some form of this argument may have been found in his lost treatise On the Gods , which Diogenes Laërtius describes as one of his greatest works. If Epicurus really did make some form of this argument, it would not have been an argument against the existence of deities, but rather an argument against divine providence. Epicurus's extant writings demonstrate that he did believe in
21560-417: The violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation, counterbalances all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus , in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me, and to philosophy. If authentic, this letter would support the tradition that Epicurus was able to remain joyful to
21714-431: The way for the spread of Christianity by "helping to bridge the gap between Greek intellectualism and a religious way of life" and "shunt[ing] the emphasis from the political to the social virtues and offer[ing] what may be called a religion of humanity." By the early fifth century AD, Epicureanism was virtually extinct. The Christian Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) declared, "its ashes are so cold that not
21868-469: The world exceeded the populations of entire cities. Nonetheless, Epicurus was not universally admired and, within his own lifetime, he was vilified as an ignorant buffoon and egoistic sybarite. He remained the most simultaneously admired and despised philosopher in the Mediterranean for the next nearly five centuries. Epicureanism rapidly spread beyond the Greek mainland all across the Mediterranean world. By
22022-412: The world would have perished, since that into which things were dissipated would be nonexistent." He therefore states: "The totality of things was always just as it is at present and will always remain the same because there is nothing into which it can change, inasmuch as there is nothing outside the totality that could intrude and effect change." Like Democritus before him, Epicurus taught that all matter
22176-422: Was "a community of like-minded and aspiring practitioners of a particular way of life." The primary members were Hermarchus , the financier Idomeneus , Leonteus and his wife Themista , the satirist Colotes , the mathematician Polyaenus of Lampsacus , and Metrodorus of Lampsacus , the most famous popularizer of Epicureanism. His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as
22330-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
22484-546: Was a little Pyrrhonian in matters of science; but that was no bad thing. He wrote against the magical animism of Robert Fludd, and judicial astrology . He became dissatisfied with the Peripatetic system, the orthodox approach to natural philosophy based on the writings of Aristotle . Gassendi shared an empirical tendency of the age. He contributed to the objections against Aristotelian philosophy, but waited to publish his own thoughts. There remains some controversy as to
22638-613: Was around thirty years old, began teaching in Mytilene . Around this time, Zeno of Citium , the founder of Stoicism , arrived in Athens, at the age of about twenty-one, but Zeno did not begin teaching what would become Stoicism for another twenty years. Although later texts, such as the writings of the first-century BC Roman orator Cicero , portray Epicureanism and Stoicism as rivals, this rivalry seems to have only emerged after Epicurus's death. Epicurus's teachings caused strife in Mytilene and he
22792-480: Was born at Champtercier , near Digne , in France to Antoine Gassend and Françoise Fabry. His earliest education was entrusted to his maternal uncle, Thomas Fabry, the curé of the church of Champtercier. A youthful prodigy, at a very early age he showed academic potential and attended the collège (the town high school) at Digne, where he displayed a particular aptitude for languages and mathematics . In 1609 he entered
22946-638: Was born in the Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos in February 341 BC. His parents, Neocles and Chaerestrate, were both Athenian-born, and his father was an Athenian citizen. Epicurus grew up during the final years of the Greek Classical Period. Plato had died seven years before Epicurus was born and Epicurus was seven years old when Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont into Persia. As
23100-565: Was elected Theologian in the Cathedral Chapter of Digne. On 1 August 1617 he received holy orders from Bishop Jacques Turricella of Marseille. In the same year, at the age of 24, he accepted the chair of philosophy at the University of Aix-en-Provence, and yielded the chair of theology to his old teacher, Fesaye. Gassendi seems gradually to have withdrawn from theology. He maintained his position as Canon Theologian at Digne, however, and in September 1619, when Bishop Raphaël de Bologne took possession of
23254-610: Was first to assert human freedom as a result of the fundamental indeterminism in the motion of atoms. This has led some philosophers to think that, for Epicurus, free will was caused directly by chance . In his On the Nature of Things , Lucretius appears to suggest this in the best-known passage on Epicurus' position. In his Letter to Menoeceus , however, Epicurus follows Aristotle and clearly identifies three possible causes: "some things happen of necessity, others by chance, others through our own agency." Aristotle said some things "depend on us" ( eph'hemin ). Epicurus agreed, and said it
23408-550: Was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in c. 306 BC, where he remained until his death. There he founded The Garden (κῆπος), a school named for the garden he owned that served as the school's meeting place, about halfway between the locations of two other schools of philosophy, the Stoa and the Academy . The Garden was more than just a school; it
23562-503: Was not a vegetarian , but admitted that "if I were wise, I would abandon [meat] bit by bit, and nourish myself solely on the gifts on the earth ... I do not doubt that I would be happier for longer and more constantly in better health." Samuel Sorbière , a disciple, recounts Gassendi's life in the first collected edition of the works, by Joseph Bougerel , Vie de Gassendi (1737; 2nd ed., 1770); as does Jean Philibert Damiron , Mémoire sur Gassendi (1839). An abridgment of his philosophy
23716-571: Was responsible for a number of scientific 'firsts': In addition to this he did work on determining longitude via eclipses of the Moon and on improving the Rudolphine Tables . He addressed the issue of free fall in De motu (1642) and De proportione qua gravia decidentia accelerantur (1646). Edward Gibbon styled him "Le meilleur philosophe des littérateurs, et le meilleur littérateur des philosophes" (The greatest philosopher among literary men, and
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