This is my pre-exam, elaborated summary of Epicureanism - making use of Prof. Angier's lecture slides and notes I made from lectures themselves. This summary is formulated so that I could amass a foundational understanding of the arguments and refutations in preparation for the exam.
Epistemology of Epicureanism:
- Empiricism, all knowledge comes from sense perception. This is a rejection of scepticism.
‘Sensations are true or what appears to us/our senses as true,’
Criteria for judging truth:
1. Sense Perception
Sensations are the ‘thin atomic films’ perceived by sense organs when they make contact with
our sensory organs.
‘Sensation is the soul’s sphere of responsibility, but the body grants it such responsibility,’
i.e., providing a suitable locus for the activity.
2. Basic Grasps (prolepsis)
These are the preconceptions/concepts of the nature of things.
‘We have thoughts when films are released from objects and make contact with the mind
[chest]’ (NB, the mind is corporeal in Epicureanism)
Pre-conceptions arise from the memory of sense perceptions.
Voluntary perceptions are the simple result of choosing to focus on some ‘films’ over others.
o All ideas are the result of some real stimulus.
o Imaginings and dreams are explained by things we have perceived in the past.
o These general ideas are used in our epistemic inquiry.
The mind rationally analyses patterns in appearances (similarities and differences), these
make up our conceptions.
3. Feelings
Inform us of pleasure and pain – in turn showing us what is desirable and what is undesirable,
thus making up the nature of the soul.
Epicurus and Scepticism:
- Sense perception occurs naturally, is caused by the films emitted by objects.
- We do not have a criterion for discerning true and false impressions.
- Sense perception is immune from error and irrefutable.
- Reason is derived from the senses, thus if the senses are false then so too is reason. \
- If all sensations are true, then which judgements are supposed to be true?
o Sensory contradictions may occur which seems to violate the principle of non-
contradiction.
, Interpretation 1: The sense-perception itself is real.
- All perceptions are real or actual events.
- ‘His sensation, being moved by the images was true in that the images objectively existed,’
Interpretation 2: Perceptions are claims as to what seems to that person to be the case.
Interpretation 3: Sense perceptions are about the representational or atomic films.
- Sense impressions are always caused by something external and are thus true.
- ‘Impression’ is indeed the correct term to describe the film/state-of-representation making
contact with the sense organ.
Sextus Empiricus: if differing impressions occur, it is simple minded to assume that one is true and
one is false. In the case of a visible object, perception of its shape and colour may be altered slightly
by the intervening space – but the impression it imparts corresponds to its true, objective state.
How then does this error happen?
o Combining false belief with mental impressions.
o From language as words may suggest false beliefs.
Truth is guaranteed so long as we do not make unfounded inferences from sensations and mental
impressions.
- Involve judgements by mind upon presentations that go beyond the experience.
I.e., object up-close and far away appear as different objects.
- We need to verify opinion with fact
I.e., a person far away can be identified with a name when the clear facts sufficiently establish
this.
Errors are then due to:
- Sensations/emissions distort resulting in representations which amount to nothing.
- We do not judge this sensation against the rest of our relief.
Reason:
- We have a faculty for reason which enables us to make judgements and to think by analogy.
I.e., using an idea of ‘that’ to define ‘this’.
Physics of Epicureanism:
- The world is divided into: bodies and void.
- Void stands to be the ‘thing’ in which bodies are located and move within.
- Without void, there would be no space in which objects are able to interact. Void is the
absence of body/atoms.
Void: Weightless, everywhere were atoms aren’t, enables atoms to move and interact.
- Body/atoms are supposed to be the indivisible and indestructible particles of matter. Each
atom is eternal, unchanging, with a particular shape and size. The combination and
arrangement of such atoms gives rise to all physical phenomena in the known world.
- Fixed attribute is the atom itself – characteristics not be changed or altered.
- Accident or non-essential property is a characteristic that does not change the fundamental
attributes of the atom, composition etc.
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