In the class on February 16th we started the discussion of Epicureanism. The discussion started off with a comparison to the phrase “Carpe Diem”. This idea of seizing the day led directly into the Epicurean philosophy since its one of the first major philosophical thoughts that showed no concern with the gods. This lack of concern with the gods led to a sort of seize the day attitude that in a way almost bordered on atheism.
When it was asked rather or not he was actually an atheist, it was pointed out that he wasn’t atheist because he believed in the existence of the gods he just saw them as powerless beings he lived in the void between atoms. The Epicurean way of proving this existed led to a little bit of debate in class of his faulty logic. Epicurus thought that the inability to prove something could allow one to know through inference. Which led to questions about what the point of his philosophy was. Was he saying that ignorance was bliss? Or was he saying that inference was just as good as knowledge?
Also discussed was the connection between the mind, body and soul. He interoperated that the soul and body were connected. One example given of this was how wine didn’t just affect the body but the soul, which he combined with the mind. This led to the counter example of sleep paralyses where the mind has released the chemical for sleep but the body hasn’t processed it yet meaning that the there would be some sort of disconnect between the two.
Then towards the end of class we covered the idea that 2/3 of the world is useless. So the world could not be divine. Meaning that the gods were real but unconcerned with the well being of humans and were too busy enjoying pure existence, which is what Epicurus wanted humans to do in order to be happy in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment