Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
Epicurean Epistemology
View through CrossRef
This chapter presents Epicurus’s theory of knowledge as a response to the epistemological pessimism of Democritus. The first section discusses the three ‘criteria of truth’—sense-impressions, preconceptions, and the feelings of pleasure and pain; and also Epicurus’s account of perceptual error, by which he tried to show that the senses do after all offer true and consistent, if sometimes fragmentary, information. The second section deals with Epicurus’s scientific method, that is, the confirmation and refutation of beliefs or theoretical hypotheses. In a final section, I briefly discuss the role of the feelings as criteria in ethics, and the kind of reasoning Epicurus used to call ἐπιλογισμός.
Title: Epicurean Epistemology
Description:
This chapter presents Epicurus’s theory of knowledge as a response to the epistemological pessimism of Democritus.
The first section discusses the three ‘criteria of truth’—sense-impressions, preconceptions, and the feelings of pleasure and pain; and also Epicurus’s account of perceptual error, by which he tried to show that the senses do after all offer true and consistent, if sometimes fragmentary, information.
The second section deals with Epicurus’s scientific method, that is, the confirmation and refutation of beliefs or theoretical hypotheses.
In a final section, I briefly discuss the role of the feelings as criteria in ethics, and the kind of reasoning Epicurus used to call ἐπιλογισμός.
Related Results
The Nineteenth Century in Ruins: A Genealogy of French Historical Epistemology
The Nineteenth Century in Ruins: A Genealogy of French Historical Epistemology
This article investigates the historical and philosophical background of the French tradition of historical epistemology. As a sort of ‘historical epistemology of historical episte...
Secular Womynism Part II: An Epistemology… `It IS… What It Is!'
Secular Womynism Part II: An Epistemology… `It IS… What It Is!'
In `Secular Womynism: A View From The Left', I introduced and articulated a viable alternative approach to the concept known as `Traditional Womanism'. In so doing, the term(s) `Fe...
The Museum on the Edge of Forever
The Museum on the Edge of Forever
This article argues that understanding any space or site relies on a knowledge of its fourth dimension - the timescape. It will explore this by situating the investigation in the m...
The Dark Serpent
The Dark Serpent
After reviewing current suggestions for improving the text of Lucr. 3.658, this article argues for accepting Marullus’ serpentem and emending line-final utrumque to et atro. These ...
Cicero on Epicurean Pleasures
Cicero on Epicurean Pleasures
Abstract
Cicero’s version and critique of Epicurus’ ethics in the De Finibus offer in some respects the fullest consecutive account extant from antiquity. Their prop...
Religion, Platonist Dialectics, and Pragmatist Analysis: Marcus Tullius Cicero’s Contributions to the Philosophy and Sociology of Divine and Human Knowing
Religion, Platonist Dialectics, and Pragmatist Analysis: Marcus Tullius Cicero’s Contributions to the Philosophy and Sociology of Divine and Human Knowing
Whereas Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Augustine are probably the best known of the early Western philosophers of religion, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE) also played a particu...
The Language of Epicureanism in Cicero: The Case of Atomism
The Language of Epicureanism in Cicero: The Case of Atomism
This chapter provides a discussion on Cicero’s treatment of Epicureanism. Cicero’s and Lucretius’ renderings of Epicurean terms and notions are radically different: whereas Lucreti...