The Philosophy of Epicurus - Essay Example

? Philosophy 101 April 3, Home Work “The Philosophy of Epicurus” Introduction How may we infer from what Epicurus says in the first paragraphof his “Letter to Menoeceus” that he believed everyone to be capable of seeking wisdom? By interpreting Epicurus’s reasoning we can infer that everyone is capable of seeking wisdom. He says that “philosophy” means “the seeking of wisdom”. Meanwhile he argues that studying philosophy is “to care for the well-being of the soul” and both the young and the old can do any thing for their wellbeing. Indeed the universality of seeking wisdom evolves from this assumption of Epicurus. By reasoning inductively, he says that since both the young and the old can seek wisdom and since everyone is either young or old, everyone is capable of seeking wisdom. Also in another way, we can infer that Epicurus believes everyone to be capable of seeking wisdom. Indeed he advises people, either young or old, to study philosophy, because he believes that they are capable to seeking wisdom by studying philosophy. Otherwise, if he believes that seeking wisdom is not possible for everyone, he would not insist us to do what we cannot do. 2. How may we infer from what Epicurus says in the first paragraph his “Letter to Menoeceus” that he believed happiness to be the ultimate objective of studying philosophy? At the beginning of the first paragraph of his “”Letter to Menoeceus”, Epicurus says that everyone either young or old should study philosophy because “it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul” (Epicurus 2). In other words, according to him, philosophy can bring happiness to soul. One should study it for the happiness of mind. Again Epicurus says that the young people “can retain the happiness of youth in his pleasant memories of the past” when the old can enjoy the fearlessness of the youth even in their old age: “although he is old he may at the same time be young by virtue of his fearlessness of the future.” (Epicurus 2) Studying philosophy makes a man fearless and his mind. Again at the end of the paragraph, he comments that the ultimate objective of studying philosophy is “securing happiness”, and therefore “we do everything in order to gain it” (Epicurus 2). Thus we can infer that Epicurus believed that happiness is the ultimate objective of studying philosophy. The Gods 3. Epicurus supposes that we know the gods to be immortal and blessed. Why does he suppose this? According to Epicurus, our “common sense” or “popular opinion” tells us that gods must be immortal and blessed. Indeed this “common sense” is man’s capability of reasoning or proving something by something by logic. In the first place, we must accept that man’s capability of reasoning or devising logic is very subjective. That is, the commonality of man’s perception about himself or others lies at the heart of these “reasons” or “common sense”. Man commonly perceives himself as a subject to ephemera and to death: “while we exist death is not present and when death is present we no longer exist” (Epicurus). Man reasons that gods exist even while “we no longer exist”. But since people popularly believe that gods send blessings and evils to men (though Epicurus assumes these popular beliefs, about gods to have concerns for men, as something wrong) ages after ages, man reasons that they must be immortal and blessed; otherwise, they would not be able to do so. Thus Epicurus supposes that “commonsense” provokes men to popularly accept that the gods are immortal and blessed. Again once Epicurus says that “Most men do not retain the picture of the gods that they first receive” (Epicurus 2). This sentence may refer to Epicurus’s belief that man’s knowledge about gods is inborn. This innate or inborn idea about gods’ immortality and blessedness provokes everyone to form a popular opinion that gods must be immortal and blessed. 4. Epicurus infers from the fact that the gods are the immortal and blessed that they will not trouble us. Consider the first Principle Doctrine in explaining how the immortality of the gods implies that they won’t trouble us. Epicurus believes that gods simply exist. So they are immortal. This immortality of gods has nothing to with the qualities of gods that they send blessings or evils to men. Meanwhile he warns that the popular conceptions about gods are wrong. He also says that people should not believe anything more about gods than their blessedness and immortality and the goodness lies in such belief only, as he says, “The gods exist; but it is impious to accept the common beliefs about them. They have no concern with men” (Epicurus 2). The idea that “the gods send great evils to the wicked, great blessing” is man’s own fabrication. Gods perceived by many are not the real gods. Rather they are transcendental beings and they cannot be perceived in words or a language that is used by many. Therefore these qualities that gods send blessings or evils to men are false popular suppositions. 5. Consider the first Principle Doctrine in explaining how the blessedness of the gods implies that the gods won’t trouble us. In his first Principle Doctrine, Epicurus draws a logical association between the supposition that the “gods are immortal and blessed” and the statement that “they will not trouble us”. He argues that “which is blessed and immortal is not troubled itself, nor does it cause trouble to another” (Epicurus). The immortal and blessed is not subject to the affecttion by anger or favor, because these emotional traits belong to weakness and limitations. There are several elliptically expressed steps in Epicurus’s reasoning. First he argues that the blessedness and immortality of the gods guarantees that they themselves are not troubled by anything. For the same reason of being blessed and immortal they will not trouble others. At this first step, Epicurus proves the gods’ self-composed existence. In the next step, Epicurus argues that the blessed and immortal neither shows anger nor favor. If it does so, it, in the very first place, violates its own condition of being blessed, since emotions like anger and favor are signs of weakness and limitations like mortality. Thus the gods’ condition of being blessed itself guarantees that they will not trouble men, since they themselves are not troubled. 6. How does the immortality and blessedness of the gods imply that, just as the gods won’t trouble us, they won’t help us either? Epicurus says that the gods are both immortal and blessed. In his first Principle Doctrine, he says any being that is immortal and blessed does not have emotions like anger or gratitude, because these are the signs of limitations and weakness. On the other hand since anything, immortal and blessed, is not troubled, it does not have the motivations to be angry, to punish or to favor. Therefore the gods neither have the motivation to help us nor trouble us. Indeed these two qualities essentially refer to one, the self-sufficiency of gods. The gods are self-sufficient beings. The first principle infers that the gods do not feel any emotions that stem from a condition of weakness or deficiency. If the gods did trouble men, they would do so by taking action for or against them. But the gods’ condition of being immortal and blessed does not permit them to have such motivations to take actions like doing favor and punishment, because these motivations evolves from one’s limitations and weakness of which the gods are free because of their immortality and blessedness. Read More