“Epicurus, the newest guy out of Neocles and Chaerestrata, are an enthusiastic Athenian throughout the deme off Gargettus while the origin of Philaides, just like the Metrodorus says inside the On Noble Household. Heraclides, yet others, within his epitome out of Sotion, states which he was raised for the Samos, once the Athenians got parcels off homes truth be told there, however, concerned Athens when he was to try to get, whenever Xenocrates are head of your own Academy and you will Aristotle had been inside Chalcis” (where he passed away in the 322). 1). The new dates to have Epicurus’ birth and you will first move to Athens was thus 341 B.C.Age. and you may 323 respectively. Diogenes adds whenever the loss of Alexander (323), if the Athenians was indeed expelled away from Samos, Epicurus remaining Athens and you may registered his dad within the Colophon (into the 321), towards shore of what actually is today Poultry. Here the guy examined viewpoints within the tutelage of Nausiphanes, a Democritean philosopher which have skeptical leanings, and you may author of a work called the Tripod, on which Epicurus apparently drew getting their Canon, his dominating work on epistemology; inside integrity, Nausiphanes substituted the expression akataplexia (“undauntability”) to have Democritus’ athambie, “fearlessness,” once the vital to the nice lifetime, which attracts evaluation that have Epicurus’ ataraxia or “imperturbability,” no matter if Epicurus is said for refused being determined by him (To the Nausiphanes’ character during the shipping elements of Democritean d: 160–92.)
Diogenes account many slanderous tales that have been released by the Epicurus’ opponents, even after that he affirms one Epicurus are of an extremely gentle disposition; this is the present look at, common even because of the aggressive witnesses so you can Epicureanism
A decade later, Epicurus transferred to Mytilene with the area out-of Lesbos, and soon proceeded in order to Lampsacus to the regional mainland; both in towns and cities the guy coached and you may gathered supporters just before returning once more to Athens in , in which the guy stayed up to their dying from inside the 270, on chronilogical age of seventy or seventy-one. Into the Athens, he ordered the house or property you to definitely turned referred to as “Garden” (later on used as a name for his university alone) and you will started to write his very own university inside serious. Diogenes plus facts Epicurus’ commonly (–21), where, among other things, the guy produced arrangements for the kids from their family and you can designated a successor.
step three. Real Theory
Epicurus stored the elementary constituents out of characteristics are undifferentiated matter, in the form of discrete, strong and you may inseparable dirt (“atoms”) beneath the tolerance from effect, plus blank room, that’s, the brand new complement from matter otherwise where amount is not (Inwood 1981, Konstan 2014; contra Sedley 1982, which argues that room, having Epicurus, try an ongoing matrix stretching equally regarding universe, and that’s sometimes filled by-matter or blank). With its wider details, Epicurus passed down that it program from the earlier atomists, first off Democritus. However, Democritus’ adaptation was the item from analysis from the later thinkers, particularly Aristotle, to some extent having incoherencies about thought of a limitless wing MobilnГ strГЎnka void, to some extent getting problems tying to help you his thought of minima, or agencies of one’s tiniest imaginable size (pick particularly Physics Book 6). Earliest, freestanding agencies away from restricted size may have no sides, and thus zero molds, or in other words could be all of the border: thus, if two minima touched, they will wholly convergence. (The same argument applies to items within the a column, this is the reason a line contains affairs it is not created ones, centered on Aristotle.) After that, when the atoms really are conceptually indivisible, and not actually unsplittable, when a couple of atoms go-by each other there is no way that they is always to at any time become merely partway prior, for this manage imply a time partway across the length of brand new atom, and that contradicts the brand new premise that it is the absolute minimum. Regardless of if Aristotle doesn’t county the latest disagreement truthfully inside function, it’s noticeable one to a rigid conception out-of restricted-measurements of atoms entails one to action too have to incorporate discontinuous quanta; just in case actions, after that date. Atoms need, following, Aristotle inferred, relocate distinct hops (kinemata), every one occupying just one temporary minimum – so because of this, every atoms need to circulate during the a consistent rate. A countless gap, that have atoms delivered during it, resulted in dilemmas of their very own, for this it allows zero intrinsic spatial direction so because of this no account out of why something slip, because they’re seen to accomplish.