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Democritus (/ d ɪ ˈ m ɒ k r ɪ t ə s /, dim-OCK-rit-əs; Greek: Δημόκριτος, Dēmókritos, meaning "chosen of the people"; c. 460 – c. 370 BC) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. [2] Democritus wrote extensively on a wide ...
Roman Epicurus bust. Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded 307 BCE based upon the teachings of Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher.Epicurus was an atomist and materialist, following in the steps of Democritus.
The thesis is a comparative study on atomism of Democritus and Epicurus on contingency and dedicated to Marx's friend, mentor, and future father-in-law, Ludwig von Westphalen. Francis Wheen describes it as "a daring and original piece of work in which Marx set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom of philosophy". [1]
He accepted Democritus' theory of atomism, with improvements made in response to criticisms by Aristotle and others. [73] His ethics were based on "the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain". [ 74 ]
Epicurus was not an atheist, although he rejected the idea of a god concerned with human affairs; followers of Epicureanism denied the idea that there was no god. While the conception of a supreme, happy and blessed god was the most popular during his time, Epicurus rejected such a notion, as he considered it too heavy a burden for a god to have to worry about all the problems in the world.
The German philosopher Karl Marx (1818–1883), whose ideas are the basis of Marxism, was profoundly influenced as a young man by the teachings of Epicurus [142] [143] and his doctoral thesis was a Hegelian dialectical analysis of the differences between the natural philosophies of Democritus and Epicurus. [144]
[39] [40] Epicurus also felt that the swerve was what accounted for humanity's free will. [41] If it were not for the swerve, humans would be subject to a never-ending chain of cause and effect. [41] This was a point which Epicureans often used to criticize Democritus' atomic theory. [41] Epicureans believed that senses also relied on atoms.
Epicurus applies his method of inference (the use of observations as signs, Asmis' summary, p. 333: the method of using the phenomena as signs (σημεῖα) of what is unobserved) [24]: pp.175–196 immediately to the atomic theory of Democritus. In Aristotle's Prior Analytics, Aristotle himself employs the use of signs.