Epicurus
From RationalWiki
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher living in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. Mildly popular in his own time, he is now best remembered for his teachings regarding the soul and ethics, as well as his early formulation of the problem of evil.
Epicurus taught that the soul died with the body. However, he was not an atheist; in modern parlance, he would be described as a deist. He believed that there was a creator God, but that that God did not care for or interfere in human affairs. Thus, he rejected Plato's idea that there was an absolute form of good, and instead was an early western proponent of the 'ethic of reciprocity'. Put simply, this ethic is the Golden Rule. Following this, he concluded that the greatest good was to maximize pleasure for all people while avoiding pain for all people, a sentiment with which his name is now synonymous. He also had a surprisingly[1] accurate view on the atomic nature of the universe.
Despite his contributions to philosophy, he was not looked upon kindly by the Church Fathers and later Medieval writers due to his view that the soul died with the body[2]. However, his ethic of reciprocity would find acceptance in later works, and indeed is even acknowledged (possibly independently) in early Christian teachings[3].
[edit] Problem of evil
Epicurus, in refuting determinism and the idea that there was a loving, intervening God, was one of the first western philosophers to propose the problem of evil:
- "Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Considering that he was taking a shot in the scientific dark.
- ↑ He is in the sixth circle of Dante's Hell, the circle of heretics, while Plato and Aristotle occupy the comparatively peaceful Limbo.
- ↑ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7:12
