Normandale Community College Epicurean Moral System Discussion I will be attach picture of the chapter and the questions of “problem to ponder”. here is th

Normandale Community College Epicurean Moral System Discussion I will be attach picture of the chapter and the questions of “problem to ponder”. here is the requirement Here is the info on Epicurus for this week. My power point is combined with my lecture from my in-person class for you to view here:http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/1316541/uiconf_id/13696302/entry_id/0_z6ecfboj/embed/auto?Also, here is a short video from philosopher Alain DeBotton, who takes up the question of happiness, and wonders if Epicurus has something to teach us about it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irornIAQzQY In discussion this week, I’d encourage you to discuss the Problems to Ponder, the video (did Epicurus get it right?) or any other thoughts you have on the material! e
CHAPTER 3
Epicurus: Pleasure Is the
Foundation of Ethical
Judgments
THE BACKGROUND OF EPICUREANISM
As we saw earlier, Greece entered into a period of continuing decline after about
350 B.C.E., and irrationality and chaos began to replace the stress on the reasoned
life so emphasized by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The various regions in
Greece continued their struggles with one another to achieve political domi-
nance. This meant new wars, political infighting, social disorganization, and
treachery. The area was filled with continually shifting political alliances and
constant warfare. Around 338 B.C.E., the Macedonians (Macedonia was in north-
ern Greece), first led by Philip and then by his son, Alexander the Great, con-
quered Athens. For the next hundred years, to the Athenians the world was hos-
tile and society brutal. People had lost control over their lives and lost faith in
reason as a means to control their world, instead, they grasped desperately at al-
most any promise to reestablish control. Ultimately, the Romans became domi-
nant over the entire Mediterranean basin and forced peace upon the area; with
it came a stability of sorts.
During this period, several “salvation philosophies” became important in
the region. Previously, in the days of Socrates and Plato, there had been a decline
in the superstitious belief in the traditional gods of the Greeks. However, the de-
cline in influence and power of Greece seemed to trigger a resurgence of ele-
ments from the older Greek religions of the past: the ordinary people began a
slow return to the worship of the gods of the earth and fertility; new interest was
revived in ancestor worship, and many followed teachers who promised reli-
gious ecstasy. In addition, a flood of religious cults and ideas poured into Greece
from Egypt and Persia. There were secret cults, often called “mystery” religions,
which offered the teachings of saviors who rose from the dead and offered sal-
vation to those who followed. Several taught that the world was filled with spir-
its, demons, and gods and goddesses, and they offered esoteric rituals that could
help provide control over this fantastic system. Some even offered unity with
51
52
Chapter 3 Epicurus
Palestine
Part I Ethics in Ancient Greece (5th 2nd Centuries B.C.R.)
the divine. All of these were two hundred years before Christianity arose in
Astrology became important for the first time in Greek history (stars were
thought to be gods, planets were living things or controlled by living divini-
ties). If you could understand the positions of these astral gods, this would give
you information about what the gods desired, and what would happen on
ranean area. After the glories of the great philosophers and their reliance on rea-
Irrationality was becoming the norm for both Greece and the entire Mediter-
be trusted; the gods could not be relied upon, and reason could not bring a good
son, a new attitude was taking hold. The feeling was that the world could not
all belonged to the past, although the Greeks did not realize it yet. The philoso-
Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle appeared. The great sculptors, the great tragedians,
phy of Epicurus, called Epicureanism, was a reaction to this environment,
property. The life
ers who formed
ley bread most
treated as some
mean something
flavors and food
espoused by Ep
carth. This held out a promise of some control over existence.
THE LIFE OF EPICURUS (341-270 B.C.E.)
Epicurus wrote
ception and ser
that he wroten
lost with the d
titles and frag
Epicurus
nature scientit
perstitions an
piness is the
has eliminate
what replaces
Epicurus was born about 341 B.C.E. (about
seven years after Plato had died), and he
died in 270 B.C.E. He was not born in Athens
as Socrates and Plato were, but he inherited
Athenian citizenship from his parents who
were born in Athens. Epicurus visited
Athens when he was eighteen, and then he
was forced to leave Athens, joining his father
in the city of Colophon. Later he wandered
the Greek islands, and in his wanderings he
encountered students of Plato, Aristotle, and
the older philosopher Democritus (fl. c. 420
B.C.e.). * He studied the writings of Democri-
tus and learned from all the people he en-
countered. But he did not agree with every-
thing they said. Epicurus began to teach
when he was about thirty years old, and he
settled down in Athens a few years later.
He bought a garden and began to teach there. His institution was called the
“Garden of Epicurus,” and it competed with the Academy of Plato and Aristo-
tle’s Lyceum. Unlike the others, the Garden of Epicurus was open to both men
and women, slaves and free persons, landowners and those who owned no
The ethics of
reduced to a
and do noth
and use crit
ophy and st
irrational fe
Epicuri
from irratic
justices of
endure bey
good life.
The
pu
world, and
seek and v
the pleasu
sic ideas
own muc
serenity a
The
sized the
*Democritus argued that all matter exists as indivisible particles, all composed of the same funda-
mental substance and each in constant motion, colliding and connecting with one another. He called
these particles “atoms.” Democritus also argued that atoms need empty space in which to move.
This empty space he called “the void.”

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