Introduction to the Humanities
Lecture 8
The Epicureans, The Stoics
& The Skeptics
By David Kelsey
The Epicureans
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The Epicureans:
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Developed by Epicurus: 341-270 BC
The aim of life is happiness
By science and ridding oneself of fears…
Asserts Hedonism:
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The good is pleasure and the absence of pain
Hedonism
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Hedonism:
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says that a good thing is one that adds to the sum total of human happiness.
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Happiness: pleasure and the absence of pain.
Unhappiness: pain and the absence of pleasure.
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Happiness is the only non-derivative good:
• It is the only thing that is good as an end in itself.
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Derivative goods:
• Other things like money, knowledge, fulfilling personal relationships, etc. are derivatively good…
Hedonism as a descriptive view
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Hedonism as a description of man:
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Epicurus claims that it is just a fact of human beings that pleasure is the non-derivative
good.
His argument: just look around…
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So Philosophy is the study of what makes for happiness.
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Philosophy does 2 things:
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1-it can free us from certain fears
2-it can provide direction for maximizing pleasure
Philosophy can free us from our fears
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Philosophy can free us from our fears:
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We can have pains regarding certain beliefs we hold.
The remedy is to change your belief
False beliefs: there are 2 types of beliefs we can change
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1-beliefs about the gods:
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people are often misled by myths
2-beliefs about death:
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Tradition and myth is full of dreadful stories of the fates of the dead…
Dispelling the myths
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Dispelling the myths:
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The Gods in a determined universe:
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Atomist metaphysics is accepted
But determinism is rejected so that our free will can be salvaged…
They exist, but like everything else are composed of atoms and void.
So to be concerned with human affairs would be an imperfection in the Gods.
Thus, we shouldn’t fear the Gods. They have no interest in us…
The fear of death
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The fear of death:
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While we exist death is not present
And when death is present we no longer exist
So death is of no concern to us…
Epicurus’ words:
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“Accustom yourself to the belief that death is of no concern to us, since all good and
evil lie in sensations and sensation ends with death…Death, the most dreaded of evils,
is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when
death is present we no longer exist. It is therefore nothing either to the living or to the
dead since it is not present to the living, and the dead no longer are.” (Letters, Principal
Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings, 124b-125)
Living Well
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We choose pleasures based on what is good for us:
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So we mustn’t go for pleasure in any circumstances or of any type:
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“For the very reason that pleasure is the chief and the natural good, we do not choose
every pleasure, but there are times when we pass by pleasures if they are outweighed
by the hardships that follow; and many pains we think better than pleasures when a
greater pleasure will come to us once we have undergone the long-continued
pains…By measuring and by looking at advantages and disadvantages, it is proper to
decide all these things, for under certain circumstances we treat the good as evil, and
again, the evil as good.” (129b-130a)
If we are gluttons for pleasure of any kind and if we indulge in excess we are sure to
get a life of misery
If you want to truly be happy you must control and limit your desires to only
what is necessary
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You must limit yourself to desires for life, for ease and those necessary for happiness
So a simple life of moderation is the best life.
The Stoics
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The Stoics:
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Zeno was the founder. (334-262 BC)
It’s leading figures were: Epictetus (51-135 AD) a freed slave, and the Roman emperor
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)
Asserts that nothing that happens to the wise can disturb their happiness.
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Think of something that made you unhappy…
If you didn’t care about such things you wouldn’t be unhappy...
What makes you unhappy about it then is your judgment that such rumors are
distressing.
So your happiness and unhappiness is entirely in your control.
What is within our power
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What is and isn’t within our power:
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We are happy when we get what we desire.
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But if we desire what is beyond our control disappointment is sure to follow for if
we don’t get them we will be unhappy and if we do get them we will be anxious not to
lose them…
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So we must desire only what is in our control
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“Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others.
Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.” (The Handbook of Epictetus, 14)
But only your way of dealing with appearances is within your control.
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What appears in the world is not within our control. How we value and evaluate and judge them
is though…
So we must be prepared to say “You are nothing in relation to me” (The Handbook of Epictetus,
1)
The order of nature
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The order of nature:
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God:
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The material world is ordered by a rational principle, a logos
This is the ordering of the world by and for a reason and so is called Divine
“Universal Nature’s impulse was to create an orderly world. It follows, then, that
everything now happening must follow a logical sequence; if it were not so, the prime
purpose towards which the impulses of the World-Reason are directed would be an
irrational one…” (Meditations, 7.75)
God is in all things and all things are God. This view is known as Pantheism
Divine Providence:
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Whatever happens is determined by the divine reason and so it must happen for the
best…
Divine Providence
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Divine providence:
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So the world is fully determined by the rational order that is Divine.
Self-preservation:
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Everything in nature contains an ordering principle in harmony with the great order of the whole. In
living things there is a natural tendency toward self preservation…
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So we can keep our wills in harmony with nature by doing what is necessary for self preservation…
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So there is nothing wrong with doing what one prefers, for example trying to gain wealth or fame. It is
natural to do so.
• But such desires must be pursued with equanimity. One cannot be disturbed if her quest to
satisfy some desire is thwarted or frustrated.
• So the only thing of absolute value to the Stoic: being in harmony with nature
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“Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they
do happen, and your life will go well.” (The Handbook of Epictetus, 8)
Virtue and Morality
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Virtue:
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Intention:
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The only true good is a life in harmony with nature, reason and God.
Since the outcome of an action is not within the agent’s control but the agent’s will and
intention is…
What counts in moral assessment is the state of the agent’s will…
Duty:
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We have a duty to harmonize our intentions and our will with the law of nature. You
have a duty to be virtuous then.
The microcosm of our soul ought to be in harmony with the order of the universe…
Skepticism
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Skepticsm:
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The belief that the nature of things is indeterminable
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Asserted by Pyrrho, (4th century BC)
And later developed by Sextus Empiricus (2nd century AD)
We draw a distinction between things as they really are independent of us and things
as they appear to us
So a skeptic is someone who denies that we know anything
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The skeptic doesn’t deny that we believe many things that may well be true.
Rather, they deny that our beliefs are ever justified.
• Our beliefs are never justified because we cannot ever know for sure that things
are as they appear…
The skeptic
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Dogmatist:
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Someone who affirms what is not evident
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But any claim about how things really are, about how things are independent of their
appearance to our senses, is a claim about the non-evident
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So any philosophical theory about reality beyond the appearances is dogmatic…
Skepticism
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Skepticism:
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Is motivated by:
• the fact that things may not appear as they really are and that the true nature of things is
indeterminable
– The senses can deceive us, for example, the straight oar in water looks bent…
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The sense organs of animals differ from species to species
– The many faceted eye of the fly vs. the eco-location of the bat…
– It would be arbitrary to say that one mode of sense perception is the true mode
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Human preferences vary from individual to individual
– The same objects can affect one man different than another
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So we must suspend judgment
– We neither affirm nor deny any belief about the real nature of an object
– We can state how an object appears but not how it is in reality
The Skeptical Problem of the Criterion
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The Skeptical Problem of the Criterion:
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The central question: by what mark or criterion or standard are we to decide which of
our beliefs are true, and which knowledge.
The skeptic thinks no satisfactory criterion can be found.
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The argument:
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Any claim that some principle is a criterion for truth must be supported.
But we shall need a 2nd criterion to decide if the support is sufficient.
But then how do we support our use of this 2nd criterion? By means of some further 3rd
criterion…
But then we find ourselves in an infinite regress. Or we find ourselves in a vicious circle,
begging the question in favor of some assumed criterion.
So we must suspend judgment
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We must suspend judgment about which criterion will determine truth
So Nothing can be known
And the skeptic makes no claim even about whether anything can be known or not…
The skeptic is noncommittal regarding any knowledge claims that concern how things really are.
How are we to live?
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How are we to live?
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Life by appearances
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If we suspend judgment about how the world really is, won’t we just be paralyzed and forced into
inaction.
The skeptics don’t deny appearances. Instead we can live by restricting ourselves to how things
seem.
“Adhering, then, to appearances we live in accordance with the normal rules of life, undogmatically,
seeing that we cannot remain wholly inactive.” (Outlines of Pyrrhonism, 1.21-23)
If something has in experience resulted in better health, we go after it.
Happiness in tranquility:
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If we seek certainty about the true nature of things we will be in doubt and so perturbed and so
unhappy.
So we must give up the search for certainty.
Happiness lies in the tranquility one gains in accepting that he cannot know…