Epicurus

world as an atheist and believes in the autonomy of man. He believes that man creates his own destiny and that the universe is self governing. Taylor describes Cassius as an Epicurean which the dictionary defines as, “the philosophical doctrine of Epicurus, holding that the external world is a series of fortuitous combinations of atoms and that the highest good is pleasure” (Dictionary.com). Caesar, in his youth questioned epicureanism, later converted to a more skeptical view of the world, and…

Introduction The problem of evil in religion has been an issue for the followers of religions considering the constant confrontation with evil which bring about human suffering thus this brings about questions as to what constitute the real meaning of life. Religion has it as a duty to answer questions related to the origin of evil and the end of evil. The presence evil has been a great source of suffering to humanity hence it becomes a burden to man. It…

This semester we learned about the competing notions of what a true human being is, but what is a human being? Definitions with the words “homo sapiens”, “speech”, and “living” are bound to come up. Many philosophers have taken it upon themselves to define what it means to be a human being, and although similar in ways, their thoughts differ in many ways as well. Thinkers such as St. Augustine, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean Paul Sartre, and Thomas Hobbes…

John H. Gladstone (1827-1902) was a British chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a “student both of the Scriptures and of natural science”. In 1872, he released his lecture “Points of Supposed Collision Between the Scriptures and Natural Science” in support of Christianity in the battle between Biblical Authority and New Science. In his text, Gladstone begins by acknowledging that, although Scripture and nature are both set in stone, man is susceptible to an errored interpretation of…

dark. The people before him knew of only one form of government, and everyone was one. But, Alexander the Great introduced multiple views with the help of Plato but he had more authority than Plato. The five different views that he introduced was Epicurus- self-sufficiency, Cynicism, Stoicism, Hedonism, and Skepticism. With the views now defined the people were able to think differently or at least knew what to call their differences. The first view is self-explanatory but Cynicism is when you…

Do you ever ruminate what your life would be like if there were no government? Thomas Hobbes is one of the most influential European political philosophers that illustrates this question. Western political philosophy has its ties to the common law of the United Kingdom, but few people have knowledge of the “founding father” of our modern political system. Born prematurely in the English county of Wiltshire, Hobbes was raised by his father’s older brother named Francis, who was a wealthy merchant…

opposed to Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who followed the idea of Stoicism, believed that one should never desire or seek pleasure whatsoever. Although Epicureanism may sound similar to Epictetus, the founder of this system of philosophy was actually Epicurus, who was Lucretius' role model. His philosophy "proposed that the ultimate goal of human life was happiness, and that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a…

the other hand, by the exchange of arguments among the existing schools on various issues (fourth century BC). The fourth part concerns the formation of two new important philosophical schools, which become highly influential in Antiquity, first, Epicurus’ school of epicureanism standing in the tradition of the Cyrenaics and, secondly, Zeno’s school of the Stoics which partly developed from…

Introduction What is Naturalism? Naturalism is a philosophical approach that considers just the presence of nature, consequently things that are heavenly, similar to phantoms, divine beings and spirits, are non-existent. It supports the idea that the most ideal way to prove something to be factual is through the scientific method. Scientific methods are used in order to discover and find answers to problems and issues of the society. The steps to be considered are the following.…

Consequentialism and deontology are contrasting theories of philosophy that guide us in viewing acts in terms of their morality. The doctrine of consequentialism suggests we should judge the morality of actions purely on the results they produce; whereas deontology aims to judge morality based on the conduct of an individual, and morality is decided from the moral acceptance of a particular action rather than the result the decision produces. These principles of philosophy have existed for…