Are You On Team Epicurus?
A Decision Tree Based On Three Simple Questions
A Decision Tree Based On Three Simple Questions
Position: The study of physical nature is inferior to the study of mathematics, logic, and ideal forms. The material world is an imperfect reflection of higher truths.
Plato, Phaedo 99d-e: "I thought I must have recourse to conceptions, and examine in them the truth of realities... I feared I might wholly blind my soul by looking at things with my eyes and trying to apprehend them with the bodily senses."
Socrates in Apology 19b-c: "I have nothing to do with physical speculations... I have no knowledge of these things at all."
Cicero on Socrates (Tusculan Disputations 5.10): "Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and set her in the cities of men... and compel her to ask questions about life and morals."
Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 15.65: "Pythagoras... turned away from the investigation of nature to the contemplation of numbers."
Position: Divided. Some traditions emphasize nature study as revealing God's creation; others prioritize faith and scripture over natural investigation.
Against Worldly Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:19-21): "For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe."
Against Philosophy (Colossians 2:8): "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
For Nature Study (Psalm 19:1): "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."
For Nature Study (Romans 1:20): "For his invisible attributes... have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made."
Position: Natural philosophy is essential. We must study the physical world to understand causes and purposes.
Metaphysics: "All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses."
Physics: "When the objects of inquiry are things of which we have sensible perception... we must begin by setting out the phenomena."
Position: Physics is one of the three essential parts of philosophy. Understanding nature reveals divine reason (Logos).
Chrysippus via Plutarch: "There is no other or more suitable approach to the theory of good and evil, to the virtues, or to happiness than from universal nature and the administration of the universe."
Diogenes Laertius on Stoicism: "They compare philosophy to a living being, likening logic to bones and sinews, ethics to the fleshy parts, and physics to the soul."
Position: Physics is the foundation of philosophy. Without understanding nature, we cannot live well or free from fear.
Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus: "First of all, we must grasp the things which underlie words... Nothing can come into being from that which is non-existent."
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things: "This terror and darkness of mind must be dispelled not by the rays of the sun... but by the aspect and law of nature."
Position: There is an Unmoved Mover, a divine intelligence that is the ultimate cause of all motion and the object of contemplation.
Metaphysics XII: "There must be some principle whose substance is actuality... There is something which is eternally moved with an unceasing motion... and the first mover must itself be unmoved."
On the Gods: "The divine thought thinks itself... and its thinking is a thinking on thinking."
Position: Zeus/Divine Providence/Logos governs all of nature. The universe itself is divine and rational.
Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus: "For all this universe, as it revolves around the earth, obeys you... and willingly submits to your sway."
Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods (Stoic view): "The universe is governed by divine intelligence and reason... Nothing can be better than the world, nothing more beautiful, nothing more desirable."
Position: Nature operates by natural laws alone. Gods, if they exist, are blessed and immortal and have no concern with human affairs.
Epicurus, Principal Doctrine 1: "A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness."
Lucretius: "The gods... cannot be affected with anger or appeased with favours... Nature is free and uncontrolled by proud masters and runs the universe by herself without the aid of gods."
Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods (Epicurean Velleius): "Do you not see that the entire province of the gods has been handed over to natural philosophy?"