The Social Contract in Epicureanism

Epicurus held that justice came into being when individuals made compacts with one another to secure the benefit that comes from not harming one another. He also distinguished just laws from those that are not just; and he recognized a virtue of justice. This much is well supported by our evidence. There is also much that is controversial. At the very basis, there is disagreement on his conception of justice. There are also basic questions on how compacts are related to the justice of laws, as well as to the virtue of justice. Plato and Aristotle severed compacts from virtue; and some modern thinkers consider the justice of institutions prior to that of individuals. What was Epicurus’ position? This paper will sketch an outline of Epicurus’ theory of justice as a path to the goal of a pleasant life. As Phillip Mitsis (1988) suggested, Epicurus sought to harmonize a contractual view of justice with the virtue of justice. My aim is to investigate further the coherence of this endeavor. As I will argue, Epicurus presents a unitary theory of justice, composed of a number of steps that develop out of each other in a consistent way. As a developmental path, it admits of much variation. By tracing its basic features, I seek to show how Epicurus puts individuals in charge of attaining their goal, pleasure

Epicurus\u27 Scientific Method

I argued that Epicurus sought to infer all truths about what cannot be perceived (what is non-apparent , adêlon) by using what is perceived (the phenomena ) as signs of what is non-apparent. This is an empirical method, based on the claim that sensory perception shows what is true. In the case of his basic physical doctrines, Epicurus argued by a reductio ad absurdum that if the negation of the doctrine were true, there would be a conflict with what we perceive. This applies to Epicurus\u27 first two doctrines, that nothing come to be from non-being and that nothing is destroyed into nonbeing , as much as to succeeding doctrines. Contrary to the usual view (which goes back to Aristotle), Epicurus did not take over these claims from Parmenides. Instead, he proved them by opposing Parmenides\u27 conceptualism with the empirical claim that the phenomena are true. I suggest that Epicurus derived this method from the early atomists

The Social Contract in Epicureanism

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT IN EPICUREANISM Apeiron (Rights reserved) (-) The Social Contract in Epicureanism / Asmis, Elizabeth (CC BY) (-