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Single Idea 1909

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 7. Anti-Physicalism / a. Physicalism critique ]

Full Idea

If Epicurus makes the end consist in pleasure and asserts that the soul, like all else, is composed of atoms, it is impossible to explain how in a heap of atoms there can come about pleasure, or judgement of the good.

Gist of Idea

How can pleasure or judgement occur in a heap of atoms?

Source

comment on Epicurus (fragments/reports [c.289 BCE]) by Sextus Empiricus - Outlines of Pyrrhonism III.187

Book Ref

Sextus Empiricus: 'Outlines of Pyrrhonism', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Prometheus 1990], p.252

A Reaction

This is a nice statement of the mind-body problem. Ontologically, physics still seems to present reality as a 'heap of particles', which gives no basis for the emergence of anything as strange as consciousness. But then magnetism is pretty strange.

The 46 ideas from 'fragments/reports'

22758 Philosophy aims at a happy life, through argument and discussion [Epicurus]
14523 We should come to philosophy free from any taint of culture [Epicurus]
1484 We should say nothing of the whole if our contact is with the parts [Epicurus, by Plutarch]
2670 Epicurus despises and laughs at the whole of dialectic [Epicurus, by Cicero]
21668 Epicurus rejected excluded middle, because accepting it for events is fatalistic [Epicurus, by Cicero]
21676 Epicureans say disjunctions can be true whiile the disjuncts are not true [Epicurus, by Cicero]
1824 To name something, you must already have an idea of what it is [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1820 The criteria of truth are senses, preconceptions and passions [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1487 When entering a dark room it is colourless, but colour gradually appears [Epicurus]
3562 Fine things are worthless if they give no pleasure [Epicurus]
3557 The end for Epicurus is static pleasure [Epicurus, by Annas]
1823 We can't seek for things if we have no idea of them [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1821 Sensations cannot be judged, because similar sensations have equal value, and different ones have nothing in common [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1822 Reason can't judge senses, as it is based on them [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1482 If two people disagree over taste, who is right? [Epicurus, by Plutarch]
1483 Bath water is too hot for some, too cold for others [Epicurus, by Plutarch]
4549 Epicurus denied knowledge in order to retain morality or hedonism as the highest values [Nietzsche on Epicurus]
2668 Epicurus says if one of a man's senses ever lies, none of his senses should ever be believed [Epicurus, by Cicero]
14526 The rational soul is in the chest, and the non-rational soul is spread through the body [Epicurus]
6035 Soul is made of four stuffs, giving warmth, rest, motion and perception [Epicurus, by Aetius]
1831 Wise men should partake of life even if they go blind [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
6018 Epicurus was the first to see the free will problem, and he was a libertarian [Epicurus, by Long/Sedley]
20922 Epicurus showed that the swerve can give free motion in the atoms [Epicurus, by Diogenes of Oen.]
14525 Stoics say time is incorporeal and self-sufficient; Epicurus says it is a property of properties of things [Epicurus]
1909 How can pleasure or judgement occur in a heap of atoms? [Sext.Empiricus on Epicurus]
7814 It was Epicurus who made the question of the will's freedom central to ethics [Epicurus, by Grayling]
1845 Justice has no independent existence, but arises entirely from keeping contracts [Epicurus]
1840 Pleasure is the chief good because it is the most natural, especially for animals [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1839 Pains of the soul are worse than pains of the body, because it feels the past and future [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1842 Pleasures only differ in their duration and the part of the body affected [Epicurus]
1843 Friendship is by far the most important ingredient of a complete and happy life [Epicurus]
1841 We choose virtue because of pleasure, not for its own sake [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
1829 A wise man would be happy even under torture [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
2633 Epicurus saw that gods must exist, because nature has imprinted them on human minds [Epicurus, by Cicero]
2637 For Epicureans gods are made of atoms, and are not eternal [Epicurus, by Cicero]
12044 Only Epicurus denied purpose in nature, for the whole world, or for its parts [Epicurus, by Annas]
20907 Democritus says atoms have size and shape, and Epicurus added weight [Epicurus, by Ps-Plutarch]
21669 Atoms don't swerve by being struck, because they move in parallel, so the swerve is uncaused [Cicero on Epicurus]
21680 What causes atomic swerves? Do they draw lots? What decides the size or number of swerves? [Cicero on Epicurus]
2639 Some say Epicurus only pretended to believe in the gods, so as not to offend Athenians [Epicurus, by Cicero]
14527 If god answered prayers we would be destroyed, because we pray for others to suffer [Epicurus]
22733 Epicurus accepted God in his popular works, but not in his writings on nature [Epicurus, by Sext.Empiricus]
13291 Slavery to philosophy brings true freedom [Epicurus]
14516 There is no necessity to live with necessity [Epicurus]
22240 The aim of medicine is removal of sickness, and philosophy similarly removes our affections [Epicurus]
5949 Epicurus says colours are relative to the eye, not intrinsic to bodies [Epicurus, by Plutarch]