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About 4 results for ‘Epicurus’

  • Epicurus

    Epicurus

    Source: Wikipedia

    Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators. For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear—and aponia—the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil, that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared, that the gods do not reward or punish humans, that the universe is infinite and eternal, and that events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space. Though there is no evidence Epicurus himself knew of it, he developed a large following during his lifetime and for centuries after his death among Jews, until today. According to the Mishnah the growing Jewish student base of Epicurus, had an extremely vexing antagonistic relationship with the Tannaic authorities, this seems to have been the primary intellectual controversy to the pre-Christian, Jewish people. This; over time developed a life of its own among the European Jewish ethnicity, where an 'Apikorres' (the Aramaic pronunciation of the philosophers name) represented any secular argument with the Torah, a modern example would be a orthodox Rabbi saying the following 'Darwin or Einstein is the height of Appikorres'. The 18 Century Lithuanian Jewish leader, Vilna Gaon is credited with the Lithuanian Jewish joke about young rabbinical students who were too secular in their questioning, he would accuse them "You do not know enough to be an Apikorres". The Talmud juxtaposes 'Apikorsim', followers of Epicurus, with "Fillisofs", all Greek philosophers, who are far more respected, due to the fact that not all Greek Philosophers denied reward and punnishment in the afterlife, and did not reduce all things to atoms as fanatically as Epicurus and his followers .

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Source: Wikipedia