PHILOS 25A Lecture Notes - Lecture 39: Hellenistic Philosophy, Epicureanism, Epicurus
Document Summary
Later greek (hellenistic) philosophy: roughly 323-30 bce, the leading figures of hellenistic philosophy were not ethnically greeks, but they grew up in a world dominated by the greeks. Relation to aristotle in plato: in some ways they do not relate to aristotle and plato because they did not engage directly with their writings, however, many of them were inspired by socrates as the paradigmatic philosopher. The epicureans and stoics were inspired primarily by the notion that we are essentially our rationality. The sceptics were more inspired by socrates" elenchus. Epicurus (341-271 bce: overlapped 20 years with aristotle, epicurus realized that we are all governed by the things we believe, and most of our beliefs our irrational. Because they our irrational, they make us unhappy. Therefore, he thought we should rid ourselves of irrational beliefs and their impacts on our lives. By removing these bad beliefs, we achieve pleasure.
