Folia Theologica 19. (2008)
Perendy László: Judging Philosophers - Theophilus of Antioch on Hellenic inconsistency
JUDGING PHILOSOPHERS 203 Those who worship God have good hopes Of safety, or the previously mentioned Euhemerus and Epicurus and Pythagoras and the rest who deny the existence of religion and destroy providence?" (Ill 7) Epicurus (’E7iÎKO'opoç) (341-270 BC) "was born on the island of Samos, but moved to Athens in 307/6 BC, where he established a secluded community called the 'Garden'. His doctrines are known mainly through the account in Diogenes Laertius, and through Lucretius' poem De Rerum Natura, which is believed to be faithful representation of his thought. Epicurus followed the atomistic metaphysics of Leucippus and Democritus, in particular allowing for empty space, an infinite number of worlds their changing combinations produce. Epicurus also had a doctrine of the survival of the fittest in order to account for the evolution of species without appeal to the final causes of Aristotle. However, room is made for gods, although they have no concern at all for this cosmos, and in particular play no role either as first causes or as providing ends for existence. (...) Another interesting doctrine is that of the prolepsis or way in which experience becomes general, by allowing us to anticipate the kind of object to which terms refer (...) The aim of all philosophy is, however, to enable us to live well, which is not to live in the hedonistic trough the word Epicureanism now suggests, after centuries of propaganda against the system. Rather, practical wisdom, attained through philosophy, is needed to attain the pleasant life, which consists in a preponderance of katastem- atic pleasure, capable of indefinite prolongation, over merely kinematic or volatile sensory pleasures. (...) As with other Greek ethical philosophies, ataraxia, is the summit of the katastematic pleasures, and requires understanding the limits of life and removal of the fear of death, cultivation of friendships, and the removal of unnecessary desires and false gratifications."27 Theophilus condemns Epicurus as well, because he, like some of the Stoics, denies the existence of God. Epicurus asserts that if God exists he takes thought for no one but himself. So, in one way or another, he 27 Blackburn, 122.
