#102 Epicurus

The Axial Age
Noting the overlap of several foundational thinkers the thinkers we will be exploring in the first marking period have been described by Karl Jaspers as part of a common “Axial Age”:

• “The most extraordinary events are concentrated in this period, Confucius and Laozi were living in China, all the schools of Chinese philosophy came into being, including those of Mozi, Zhuangzi, Liezi and a host of others; India produced the Upanishads and Buddha and, like China, ran the whole gamut of philosophical possibilities down to skepticism, to materialism, sophism and nihilism; in Iran Zarathustra taught a challenging view of the world as a struggle between good and evil; in Palestine the prophets made their appearance, from Elijah by way of Isaiah and Jeremiah to Deutero-Isaiah; Greece witnessed the appearance of Homer, of the philosophers Parmenides, Heraclitus and Plato of the tragedians, Thucydides and Archimedes. Everything implied by these names developed during these few centuries almost simultaneously in China, India, and the West, without any one of these regions knowing of the others.”—Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953), 2. (Note: some spellings updated).
  • Is Jaspers' description of the "Axial Age" convincing? If so, what significance do you think it holds? If not, why not?
• Epicurus is a prominent thinker from the Mediterranean world. Note we are provided a brief introduction on page 4.
• We’re going to start out with limited context beyond what is offered in the introduction. Either at the end of class or at the outset of tomorrow’s class, I would like to explore with all of you what we might want to know about the world Epicurus lived in and why that might be helpful—and perhaps limiting—in the way we read the text.   

Reading Epicurus

• First, we’ll read what I’d call the first “section” closely to identify (a) a possible title for the section, and (b) the 2-3 most important messages in the paragraph. (Note: this may not be the most important part of the text, so we’ll probably move fairly quickly so we have more time for the next part.)
• Second, we’ll break up into 3 groups. In your groups, discuss:
  • In addition to the first section which we’ve discussed together, identify what you think are the remaining sections and give them titles. Together we’ll discuss where the breaks are in the text and how we went about locating them.
• Third, we’ll open up the discussion to look closely at the latter half of the text to discuss the relationship of some of the key terms: 
  • pleasure
  • pain
  • good
  • evil
  • end
• If time allows: return to initial question: What might we want to know about the world Epicurus lived in and why that might be helpful—and perhaps limiting—in the way we read the text?
• Homework: Assignment #103.