EPICURUS - KNOWLEDGE

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>EPICURUS</FONT><BR> THE MASTER OF PLEASURE</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>What Can we Know?</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>THE SENSES AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE</B></FONT><BR> Epicurus rejected Platonic <A HREF="../t03/g024.html" TARGET="_top">idealism</A> in favour of a <A HREF="../t03/g030.html" TARGET="_top">materialistic</A> view of the universe based on the atomism of <A HREF="../t06/t06f08.html" TARGET="_top">Democritus</A>. Man could come to knowledge only through direct observation of the senses. The Epicurean system acknowledges two things only - matter, which is made up of small indivisible and unchangeable particles and space through which these particles move. The universe is subject to unvarying laws and patterns over which neither man nor the gods has control. Man was no longer at the mercy of the whim of the gods.<P> For Epicurus, preconceptions are responses of the mind to external stimuli. You see a horse and you conceive of the word horse. You see a man and you do not, like <A HREF="../04/04f01.html" TARGET="_top">Plato</A>, feel obliged to define him in terms of comparison with other stimuli as a featherless biped. The identification is spontaneous and real. It need be investigated no further. A conception, what others call opinion or assumption, must be tested against evidence of the senses and declared true or false on that basis. The two basic feelings, pleasure and pain, likewise have a reality based on our response to external stimuli. <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>