Epicurus And Reductionism

Question 1

Free will

Answer 1

Focused on leading happy lives, free from pain as possible.
Focus on neg. Utilitarianism, for him world entirely physical and any event was therefore there or ethically predictable given its circumstances and natural forces involved - not free and at mercy of external forces over which we exercise no control

Question 2

Determinism

Answer 2

Causal determinism: big bang started casual chain of events in universe
all forms of hard determinism based on concept of ‘universal causation’ every event in universe has a cause.
Ethical choices do not exist: our moral decisions are determined, may think we are free but thats an illusion created by complex processes that go on in human brain.
Since its an illusion not logically justified to claim responsibility for our actions

Question 3

Reductionism

Answer 3

To understand a complex entity, should reduce it to the smallest component of which its made, human behaviour is reduced to biological factors, which is then reduced to chem and then physics
So our thoughts are seen as electrical impulses in the brain and actions are result of chemical and electrical activity- out of our control

Determined by laws of physics

‘Men are mistaken in thinking themselves free’ - spinoza