Epicurus and Reductionism

Question 1

Epicurus

Answer 1

• greek philosopher
  -believed philosophy can and should lead people to happy lives, as free from pain or fear as possible, in which respect Epicurus anticipated UT.
  -associated with living a life of rampant pleasure

Question 2

Epicurus beliefs

Answer 2

-world entirely physical, any event was therefore theoretically predictable given its circumstances and natural forces involved
-people are therefore not free and are at mercy of external forces over which they exercise no control

Question 3

casual determinism

Answer 3

-Big Bang started the causal chain of events in universe. the laws of physics suggest that there is a complete chain of antecedent causes going back to the big bang

Question 4

hard determinism

Answer 4

-all events and state of affairs, including all human decisions and actions, are the necessary consequence of antecedent (previous) states of affairs .

-determinism commonly identified with causal determinism, because laws of cause and effect in physics can be seen as chain of antecedent causes going back to Big Bang

-no one has FW

-based on ‘universal causation’

Question 5

whats universal causation

Answer 5

every event in the universe has a cause
physical and mental events

Question 6

Reductionism

Answer 6

-to understand complex entity, one should analyse it ti smallest components parts of which its made

-human behaviour reduced to biology, which is then reduced to chemistry , which is then reduced to physics .

-our thoughts may be seen as no more than electrical impulses in the brain, and our actions are simply result of chemical and electrical activity