RE: An Essay about Atheism in Latin
October 19, 2019 at 8:19 am
(This post was last modified: October 19, 2019 at 8:51 am by Belacqua.)
A note on Lucretius, by the way:
The goal for Epicureans like him was a state of mind called ataraxia. After realizing that the world was merely a combination of dead atoms, you would attain this state and become indifferent to the suffering of others and how the world works.
If this had really caught on, it would have nipped science in the bud by eliminating its two main motivations: the desire to improve life, and curiosity.
When the Christian philosophers of the Renaissance began to look at Lucretius' book again, they took from it a number of ideas, but wisely chose not to make ataraxia their goal. As Christians, they were taught not to be indifferent to other people's suffering. And since the Logos is the second person of the Trinity, and Logos is also the set of principles and laws through which nature operates, many Christians had long argued that to learn how the world works is to know God better.
Yeah, I don't find them persuasive either.
That doesn't mean we should say false things about them, though.
One thing that I think has been exaggerated is the extent to which they are meant to persuade. I don't think they were written as stand-alone succinct proofs, as if they were syllogisms. They were more like bullet points for theology students, and several of the ideas -- like what constitutes the "greatest" and why there would have to be such a thing -- need filling in with about a semester's worth of lectures.
The goal for Epicureans like him was a state of mind called ataraxia. After realizing that the world was merely a combination of dead atoms, you would attain this state and become indifferent to the suffering of others and how the world works.
If this had really caught on, it would have nipped science in the bud by eliminating its two main motivations: the desire to improve life, and curiosity.
When the Christian philosophers of the Renaissance began to look at Lucretius' book again, they took from it a number of ideas, but wisely chose not to make ataraxia their goal. As Christians, they were taught not to be indifferent to other people's suffering. And since the Logos is the second person of the Trinity, and Logos is also the set of principles and laws through which nature operates, many Christians had long argued that to learn how the world works is to know God better.
(October 19, 2019 at 5:35 am)Grandizer Wrote: The problem with arguments such as Aquinas' Five Ways[...]
Yeah, I don't find them persuasive either.
That doesn't mean we should say false things about them, though.
One thing that I think has been exaggerated is the extent to which they are meant to persuade. I don't think they were written as stand-alone succinct proofs, as if they were syllogisms. They were more like bullet points for theology students, and several of the ideas -- like what constitutes the "greatest" and why there would have to be such a thing -- need filling in with about a semester's worth of lectures.
