Preview

Eulogy On Epicurus Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
694 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Eulogy On Epicurus Summary
BOOK3)
Eulogy on Epicurus: “You are my father and the discoverer of truth… I feed on each golden saying. Plainly visible are the gods in their majesty and their calm realms… All the needs of the gods are sullied by nature, and nothing at any time detracts from their peace of mind.

Says we must banish fear of death. Men are driven to seek wealth in part because of a fear of death. Mind and soul are intimately connected, form single substance. Mind/intelligence is fixed in middle of breast, rest of soul-substance is disseminated through all the body. Mind and soul consist of material substance. Mind and soul consist of heat, calm air, chill breath, and nameless subtle substance. Body and soul are united even in the womb. Mind is more essential to life than the soul. Both are born together and decline together. Mind feels pain and is therefore immortal? Affected by the body and can be cured with medicine. Mind cannot exist without the body and the two live in unison. Soul suffers dissolution at death. Soul is not immortal. Dying is a lot like someone turning off the lights, then. He says you really won't be around to care either way.
…show more content…
Futile to mourn the dead, since it involves a “return to sleep and repose., In death there is no longing for sensual pleasures. Nature rebukes those who complain about death. Hell exists only in our life. Many men have died before you, why should you hesitate to die? Restlessness and discontent can only be banished by studying the nature of things. Why cling to life, when death is inevitable and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    A Stoic is a person who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain. One who is not touched by the outside world seem to live inside themselves always thinking that today might be the last. Stoics detach themselves from things of this worlds including objects, people, and to a certain extent their own lives. In Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and Epictetus’ Discourses they both explain how to properly be a stoic, learning to deny their feelings, respect themselves and nature, and detach themselves from the useless things of this world.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind−and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town (42).…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his essay "The Myth of Immortality," Clarence Darrow explains his belief that life after death is a hoax and backs up his logic with logical reasoning. Darrow finds it hard to believe that life exists after death simply because there are no facts to prove that it exists. He states that "if people really believed in a beautiful, happy, glorious land waiting after death why don't they hasten themselves to it." Darrow also shows his discern in his views for the soul questioning that if we do have a soul, when is it created in the natural process of reproduction? He also questions "If a man has a soul that persists after death, that goes to a heaven of the blessed or to a hell of the damned, where are those places?" Moreover, he goes into detail and explains his reasoning against the resurrection of the body. He states the mere thought of such ideas beggars reason, ignores facts, and enthrones blind faith, wild dreams, hopeless hopes, and cowardly fears as sovereign of the human mind, despite the fact the bible clearly states that Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. Darrow moves on into the scientific reasoning stating that people take comfort in the law that matter and force cannot be destroyed, meaning their soul lives on forever. Darrow continues and says that there is no proof that memory and consciousness exists after death. Even more, Darrow continues with his statement "We are assured that without faith, life is only desolation and despair." Or in other words, Darrow says that people "create" a place that exists after death in order to ease the natural fears. In conclusion Darrow states "we should be more kind to each other and make our lives easier for we live a common life and die a common…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is a constant presence in life that can not be escaped and is experienced by everyone. Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and both deal with different perspectives of death. Thomas’s poem looks at death from an external perspective of watching a person die where Dickinson’s poem looks at death through the perspective of a person experiencing death. These perspectives on death show the acceptance of death and eternity and death and disparity of life ending.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    There is an impulse to fear death which exists due to the incessant involvement of religious ideas of damnation throughout time. Per Lucretius, this fear of death is completely theoretical, and is overall completely invalid; he argues that there is nothing after death, therefore, people have no reason to fear it. It is important to note not how he counters religion, but how he bases it upon his own ideas of atomism. Lucretius argues that the whole of the human body, mind and physique, are created from specific kinds of atoms. A principle idea of atomism is that the atoms people are comprised of provide the basis for the human senses, such as taste, smell, touch, etc.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gwen Harwood

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Experiences and relationships can also shape one’s appreciation of life and understanding of the nature of death. This is shown in part…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The stance that this quote takes is that oblivion is terrible and that when sinners die they will burn and suffer forever. The reason as to why the author chose this stance is reflected upon the fact that the author was religious and wants everyone to end up in heaven the way he believes you they can.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stoics believe that it is in their power to discover the will of Nature from unimportant matters, thus defining experience and life based on what matters to you and what by nature is “free, unhindered [and] untrammeled” (Arrian 133). To accomplish this discovery of will, Epictetus envisions the Stoics as constantly discerning the nature and manner of objects and people (Arrian 134). The Stoics also desire to live without worry, according to Arrian, letting their will be that things happen as they ought and not as they desire themselves, sacrificing their will for the will of Nature to run its due course…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Epicurus says that Pleasure is what we pursue and, what we come back to, but for him pleasure stems from lack of pain. He believed that a life on moderation brought the most pleasure that over indulgence was unhealthy and brought pain. The simple things in life bring the most pleasure. He believed that mental pain was worse the physical pain. He explained mental pain a disturbance of the mind. He urged prudence in our pursuit of pleasures, and that all other virtues spring from it.…

    • 224 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    b) 67b: Death is the separation of the soul from the body. We shall be closest to knowledge (in live) if we refrain as much as possible from association with the body and do not fall to bodily pleasures but live a purified life. Philosophers are only concerned with the well-being of their souls and the best kind of wisdom comes from reason alone,…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is something that every human must face. It is the inevitable conclusion to life and is something that humans have had to come to terms with since the dawn of their existence. This is very clear in many of the writings and stories that human beings have told throughout history. This obsession about the ultimate culmination of life is heavily expressed in literary works like The Epic of Gilgamesh, Virgil’s The Aeneid, and Beowulf.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    EPICURUS TO MENOECEUS

    • 914 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Epicurus in his letter to Menoeceus backers the necessity of freedom from prejudice, superstition and extremes of emotions in the pursuit of happiness and a tranquil life. The apparent simplicity of this formula allowed detractors to misinterpret Epicurus, depicting him as depraved, hedonistic, anarchistic and atheistic. His aim is to present to us, how to live a happy life. He sees happiness as the fundamental principle of the good life. This paper is an attempt to critically delineate the essential tenets of Epicureanism as articulated in his letter to Menoeceus, and finally to criticize and evaluate in order to arrive at a dependable conclusion. In what follows, it would be apt to briefly consider the personality or Epicurus, before delving into the main work.…

    • 914 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Life and Death Overtakes

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Death is a dreaded word. It is a word that many people would not want to talk about. Death is considered a morbid word and many would not find this as an engaging topic. According to Patricelli (2007), “[d]eath remains a great mystery, one of the central issues with which religion and philosophy and science have wrestled since the beginning of human history. Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines”. There are also people that have negative connotations about death, rendering life even meaningless because of it. Death appears to render life meaningless for many people because they feel that there is no point in developing character or increasing knowledge if our progress is ultimately going to be thwarted by death (Augustine, 2000). But the author contends that there is a point in developing character and increasing knowledge before death overtakes us: to provide peace of mind and intellectual satisfaction to our lives and to the lives of those we care about for their own sake because pursuing these goals enriches our lives. From the fact that death is inevitable it does not follow that nothing we do matters now. On the contrary, our lives matter a great deal to us. If they did not, we would not find the idea of our own death so distressing--it wouldn't matter that our lives will come to an end. The fact that we're all eventually going to die has no relevance to whether our activities are worthwhile in the here and now: For an ill patient in a hospital a doctor's efforts to alleviate pain certainly does matter despite the fact that 'in the end' both the doctor and the patient will be dead (Augustine).…

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death In Culture

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Death is a necessity to culture and society therefore it is irrational to fear the unenviable and the necessary. Death whether physical or non-physical will always cause change. The change that is caused by death does not always have to be direct but can manifest itself as an indirect change. Throughout time societies have risen and fallen, times changes, nothing is ever going to stay the same. Death is a factor that will impact everyone who is alive as they will meet death. As society’s change and cultures evolve so do the people; to keep change occurring death must ensue for creation to occur. Society’s and cultures depend on death. Death is the drive of progression which drives society’s and cultures to get farther from the unetible death.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Epicurus is considered a major figure in the history of science as well as philosophy. He argued that we should only proportion belief to empirical evidence and logic, and he propounded the scientific view of atomism, according to which all facts in the macroscopic world are caused by the configuration of atoms or indivisible elements in the microscopic world. In ethics he is famous for propounding the theory of hedonism, which holds that pleasure is the only intrinsic value. As we shall see, however, his view of pleasure is far from the stereotypical one. For Epicurus, the most pleasant life is one where we abstain from unnecessary desires and achieve an inner tranquility (ataraxia) by being content with simple things, and by choosing…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays