Home The Epicurean Notion of epibolê
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

The Epicurean Notion of epibolê

  • Voula Tsouna EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 4, 2021
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

The surviving writings of Epicurus and his followers contain several references to epibolê – a puzzling notion that does not receive discussion in the extant Epicurean texts. There is no consensus about what epibolê is, what it is of, and what it operates on and, moreover, its epistemological status is controversial. This article aims to address these issues in both Epicurus and later Epicurean authors. Part One focuses mainly on Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus, highlights a crucial distinction hitherto unnoticed in the literature between two different types of epibolê, and brings out he necessary connection between epibolê and the application of the criteria of truth. Part Two considers the philosophical merits of the traditional interpretation of epibolê as projection and/or attention. Part Three examines the two aforementioned types of epibolê in Lucretius and Philodemus and shows that these authors accord epibolê paramount epistemological and ethical importance.

Bibliography

Armstrong, David (2004): ‘“All Things to All Men: Philodemus’ Model of Therapy and the Audience of De morte”. In: John T. Fitzgerald, Dirk Obbink, and Glenn S. Holland (eds.): Philodemus and the New Testament World, Leiden, pp. 13–54.10.1163/9789047400240_003Search in Google Scholar

Bailey, Cyril (1926): Epicurus. The Extant Remains. Oxford.Search in Google Scholar

Bailey, Cyril (1947): Lucretius De Rerum Natura. Edited with Prolegomena, Critical Apparatus, Translation, and Commentary, 3 vols. Oxford.Search in Google Scholar

Betegh, Gábor and Tsouna, Voula (forthcoming): “The Epicureans on Preconceptions and Other Concepts”. In: Gábor Betegh and Voula Tsouna (eds.): The Notion of Concept in Greek Philosophy.Search in Google Scholar

Capasso, Mario (1982): Trattato etico epicureo (PHerc. 346). Edizione, traduzione e commento, Publicazioni papirologiche nel XIX Centenario dell’eruzione vesuviana dell’ anno 79, a cura di Marcello Gigante. Naples.Search in Google Scholar

De Lacy, Phillip Howard and De Lacy, Estelle Allen (1978): Philodemus. On Methods of Inference. Revised edition with collaboration of Marcello Gigante, Francesca Longo Auricchio, and Adele Tepedino Guerra, in the series La scuola di Epicuro, ed. Marcello Gigante. Bibliopolis, Naples.Search in Google Scholar

Glidden, David (1985): “Epicurean Prolepsis”, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 3, pp. 175–217.Search in Google Scholar

Goldschmidt, Victor (1978): “Remarques sur l’origine épicurienne de la ‘prénotion’”. In: Jacques Brunschwig, (ed.): Les Stoiciens et leur logique. Paris, pp. 155–69.Search in Google Scholar

Hahmann, Andree (2015): “Epicurus on Truth and Phantasia”, Ancient Philosophy 35, pp. 155–82.10.5840/ancientphil20153519Search in Google Scholar

Hatfield, Gary (1998): “Attention in Early Scientific Psychology”. In: R. D. Wright (ed.): Visual Attention, New York and Oxford, pp. 3–25.10.1093/oso/9780195126938.003.0001Search in Google Scholar

Henry, W. Benjamin (2009): Philodemus, On Death. (Writings from the Greco-Roman World) Atlanta.Search in Google Scholar

Hicks, Robert Drew (1931): Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. II. (Loeb Classical Library) Cambridge, MA.Search in Google Scholar

Ierodiakonou, Katerina (2011): “The Notion of Enargeia in Hellenistic Philosophy”. In: Morison, Benjamin and Ierodiakonou, Katerina (eds.): Epistêmê, etc. Essays in Honour of Jonathan Barnes. Oxford, pp. 60–73.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199696482.003.0003Search in Google Scholar

Konstan, David (2008): “Commentary on Morel”, Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 23, pp. 49–54.Search in Google Scholar

Konstan, David (2020): “Epicurean Phantasia”, ΠΗΓΗ / FONS. Revista de estudios sobre la civilización clásica y su recepción 5, pp. 1–18.10.20318/fons.2020.5049Search in Google Scholar

Leone, Giuliana (2018): “Gli Epicurei e il buon raccolto dell’anima”. In: Paolo Davoli and Natascia Pellé (eds.): Πολυμάθεια. Studi Classici Offerti a Mario Capasso. Lecce, pp. 265–86.Search in Google Scholar

Long, Anthony Arthur and Sedley, David Neil (1987): The Hellenistic Philosophers, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511808050Search in Google Scholar

Masi, Francesca Guadalupe (2015): “Dagli occhi alla mente: Il cammino tortuoso degli εἴδωλα”. In: Francesca Guadalupe Masi and Stefano Maso (eds.): Epicurus on Eidôla: Peri Phuseos Book II. Update, Proposals, and Discussions. Amsterdam, pp. 107–134.Search in Google Scholar

Mole, Christopher (2017): ‘Attention’, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/attention/>Search in Google Scholar

Mole, Christopher, Smithies, Declan and Wu, Wayne, eds. (2011): Attention: Philosophical and Psychological Essays. Oxford.Search in Google Scholar

Morel, Pierre-Marie (2008): “Method and Evidence: On Epicurean Preconception”, Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 23, pp. 25–48.10.1163/22134417-90000090Search in Google Scholar

Moss, Jessica (2012): Aristotle on the Apparent Good: Perception, Phantasia, Thought, and Desire. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656349.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Obbink, Dirk (1996): Philodemus On Piety. Vol. I. Oxford.10.1093/oso/9780195088151.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Rackham, Harris (1951): Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods. (Loeb Classical Library) Cambridge, MA.Search in Google Scholar

Rouse, William Henry Denham (1992): Lucretius On the Nature of Things. Revised by M.F. Smith. (Loeb Classical Library) Cambridge, MA.Search in Google Scholar

Schofield, Malcolm (1992): “Aristotle and the Imagination”. In: Martha Craven Nussbaum and Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (eds.): Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima. Oxford, pp. 249–77.10.1093/019823600X.003.0015Search in Google Scholar

Sedley, David (2020): “Lucretius on Imagination and Mental Projection”, AITIA 10 (en ligne), Le De rerum natura de Lucrèce: perspectives philosophiques, edited by Dimitri El Murr.10.4000/aitia.7606Search in Google Scholar

Striker, Gisela (1974): “Κριτήριον τῆς ἀληθείας”, Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 2, pp. 48–110 (reprinted in English translation in Striker 1996, pp. 22–76).Search in Google Scholar

Striker, Gisela (1996): Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781139172783Search in Google Scholar

Tsouna, Voula (2007): The Ethics of Philodemus. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199292172.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Tsouna, Voula (2016): “Epicurean Preconceptions”, Phronesis 61, pp. 160–221.10.1163/15685284-12341304Search in Google Scholar

Tsouna, Voula (2018): “Epicurean Dreams”, Elenchos 39(2), pp. 231–56.10.1515/elen-2018-0015Search in Google Scholar

Verde, Francesco (2015): “Monismo psicologico e dottrina dell’ anima in Epicuro e Lucrezio”. In: E. Canone (ed.): Anima-corpo alla luce dell’etica: antichi e moderni, Firenze, pp. 49–64.Search in Google Scholar

Verde, Francesco (2016): “Epicuro nella testimonianza di Cicerone: la dottrina del criterio”. In: M. Tulli (ed.): Testo e forme del testo. Ricerche di filologia filosofica, Pisa, pp. 335–68.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2021-12-04
Published in Print: 2021-11-30

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 18.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/rhiz-2021-0011/html
Scroll to top button