Ricerc@Sapienza

From a methodological point of view and notwithstanding the very difficult task for anyone who decides to work on the skinny remains offered by the papyrus containing the XXXIV Book of Epicurus’s On Nature, it seems to be neither vain nor improductive to try to dismantle some previous hypotheses and at the same time to advance new ideas about his alleged sceptical target in that work.

This paper mainly focuses on a passage of Theophrastus’ work On First Principles – generally
known as Metaphysics – (8b 10-17), in which the Peripatetic philosopher deals with the relationship between sense-perception (aisthesis) and the faculty of thought (dianoia/nous). Thanks to the close analysis of this text one can argue that according to Theophrastus sense-perception is the

The focus of this paper is the analysis of the epistemological and practical role played by pathe/affections in Epicurus’ philosophy. Epicurus firstly considered the affections not as emotional/passional conditions, but as firm criteria of truth and more specifically as the third criterion of the canonic (i.e. the epistemological part of his philosophical system). In this article the critical reactions (in particular by the Peripatetic side: Aristocles of Messene) against the Epicurean position about the function of the affections will be investigated too.

Lo scopo principale di questo articolo è quello, da un lato, di presentare i caratteri peculiari della nozione epicurea di sensazione (aisthesis), il primo criterio di verità della canonica di Epicuro, dall’altro, discutere criticamente un recente contributo di Alexander Bown (“Epicurus on Truth and Falsehood”, Phronesis, 61 (4), 2016, p. 463-503) che si occupa della duplice nozione di verità (ossia la verità delle sensazioni/aistheseise la verità delle opinioni/hypolepseis) in Epicuro.

After David Leith’s detailed and significant studies (2009, 2012), in this article I again explore the question of the possible influence (also polemic) of some specific doctrines of Epicurus’ science of nature (the theory of atomic minimal parts) and the Peripatetic Strato of Lampsacus’s physics (the theory of the so-called microvoids) on the peculiar (not strictly speaking atomistic) materialism of the physician Asclepiades of Bithynia. I conclude that the hypothesis that both Epicurus and Strato could have been important doctrinal reference points for Asclepiades is highly plausible.

The paper will focus on the Epicurean notions of justice, law, friendship, and the philosophical community. By carefully examining Epicurus’s Principle Doctrines (especially KD 31-40), one can hope to reconstruct a reliable picture of the ‘relativity’ of justice as well as the role of law.

I shall focus on the Epicurean notions of justice, law, and the philosophical community. By carefully examining Epicurus’s Principle Doctrines (especially 31-40) as well as some sentences of the Gnomologium Vaticanum, I want to reconstruct a reliable picture of both the ‘relativity’ of justice and the role of law.

The paper will focus on the Epicurean notions of justice, law, friendship, and the philosophical community. By carefully and especially examining Epicurus’s Principle Doctrines (KD XXXI-XXXVIII), one can hope to reconstruct a reliable picture of the ‘relativity’ of justice as well as the role of law.

The paper aims at individuating and analyzing some key features of Epicurus’s doctrine and literary style against the background of the basic notion of mneme. Since he wants to gain a widespread audience and since all the people are in the condition of understanding his message and taking benefits from it, in many occasions he seems to stress the fact that the best way to accomplish the task just described is easily at disposal of his disciples and readers.

L'articolo illustra la posizione del filosofo greco Epicuro sul problema dello statuto del significato linguistico, alla luce del corrente dibattito su tale tema, in chiave sia storica che teorica. In base a un'analisi delle evidenze testuali si sostiene che in E. esiste una genuina concezione dell'esistenza e dell'autonomia del significato in stretto nesso con la sua teoria gnoseologica.