Atoms, Pneuma, and Tranquillity
Epicurean and Stoic Themes in European Thought

This book addresses the question of the influence that Epicureanism and Stoicism exerted on the development of European thought from classical times to the Enlightenment.

Margaret J. Osler (Edited by)

9780521018463, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 August 2005

320 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

"...will amply reward the careful consideration it demands." Eric R. Meyer, ISIS

This volume examines the influence that Epicureanism and Stoicism, two philosophies of nature and human nature articulated during classical times, exerted on the development of European thought to the Enlightenment. Although the influence of these philosophies has often been noted in certain areas, such as the influence of Stoicism on the development of Christian thought and the influence of Epicureanism on modern materialism, the chapters in this volume contribute a new awareness of the degree to which these philosophies and their continued interaction informed European intellectual life well into early modern times. The influence of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies in the areas of literature, philosophy, theology, and science are considered. Many thinkers continue to perceive these philosophies as significant alternatives for understanding the human and natural worlds. Having become incorporated into the canon of philosophical alternatives, Epicureanism and Stoicism continued to exert identifiable influences on scientific and philosophical thought at least until the middle of the eighteenth century.

Introduction Margaret J. Osler and Letizia A. Panizza
1. Ethics and logic in stoicism Gerard Verbeke
2. Medieval connectives, Hellenistic connections: the strange case of propositional logic Calvin G. Normore
3. Stoic psychotherapy in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Petrarch's De Remediis Letizia A. Panizza
4. Alonso de Cartagena and John Calvin as interpreters of Seneca's De Clementia Nicholas G. Round
5. The Epicurean in Lorenzo Valla's On Pleasure Maristella de P. Lorch
6. Seneca's role in popularizing Epicurus in the Renaissance Louise Fothergill-Payne
7. Stoic contributions to early modern science Peter Barker
8. Fortune, fate, and divination: Gassendi's voluntarist theology and the baptism of Epicureanism Margaret J. Osler
9. Epicureanism and the creation of a privatist ethic in early seventeenth-century France Lisa Tunick Sarasohn
10. Robert Boyle on Epicurean atheism and atomism J. J. Macintosh
11. Stoic and Epicurean doctrines in Newton's system of the world B. J. T. Dobbs
12. Locke, Willis, and the seventeenth-century Epicurean soul John P. Wright
13. The Epicurean way of ideas: Gassendi, Locke, and Berkeley Thomas M. Lennon
14. The stoic legacy in the early Scottish enlightenment M. A. Stewart.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]