Epicurus on Freedom

In this 2005 book, Tim O'Keefe reconstructs the philosopher Epicurus' theory of freedom.

Tim O'Keefe (Author)

9780521114912, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 June 2009

188 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm, 0.28 kg

'… a benchmark for everyone who wants to become familiar with the arguments and wants to develop them further. It is bound to play a fundamental role in current debates about the problem of free will and determinism in Epicurean philosophy.' Rhizai

In this 2005 book, Tim O'Keefe reconstructs the theory of freedom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–271/0 BCE). Epicurus' theory has attracted much interest, but our attempts to understand it have been hampered by reading it anachronistically as the discovery of the modern problem of free will and determinism. O'Keefe argues that the sort of freedom which Epicurus wanted to preserve is significantly different from the 'free will' which philosophers debate today, and that in its emphasis on rational action it has much closer affinities with Aristotle's thought than with current preoccupations. His original and provocative book will be of interest to a wide range of readers in Hellenistic philosophy.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. What sort of an incompatibilist is Epicurus?
2. Lucretius on the swerve and Voluntas
3. Aristotle and Epicurus on the origins of character and action
4. Epicurus' reductionalist response to democritean fatalism
5. The swerve and collisions
6. The swerve and fate
Epilogue: Epicurus and the invention of libertarian free will
Appendix: Some texts
References
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]