During vertical drop thought epicurus one atom

 During vertical drop, thought Epicurus, one atom instead of falling perfectly straight
developed a slight easing to one side-that is, a lateral “swerve”
God and Death
 With this explanation of the origin of human being s-and for that matter of all beings including
“divine beings” – Epicurus thought that he had liberated people from the fear of God and of
death.
 As for death, Epicurus said that this need not bother anyone, because only a living person
has sensation either of pain or of pleasure
 There is no longer this particular body or mind but only a number of distinct atoms that
return, as it were, to the primeval inventory of matter to continue the cycle of new formations.
 Only matter exists, and in human life all each individual knows is this body and this present
moment of experience.
 The composition of human nature includes atoms of different sizes and shapes. The larger
atoms make up bodies, and the smaller, smoother, and swifter atoms account for sensation
and thinking. No other principle is needed to explain a person’s nature – no God and,
therefore, no afterlife. Liberation from the fear of God and of death sets stage for a way of life
completely under person’s own control.

 This was a new direction in moral philosophy, for it focused on the individual and his or her
immediate desires for bodily and mental pleasure instead of on abstract principles right
conduct or considerations of God’s command.
 Just as his physical theory made the individual atom the final basis of all existence, so also
Epicurus singled out the individual person as the arena of the moral enterprise
The Pleasure Principle
 Epicurus portrayed the origin of all things in a mechanical way and placed humans into the
scheme of things as just another small mechanism whose nature leads us to seek pleasure.
 Epicurus reserved for humans both the power and the duty to regulate the traffic of our
desires.
 He was certain that pleasure was the standard of goodness, but he was equally certain that
not every kind of pleasure had the same value.
 Accdg. to Epicurus, pleasure was the standard of goodness for all people have an immediate
feeling of different between pleasure and pain and of the desirability of pleasure.
 He writes , “We recognize pleasure as the first good innate in us, and from pleasure we
begin every act of choice and avoidance, and to pleasure we return again.”
 Feeling is as immediate a test of goodness or badness as sensation is a test of truth,
 To our senses, pain is always bad and pleasure is always good, just as telling us whether
something is in front of us or not.
 Epicurus emphasized the distinction between various kinds of pleasures ,
 Some desires are both natural and necessary , as in case of food.
 Others are natural but not necessary , as in the case of some types of sexual pleasure.