Abstract
Epicurus and his followers were the forerunners of materialist philosophy, and they denied the existence of non-material linguistic elements, such as propositional contents (lekta). Instead, they proposed a theory of linguistic naturalism, according to which language first emerges from our natural responses to our lived environments. Interaction with different types of environment is partly responsible for the variety of different languages. In addition to sense engagement with reality, we also have “basic grasps” (prolepsis) that enable us to have concepts (i.e., universal ideas) that are the denotata of linguistic expressions.
Texts from Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch and Sextus Empiricus’ Adversus Mathematicos excerpted from: Inwood, B. and L.P. Gerson. 1997. trans., Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Text from Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura excerpted from: Stallings, A.E. 2007. Lucretius: The Nature of Things. New York: Penguin.
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Begby, E. (2017). Epicureanism. In: Cameron, M., Hill, B., Stainton, R. (eds) Sourcebook in the History of Philosophy of Language. Springer Graduate Texts in Philosophy, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26908-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26908-5_5
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