8 thoughts on “Who is Your Ancient Philosopher?”

  2. ai

    The quiz is fun…

    But what if most of your answers are "both" or "neither" or "it depends"? Surely there's a philosopher who would represent that? (Marcus Aurelius maybe? Or Heraclitus? Wouldn't they all tend toward just a little more subtlety?)

  3. Chas S. Clifton

    Gosh, ai, what do you expect from a little Web quiz, the sophistication of Cosmopolitan magazine?

    I am all for Marcus Aurelius. Even as I compress Epicurus into "Live simply and avoid hassle," I compress the emperor into "Honor the gods and do your duty." Which is why I joined the volunteer fire department.

  5. Chas S. Clifton

    We tend to focus more on Epicurus' prescription for living — the quiz certainly did — but he also was a philosophical materialist who denied the existence of the gods.

  6. Denis

    >>[Epicurus] denied the existence of the gods
    Pardon me, but where did you get this from? Is there any evidence for that, other than modern materialist atheists' wishful thinking?

    BTW, my result was Plato.

  7. Chas S. Clifton

    See, for example, Pierre Hadot's What is Ancient Philosophy? (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press, 2002).

    He summarizes Epicurus' naturalistis philosophy as denying any after-death existence and as not requiring any divine creator(s).

    Perhaps I was inaccurate to say that he denies the gods as such; rather, he says that they pursue their own pleasure and have no effect on human existence, hence the formula:

    The gods are not to be feared,
    Death is not to be dreaded;
    What is good is easy to acquire,
    What is bad is easy to bear.

    (pp. 113-123)

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