Updated 2024 Fall
Note: the term “Epicurean Family” is formulated by your instructor for purposes of introductory instruction. In ethical theory, this kind of philosophy would more usually go by the name “consequentialist.” In epistemology, this family would generally count as “empiricist.” And for metaphysics this family tends to run in the direction of “materialist.”
Democritus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus
Epicurus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus
Principal Doctrines
PST: http://wiki.epicurism.info/Principal_Doctrines/
Marx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
Dissertation
PST: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1841/dr-theses/
“Epicurus is therefore the greatest representative of Greek Enlightenment” (Part Two, Ch. 5, Meteors)
Theses on Feuerbach
PST: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/
“the abstract individual . . . belongs in reality to a particular social form” (VII)
Capital
PST: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
See for example, Ch. 10
Engels
Principles
UTILITARIANISM
Bentham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
Fragment on Government
PST: https://historyofeconomicthought.mcmaster.ca/bentham/government.html
“with so little method and precision have the consequences of this fundamental axiom, it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong, been as yet developped” (Preface par. 2)
PST: Principles of Morals and Legislation
http://www.econlib.org/library/Bentham/bnthPML.html
Mill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill
On Liberty
PST: http://www.bartleby.com/130/
Singer
https://petersinger.info/ (Includes PST links by Singer)
NIETZSCHE
PST: The Gay Science (a.k.a. Joyful Wisdom)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52881/52881-h/52881-h.htm
PST: Beyond Good and Evil
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/nietzsche/1886/beyond-good-evil/
PST: Zarathustra
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm#link2H_4_0081
Concepts of Nietzsche which are similar to those of Freud include (a) the concept of the unconscious mind; (b) the idea that repression pushes unacceptable feelings and thoughts into the unconscious and thus makes the individual emotionally more comfortable and effective; (c) the conception that repressed emotions and instinctual drives later are expressed in disguised ways (for example, hostile feelings and ideas may be expressed as altruistic sentiments and acts); (d) the concept of dreams as complex, symbolic “illusoions of illusions” and dreaming itself as a cathartic process which has healthy properties; and (e) the suggestion that the projection of hostile, unconscious feelings onto others, who are then perceived as persecutors of the individual, is the basis of paranoid thinking. Some of Freud’s basic terms are identical to those used by Nietzsche.
Chapman, A., & Chapman-Santana, M. (1995). The Influence of Nietzsche on Freud’s Ideas. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166(2), 251-253. doi:10.1192/bjp.166.2.251
FREUD
Dream Psychology
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15489/15489-h/15489-h.htm
Civilization and its Discontents
https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FreudS-CIVILIZATION-AND-ITS-DISCONTENTS-text-final.pdf
CAMUS
The Myth of Sisyphus
https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil360/16.%20Myth%20of%20Sisyphus.pdf
Database suggestion:
Armstrong, Aurelia. “The Passions, Power, and Practical Philosophy: Spinoza and Nietzsche Contra the Stoics.” The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 44.1 (2013): 6-24. Project MUSE. Web. 7 Jan. 2014.
PST=Primary Source Text (Warning, please do not quote from introductions or notes.)
CourseLinks 