Proximité et éloignement dans la philosophie épicurienne

Abstract

The spatial tension between proximity and distance, conceived in a dynamic way as approximation and separation, underlies and gives coherence to different levels of Epicurean philosophy, and can explain some problematic questions. Thus, the peculiar linguistic structure of Epicurus’ writing is best explained as reflecting the dual level of his teaching, addressed to both the wider public and members of the school and requiring at the same time a zooming in on the details of the argumentation and a widening of the focus in order to grasp as a whole the main points of the doctrine. Likewise, the tension between proximity and distance is essential to the physical explanation of the universe, both in the movements of aggregation and dissociation of the atoms and for the conciliation of the finite space of the world with the infinite number of worlds. However, it is no less fundamental for Epicurean epistemology, as it configures the reasoning by analogy upon which such arguments as the size of the Sun or the nature of the gods depend. Finally, in human life the dual movement of proximity and distance is instrumental in generating specifically Epicurean spaces: the space of human happiness, attained by approaching pleasure and shunning pain, and the space of philosophical communal life within the individual school, far from the turmoil of civic life, and bridging the distance between Greek, Ionian and Italian schools through epistolographic proximity.