Metaphysics

Letter to Pythocles

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Epicurus

c. 300 BC

The Letter to Pythocles applies Epicurean natural philosophy to the phenomena of the sky: the movements of celestial bodies, the causes of thunder and lightning, the nature of clouds, earthquakes, and comets. What is distinctive — and philosophically significant — about Epicurus's approach is his insistence on multiple explanations: where the evidence underdetermines the cause, he consistently offers several natural accounts, refusing to privilege any one over the others. The goal is not scientific precision but therapeutic freedom. Once one understands that celestial phenomena have natural causes of some kind, the fear that they represent divine anger or portents of fate dissolves — and with it, a major source of human anxiety about the world.