http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/Epicurus_bust2.jpg/200px-Epicurus_bust2.jpg

Despite my current sig line I've actually developed an interest in this dude thanks to Foster's ' Marx's Ecology'. Pretty intriguing, seems that the nihilists either studied him or re-invented the wheel.

Foster makes much of him, identifying him as the source of both Marx's materialism and Darwinian thought. In that book Foster states that his purpose is not to 'green' Marx, which he says is unnecessary, but rather to give a materialist basis to the environmental movement, which is sorely needed.

A tidbit gleaned from the Wiki entry:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/44/Epicurus_the_Sage_1.png/225px-Epicurus_the_Sage_1.png

Comic book philosophers, mebbe that's what I need.

Hey BP,

there are a few caveats that have to be minded when you start making assertions like Foster's that are necessarily vague if only because nobody really agrees on what his terms mean.

Marx's "materialism" isn't just the atomism of antiquity filtered through Hegel. Or, alternately, you could say his materialism IS just that -- but thats beating around the bush because Hegel completely changed the rules and its probably more accurate to just go ahead and say he changed the game itself.

Marx's materialism isn't just a philosophical turn its an integral part of Revolutionary Marx. Marx would have called what Foster invokes "crude materialism" (although as you know Marx had a distinctive flair for derision so his take might've been a bit more flowery;)) Hint: materialism for Marx ain't really about matter or physics or anything like that

The world is human for Marx and thats the prism he -- necessarily, which is the point being driven home -- views it through. (Us too incidentally)

Hey BP,

there are a few caveats that have to be minded when you start making assertions like Foster's that are necessarily vague if only because nobody really agrees on what his terms mean.

Marx's "materialism" isn't just the atomism of antiquity filtered through Hegel. Or, alternately, you could say his materialism IS just that -- but thats beating around the bush because Hegel completely changed the rules and its probably more accurate to just go ahead and say he changed the game itself.

Marx's materialism isn't just a philosophical turn its an integral part of Revolutionary Marx. Marx would have called what Foster invokes "crude materialism" (although as you know Marx had a distinctive flair for derision so his take might've been a bit more flowery;)) Hint: materialism for Marx ain't really about matter or physics or anything like that

The world is human for Marx and thats the prism he -- necessarily, which is the point being driven home -- views it through. (Us too incidentally)


Well, that's not what he said. Rather it is the demand for observation, experience in deciding what is real and what is not, much like what I understand about nihilism.. No metaphysics required, not about the physics either.

" Above all, Epicureanism stood for an anti-teleogical viewpoint: the rejection of all natural explainations based on final causes, on divine intention. It is here that materialism and science were to collide"