Medicine And Methodology Of Epicurean Therapy Of Soul

About the beginning of 2^ndcentury,Diogenes of Oinoanda in Minor Asia propagandizes Epicurean philosophy to the populace by "inscription".Epicurean Philosophy rejected the training of political man in ancient Greek philosophy and cared for man's real sufferings.I called it as a kind of negative therapy for individuals. In the inscription,Diogenes draws an analogy between Epicurean philosophy and "medicine" for illness of the soul,so his therapeutics by inscription can be compared to "Yaoyin"(药引)in Chinese Medicine.The topic of this dissertation is to study Diogenes' inscription.It consists of two main parts.First,it translates the inscription into Chinese with notes and comments;Second,it Studies Epicurean philosophy and its teaching methodology through the analysis of the inscription.Epicurean alleges that vain opinions,which are made in political society and are planted in man's soul deeply,lead to disturbance of soul.According to cognitive mechanism of soul,the origin of vain opinions is from the neglect of sensations and feelings,and the blindness dogmatism of nous.Epicurean Canonic puts forward three critieria of truth:sensations,feelings and prolephis.While rational inference from "obvious phenomena" can lead to "concealing nature",Sensations and feelings bring about primal knowledge,prolephis and inference bring us to the rational knowledge. Knowledge,which expresses by natural language,must be clear.Epicurean Ethics discloses that man's happiness is to live a joyful life,which means to begin from the joy of feeling(choice and avoiding of anima nature),then forming the prolephis of joy(joy is a relation which benefits to man)and depending on prudence(choice and avoiding of action),finally to achieve the ultimate end of (?).Their understanding of freedom is that freedom is "individual's freedom" based on "free will".It is in accord with joy.And that the most harm to man's joy and freedom comes from the fear of death,gods and vulnerability from the threat by others.Epicurean Physics show us that gods are not to be afraid of and death is nothing to fear about.After grasping the nature of man and all things,human beings will understand that the best means to obtain security from other men is "covenants" which are made by them to the end that they may neither inflict nor suffer harmness. This social bond is guaranteed finally by "friendship".So they argue against traditional political society and describe a nice picture of "the ideal of social life in post-political society".Epicurean wise men undertake the responsibility for healing demos' illness of soul and are filled with the largest affection of salvation.They argue against the rhetoric which aims at imposing one's opinions on others in classic political society. They try to form a kind of non-political rhetoric for philosophical teaching practice, which is a systematic teaching pattern according to rule of philosophy study expressing truth with common language,making use of frank words,and stressing the necessity of recitation.In order to attain the best therapeutic effect,they have tried all kinds of writing styles for students of different level.Diogenes' therapeutics by inscription is a model which combines Epicurean "medicine" with "Yaoyin"(药引)perfectly.Therapeutics by inscription is the best medium to cure the illness of soul of the masses at that time.That the writing styles of the inscription not only inherit Epicurean various writing styles,but also borrow sophist's rhetorical technique soundly will enhance curative effect.Morever, Epicrurean therapeutic philosophy itself is fit to engrave in stones for public preaching.Its insistence on natural language and that truth can be "said" and "taught" is the premise of its philosophical therapy;Its concern for men's real sufferings is the basis of philosophical therapy;Its method of attaining concealing truth which is infered from "obvious phenomena" suggests the accessibity of the truth to the populace.