Epicureanism by Tim O'Keefe

Author:Tim O'Keefe [O'Keefe, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844651696
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Preconceptions

The second criterion of truth is “preconception”, or prolēpsis. Prolēpsis is a technical term coined by Epicurus, and can also be translated “basic grasp”. Lēpsis comes from the verb “to grasp”, but it often is used to form words that have overtones of a cognitive grasp, so “basic cognition” would serve as a translation too.

Epicurus uses preconceptions to solve the celebrated paradox of enquiry, which Socrates puts forward in Plato’s dialogue the Meno (Men. 80d–e). The paradox is supposed to show that enquiry is impossible. Let us suppose you are trying to learn something, such as what virtue is. Either you know what you are looking for, or you do not. If you already know it, there is no point in enquiring after it. But if you do not already know what you are looking for, enquiry is impossible, as you would not be able to recognize the correct answer even if you were to come across it. In response to this paradox, Socrates develops the theory that all “learning” is really recollection. You already know what you are enquiring after, but only implicitly. When you discover truth you recognize it, fully remembering what you had half-forgotten. This innate knowledge that makes enquiry possible, Socrates asserts, must have existed in our souls in a prenatal existence, with the shock of being embodied causing our souls to have amnesia.

Epicurus opts for a more economical solution. He agrees that enquiry requires previous knowledge; for example, I cannot ask “Is that thing over there a horse or a cow?” unless I already know what a horse and a cow are (DL X 33). And when it comes to the definitions of words, not all words must require definition in terms of other words, on pain of an infinite regress. Instead, the meanings of some words we simply grasp without need of additional proof (Ep. Hdt. 37–8). When we have repeated sense-experiences of the same sort of thing, this gives us a memory of what has often appeared, and this memory is the universal idea or preconception. When the word associated with that concept is uttered, we call up the memory; for example, when somebody says “human being”, I immediately have a general outline of a human being and think “that sort of a thing is a human being” (DL X 33). We may enquire further about the features human beings have in common that make them human beings, but that is not the meaning of “human being”. Instead, “human being” simply picks out those sorts of things over there, those things I have seen around all over the place. As with the instinctive animal utterances that form the basis of human language (see Ch. 6, § “Language”), the meanings of preconceptions are set by the sorts of items that cause them.

Once we have preconceptions, further ideas are formed by analogy or by similarity or by compounding these basic ideas. But since preconceptions themselves are formed by our experiences, ultimately all of our ideas are based on our experiences.

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