Gusev D.A. Nil novi sub sole or Epicureanism as ancient positivism

Abstract: Is there progress in the history of philosophical thought? Have the previous philosophical ideas and systems within the coordinates of the current state of philosophy been overcome, or we should talk only about the multiple variations of one and the same, on the grand scale, content? The subject of this research is the Hellenistic philosophy in its correlation with the modern epistemological constructs. The object is the philosophical ideas of the Epicurean school considered as a remote predecessor of positivism of the brink of the modern era and contemporary history.  Special attention is given to the comparative and cross-cultural analysis of reflection of the theoretical knowledge on Epicureanism and positivism. The main conclusion consists in the complex of statements, according to which the philosophical constructs that most certainly historically belong to modern era and contemporary history, have been created and expressed approximately two thousand years earlier. The antique Epicureanism not just supersedes the positivistic tradition in the history of philosophy, the beginning of which is traditionally attributed to the origin of the modern era, but it also fairly thoroughly covers it, not yielding in its philosophical content to the “genuine” positivism.

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