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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1904Original Publisher: The Macmillan companySubjects: Philosophy, AncientChristianityConduct of lifeHistory / GeneralPhilosophy / History ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Skeptic (Altadena, CA), published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1376 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: When death comes knockin' who ya gonna call?(Facing Death: Epicurus and His Critics )(Book Review)
Author: David Voron
Publication: Skeptic (Altadena, CA) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 11Issue: 4Page: 83(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Chapters: Ancient Samians, Pythagoras, Epicurus, Aristarchus of Samos, Conon of Samos, Aesop, Melissus of Samos, Aris Poulianos, Duris of Samos, Nikos Stavridis, Themistoklis Sophoulis, Telesarchus of Samos, Polycrates, Agatharchus, Agathocles, Kostas Roukounas, Patriarch Cyril Ii of Jerusalem, Choerilus of Samos, Syloson, Semonides of Amorgos, Philaenis, Lynceus of Samos, Theodorus of Samos, Hedylus, Aeaces, Asclepiades of Samos, Creophylus of Samos, Theon of Samos, Rhoecus, Nicaenetus of Samos, Colaeus, Mandrocles. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 135. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: , O Pythagoras o Samios, "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply ; c. 570-c. 495 BC) was an Ionian Greek philosopher and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of our information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, thus very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and may have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum. Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, and he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and obfusca...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=23275 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A serious attempt at a typology of unbelief
The term "atheism" tends to be used too globally.As more than one critic has pointed out, there is no single atheism, but rather a variety that parallel the kinds of theisms to which they're responding.And, several additional distinctions can be made as well:for example, Antony Flew's famous "negative" and "positive" atheisms (the first is unbelief, the second disbelief) or William Rowe's "broad" and "narrow" (unbelief or disbelief in all gods and unbelief or disbelief in the theistic god).

One of the merits of J.C.A. Gaskin's anthology Varieties of Belief is that he tries to take seriously the diverse nature of atheism in both his excellent introduction to the collection and the works he excerpts.Opting not to use the word "atheism" at all, Gaskin argues that there are three general classes of "unbelief":in god or gods, in the supernatural (e.g., miracles), and in an afterlife.If one embraces the first, one necessarily embraces the second too (but not necessarily the third).As such, "unbelief" stretches to include "religions" such as deism, Jainism, or Buddhism (although Gaskin doesn't discuss the latter two).

Gaskin's tripartite taxonomy somewhat resembles Rowe's "broad" and "narrow" distinction, and it fails to distinguish between disbelief and unbelief.But Gaskin makes up for these deficiencies in two ways.First, he makes a good case for the claim that unbelief in antiquity is different in kind from later unbelief.The former tended to be a positive defense of naturalistic worldviews; the latter, responding to totalizing monotheisms, is primarily reactive.(This, it should be noted, spells out an exception to the claim that atheisms always parallel theisms.)Second, Gaskin does a superb job of spelling out five lines of argumentation in defense of unbelief:an alternative (naturalistic) worldview, arguments against specific faith claims, philosophical arguments against existence of God claims, criticisms of social and moral status of religion, and naturalistic accounts of religious belief.The selections he offers speak to these five lines.

Four and one-half stars.

A fine compendium of doubt
Believers as well as skeptics would profit from a reading of this fine anthology. Besides reprinting hard-to-find shorter items such as Shelley's essay "A Refutation of Deism", the editor has skillfully excerpted passages from longer works. Each selection is introduced by a brief essay providing biographical information about its' author, and a deft summary of the ideas expressed. Besides the necessary inclusion of representative works from Greek and Roman Epicurians, 18th century 'philosophes', and such philosophers as Hume, Nietzsche, Russell, and Sartre; the editor also adds works from now-obscure but important early figures such as Anthony Collins and Elihu Palmer.

My only disappointment was the absence of Antony Flew's famous (and much anthologized) essay, "Theology and Falsification", but this is only a cavil. There is always room for one more custard pie, as Orwell wrote. Oh, and it would be nice if this book were printed instead of photocopied. ... Read more

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This Book Is In German. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This Book Is In Latin. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more