Marx and Epicurus: Atom Dialectics and Clinamen
Contributions for a Freedom Philosophy
Abstract
This paper aims to explain the reception of Epicurus´s atomism and the dialectical reinterpretation of clinamen theory in Karl Marx´s doctoral thesis of 1841, with the purpose of extracting some contributions to a theory of freedom. For this, the implications of the Marxian dialectical approach applied to the epicurean declination are analyzed in the light of the contributions of Schiller's philosophical thought and Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology. Marx discovers in Epicurus a "science of atomistics", in which the clinamen is the formal self-determination of the atom with respect to matter; its internal law, by means of which opens the possibility of a human freedom that transgresses the determinism. An attempt is made to show that natural causality and freedom are not mutually excluding in an idealistic materialism such as the epicurean, in which, according to Marx's interpretation, idea and matter are integrated into a dialectical synthesis.
Downloads
Article download
Crossmark
License
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
