mate aim of all Epicurean speculation about nature is to rid people of such fears.Epicurean physics is atomistic, in the tradition of the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus. Epicurus regarded the universe as infinite and eternal and as consisting only of bodies and space. Of the bodies, some are compound and some are atoms, or indivisible, stable elements of which the compounds are formed. Epicurean psychology is materialistic. It holds that a continuous stream of films or “idols” cast off by bodies and impinging on the senses causes sensations. All sensations are believed to be absolutely reliable; error arises only when sensation is improperly interpreted. The soul is regarded as being composed of fine particles distributed throughout the body. The dissolution of the body in death, Epicurus taught, leads to the dissolution of the soul, which cannot exist apart from the body; and thus no afterlife is possible. Since death means total extinction, it has no meaning either to he living or to the dead, for "when we are, death is not; and when death is, we are not." Francis (Roger) Bacon, 1561-1626, extinct. Found dead in a freezer amidst a flock of chickens testing his theory on refrigeration. The quote “Knowledge is power.”, is accredited to this man. Born in Ilchester, Somersetshire, Bacon was educated at the universities of Oxford and Paris. He remained in Paris after completing his studies and taught for a time at the University of Paris. Soon after his return to England in about 1251, he entered the religious order of the Franciscans and settled at Oxford. He carried on active studies and did experimental research, mainly in alchemy, optics, and astronomy. Bacon was a radical empiricist, interested only in the facts of observation. Further, Bacon created the Four Idols, or four sources of error. The first is the Idol of the Cave, which is personal bias. The second is named the Idol of the Tribe, which...
