Epicurean Substrates: Things and their Properties

Daryn Lehoux (Queen's University)

Abstract:
The ancient Epicurean universe is a remarkably sparse place, ontologically speaking. Only two things count as actually existing: matter and void. This parsimony raises two closely related problems. First Epicureans must find a way to ascribe an ontology to void, which is to say, to nothingness. And secondly, it turns out that if it is to do any kind of explanatory work in their atomist system, the void must itself have properties. This paper will explore the Epicurean idea of properties as applied to both atoms and void, and will attempt to articulate a theory of what an Epicurean property is by exploring how properties relate to, subsist in, or are predicated of, the two proper existents, atoms and void.