Atheism in Philosophy - And Other Essays #252134

The moment we begin to speculate about the universe, there arises the question Of origin. Phi losophy, even atheistic philosophy, cannot stop short Of the primordia rerum; it wants to know unde Natura creet res, auctet alatque. The arch-atheist of antiquity could not rest in a given phenomenal world, but pushed his inquiry, says his great commentator,1 extra flammantia moenia mundi. The question Whence? Is found to be involved in the questions What? And How? And here' it is that philosophic atheists differ among themselves almost as widely as they dif fer from theists. I select as illustrations two prominent examples, an ancient and a modern, representing two Opposite types, — Epicurus and Schopenhauer.