Epicuro e la filosofia della mente

This book reconstructs Epicurus' theory of mind by a systematic examination of On nature book 25. In this work E. openly faces the issue of the nature and of the formation of mental states.

The inquiry on mental states is framed within a more general inquiry on the possibility for human beings of realizing their telos by the exercise of reason and the acquisition of adequate criteria of knowledge. Epicurus' need of outlining a philosophy of mind arises from the difficulty of combining an atomistic psychology with the idea that human beings are responsible for their mental and moral development. Such difficulty emerged for Epicurus while debating against some rivals trying to infer fatalist consequences from atomism. Epicurus' inquiry develops along two directions: one aiming at the confutation of his rivals, the other at an explicit formulation of a theory of mind able to explain the capacity of self-determination of human beings.

The author shows that in the 25^th book Epicurus endorses an anti-reductionist and anti-deterministic philosophy of mind that is not without theoretical tensions and that the philosopher will later try to solve these tensions by integrating his theory with the doctrine of clinamen.