Four Methods of Exegesis for the Study of Kyriai Doxai

At the Society of Friends of Epicurus, in addition to our Eikas program, we have in the past organized a Kyriai Doxai study group. We studied them one by one, from 1 to 40, we evaluated commentaries by Epicurean Guides from the past (Lucretius, Philodemus, etc.), and even included some insights from modern scholars. This has yielded many useful insights. This essay is part of the harvest of wisdom from that process.

Definitions

The Kyriai Doxai are the Principal Doctrines of Epicurus, Metrodorus, and their companions.

Broadly, the word exegesis means “interpretation”. Specifically, it’s the “critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.”

The literal method of exegesis

This method makes us look into the original prolepsis or empirical meaning of a word, and the original attestation that led to the coining of it, which says something about the intention of the words chosen. Since this involves access to Greek definitions and etymologies, this can be rewarding, fun investigative work, and can also be frustrating and difficult.

For a case study of how the prolepsis of a word can yield curious insights, you may read this meleta on KD 14, where I evaluate the relation between voice and consensus in the term “exchoriseos” (literally, “exiting the chorus“, figuratively translated as moving away from the herd). The connection between our voice and our authority (and the power to yield authority via a social contract by our vote) is again revisited in the use of symphonia in the later Doxai to refer to the social contract, which in modern English reminds us of the word “symphony“, but in its original prolepsis means “speaking together, uttering in unison“. This carries the sense of the contract as an agreement, specifically of voices.

Since we are functioning in the English language and other modern languages, this method requires us to follow in the footsteps of Lucretius, who had to coin words and find accurate translations from Greek into his native Latin language in order to accurately convey the original sense of the teachings.

In the field of exegetics, the literalists argue that we should simply take the literal words of a text and interpret them without context or explanation that might “obscure it”, but this method puts us in potential danger of falling into unjustifiable fundamentalism, and fails to explain the why’s and the how’s of a Doctrine. In my view, we must investigate the discussions that led the founders to set down each one of the Doctrines as authoritative and final. This contextualizes each doctrine, making it concrete and clear, and helps to place before our eyes the Kyriai Doxai.

The contextual method of exegesis

One way of approaching this method is to start with the literal method of interpretation of the words, and then to infer the underlying ideas, concerns, questions, and worries that led to the establishment of each Doctrine and its particular choice of words. What problems in hedonic calculus or in living pleasantly was this Doctrine trying to solve?

The contextual method also considers the historical details of the doctrine, and its place in the history of ideas, and it follows the logic of Principal Doctrine 5, which teaches that a life of pleasure has content, causes and conditions, that pleasure is interwoven into life because, as we know, “nothing comes from nothing“.

For instance, we know that PD 1 was inspired, in part, in Theodorus the Atheist’s teachings; and that the idea of hedonic calculus (which influences PD 8 and a few other doctrines) was invented by Anniceris of Cyrene, and so we can see how Kyriai Doxai are a continuation of the legacy and the history of the ideas of the Cyrenaics.

Another example of historical context might be the Timocrates affair, which may have led to the establishment of KD 39 when the first Koinonia was forced to make decisions concerning how to deal with apostates.

The therapeutic method of exegesis

If true philosophy must heal the soul, and if Kyriai Doxai is agreed-upon as authoritative and true, then Kyriai Doxai must contain therapeutic value. The therapeutic method of interpretation of a Doctrine looks for what medicine it uses to cure some disease of the soul, what disease of the soul is the Doctrine attempting to diagnose and heal, by what symptoms (“signs“) the disease is diagnosed, and what treatments can be used. This method is based on the following assertion by the Hegemon:

A philosopher’s words are empty if they do not heal the suffering of mankind. For just as medicine is useless if it does not remove sickness from the body, so philosophy is useless if it does not remove suffering from the soul. – Epicurus (Usener, Fragment 221)

We know that this assertion was taken to its fullest pragmatic repercussions from the fact that Philodemus of Gadara reports that one of the founders of our lineage, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, kept a record of the mental health of the people he had been offering psychotherapeutic treatments to, and Philodemus seems to have frequently referred to this compilation, which was known as Historiai (the “Histories”).

In doing this, Metrodorus was applying the same techniques that were used in the medical field for diseases of the body, to the health of the soul. That is, he was diagnosing by signs, he was offering treatments, and (most importantly) he was keeping a record of the health of the soul of his friends just like physicians keep a record of the health of their patients. This methodical approach must have contributed to the detailed categorization of virtues and their opposing vices, and personality profiles of people of both dysfunctional and virtuous character, that we later see in Philodemus’ scrolls (which were based on similar works by Epicurus).

I wish to stop here to consider what a paradigm shift this is, as it depicts Metrodorus as the very first modern psychotherapist in history who (2,300 years ago) was applying a methodical approach to healing the soul of his friends, with no appeal to the supernatural whatsoever. The founders were reforming the faith-healing practices that Epicurus learned from his mother, and rejecting the attribution of mental diseases to spirits and gods, while at the same time affirming the importance of mental health and self-care as human values.

Much more could be said about this method, but let us consider various case studies: the Tetrapharmakos are commonly known as “THE four medicines” of our tradition, however they are not the only pharmakos. In Kyria Doxa 22, we find mention of “confusion” and “perturbations” (ἀκρισίας καὶ ταραχῆς). It’s up to us to consider by which signs these diseases of the soul can be identified. If we apply the logic of the therapeutic method, we will conclude that clarity of thought and of speech is one of the medicines or benefits of practicing these particular Doxai (22-25).

In Principal Doctrine 17 we find the generic term “perturbations” being named as a possible diagnosis, and in PD 35 we find guilt, fear of being discovered, as signs of diseases of the soul related to unresolved past offenses. The medicine of these Doxai is found in the love and practice of justice, of righteousness, and in the possibility of moral reform that they encourage.

Another way to approach the therapeutic method of exegesis is to see what specific techniques are being used, and to follow the pragmatic logic of these techniques. Many Doxai apply a technique known as relabelling. We may consider KD 2 as a technique of relabelling death, for instance. We may ask what fears or perturbations were attached to death prior to relabelling, or we may notice the difference in our dispositions when we associate death with those fears versus with the new label.

Philodemus left us the most complete and detailed record of how the therapeutic methods were used among the ancient Epicureans.

The contractual method of exegesis

The contractual or legal method of interpretation of a Doctrine considers the role that it plays within the social contract of the first Epicurean koinonia (community). How is agreeing on these Doxai advantageous for mutual association? What noble expectations must people have of each other under the particular contractual agreement of Kyriai Doxai? What happens when we take up this or that Doxa as an article within our own social contract?

This is another method by which we are applying the logic of Kyriai Doxai to itself–in particular, we are applying the logic of the Doxai on natural justice based on the social contract.

For a case study of the contractual method of exegesis, we may consider the Doxai that insist on the importance of having a canon, an empirical and pragmatic standard of truth (Principal Doctrines 22-25), and the importance of having a scientific worldview and some measure of basic scientific skills (PD’s 10-13).

It’s one thing to say: “I will apply these or those specific empirical thinking methods.” It’s quite another thing to say: “My friends and I will henceforward, as part of our social contract, dismiss all supernatural claims and adhere to these standards of truth“. THAT is a paradigm shift: it purposefully creates and perpetuates a social circle, a subculture, a space of intellectual ferment where all supernaturalism has been banned, and where a new physicalist, materialist philosophical conversation may be nurtured unapologetically. When we apply this exegetical method to these Kyriai Doxai, we more clearly understand that part of Epicurus’ and his friends’ agenda involved paving the way for our modern scientific worldview. Today some people claim that this is the “Western” worldview, but in the Hellenistic Era this proto-scientific and scientific worldview was beginning to seek to export itself into all the continents, and in India there was a parallel development in the Lokayata tradition.

Applying this exegetical method has helped me to understand that part of the utility of symphonia, of social contract, is to help people with shared values and shared projects to carry out their activities like a well-oiled machine, in the most effective manner possible. Contracts help individuals with shared values and a shared vision to implement their shared projects most effectively. Understood as the social contract of the early Epicurean koinonia, Kyriai Doxai would have helped to deeply instill certain basic values into every member of the community.

It’s easy to imagine that perhaps Kyriai Doxai constituted the curriculum for “coming of age” and being considered an adult member within the community, since it delineates the basic ethical expectations and existential tasks that all members of the koinonia must attain.

Conclusion

There are, in all likelihood, many more exegetical methods that could be applied to the study of the Principal Doctrines while remaining true to the spirit of Epicurean philosophy. But these are the four methods that we have, so far, identified as being fruitful and correct.

Studying KD in this manner has helped me to understand that we are learning and cultivating highly pragmatic, useful human values when we adhere to and practice Kyriai Doxai: clear communication, teamwork, cooperation, justice, etc. Kyriai Doxai is a full, basic curriculum of human values.

Further Reading:

Kyriai Doxai – our full study guide