Question
Answer the following about Epicurus’s Epistle to Herodotus, for 10 points each.
[10m] The Epistle, like all of Epicurus’s fully extant works, is preserved in Book X of the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by this 3rd-century biographer of Greek philosophers.
ANSWER: Diogenes Laërtius (“die-AW-juh-neez lay-URR-shee-uss”) [prompt on Diogenes]
[10e] In the Epistle, Epicurus reaffirms his belief that all bodies are composed of these indivisible components, a belief he got from Nausiphanes (“naw-SIFF-uh-neez”), who learned it from Democritus.
ANSWER: atoms [or atomon]
[10h] Original Greek term required. The Epistle also contains Epicurus’s three criteria of truth: aisthēsis (“ess-THEE-siss”), pathē (“PATH-ee”), and these concepts, usually translated as “preconceptions.” Epicureans and Stoics both believed that these concepts were required for rational thought and the ability to connect names with objects.
ANSWER: prolēpseis [or prolēpsis]
<Philosophy>
Summary
2025 ACF Nationals | 04/19/2025 | Y | 24 | 15.00 | 100% | 50% | 0% |
Data
Arizona State | LSE | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Penn State | British Columbia | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Toronto B | Chicago B | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Cornell B | RIT | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Harvard | Georgia Tech | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Illinois A | WUSTL A | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Ohio State | Illinois B | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Indiana | Stanford | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Iowa State | Toronto C | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
MIT | Johns Hopkins | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Maryland | Michigan | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Minnesota | Cornell A | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Toronto A | North Carolina A | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Columbia A | Rutgers | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Texas | Virginia Tech | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
UC Berkeley A | Northwestern | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Florida | UC Berkeley B | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
UCF | Columbia B | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
North Carolina B | Vanderbilt | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Ottawa | WUSTL B | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Waterloo A | Chicago A | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Waterloo B | Georgia State | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Virginia | Winona State | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Yale | NYU | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |