Philosophers Educational Posters & Prints, “E...-”
individuals who made contributions to the study of knowledge itself.

Empedocles
Epictetus

Desiderius Erasmus

Empedocles, Greek Philosopher, Giclee Print

Empedocles
ca. 490-430 BC; Greek colony of Agrigentum, Sicily

Empedocles statement, that four elemental “roots”: fire, air, water, earth, make all the structures in the world, became dogma for two thousand years.

Empedocles also believed in reincarnation: one legend was that he threw himself into Mt. Etna in Sicily to prove to his disciples that once consumed by fire he would come back as a god.

Empedocles quotes ~
• “The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.”
• “At one time through love all things come together into one, at another time, through strife's hatred, they are borne each of them apart.”
• “What is lawful is not binding only on some and not binding on others. Lawfulness extends everywhere, through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light of the sky.”
• “Happy is he who has gained the wealth of divine thoughts, wretched is he whose beliefs about the gods are dark.”

• Empedocles: The Extant Fragments

Epictetus Greek Stoic Philosopher Originally a Slave But Freed by His Master, Giclee Print

Epictetus
b. ca. 55 AD; Hierapolis, Phrygia (Turkey)
d. ca. 135 AD; Nicopolis, Greece

Epictetus proposes the foundation of all philosophy, which is a way of life and not merely theory, is self-knowledge and awareness of ignorances and weaknesses.

Epictetus, the name given to him by his master Epaphroditos (and simply means “acquired”), was allowed to study philosophy. It is not known how Epictetus was freed but at some point he was teaching in Rome; when all philosphers were banned from Rome in 93 AD, he went to Nicopolis, Greece where he founded a school.

FYI ~ Early Christian scholar and theologian Origen told of how Epictetus' master broke his leg so he couldn't run away, hence Epictetus being depicted with a crutch.

Epictetus quotes ~
• “First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
• “Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
• “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”
• “It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
• “All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.”
• “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
• “Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.”
• “All religions must be tolerated ... for every man must get to heaven in his own way.”
• “Freedom is not procured by full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.”
• “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
• “Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.”
• “If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, ‘He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.’”
• “You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.”
• “Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”

• Epictetus at Amazon

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1526, Albrecht Dürer Giclee Print

Desiderius Erasmus
b. 10-27-1466; Rotterdam, The Netherlands
d. 7-12-1536; Basel

Desiderius Erasmus was a humanist - a teacher of grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry and history as studied via classical authors, and a theologian.

Eramus Quotes ~
• “Fortune favors the audacious.”
• “The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.”
• “He who allows oppression shares the crime.”
• “A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.”
• “I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.”

• The Erasmus Reader
• Hans Holbein portrait of Erasmus
• Albrecht Dürer posters

Rudolf Christof Eucken
b. 1-5-1846; Aurich, Kingdom of Hanover Germany
d. 9-15-1926

Philosopher Rudolf Christof Eucken was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life.”

Euclid
ca. 325 BC–265 BC, Alexandria

Euclid of Alexandia, “The Father of Geometry”, was a Greek mathematician who, in his Elements, set forth his principles of geometry proving mathematical theorems from a small set of axioms or accepted principles.

• The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, Books 1 and 2