@article{oai:toyoeiwa.repo.nii.ac.jp:00001421,
 author = {佐々木, 光俊},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {In this paper, first a review of Epicurus’ atomist ontology is put forth. Then, an inconsistency between the atomist ontology and the eternal existence of the gods is examined. An explanation of how Epicurus resolved this through introducing the concept of the mediating material, eidolon, is then given. The relationship that this concept has to the nature of the gods and its subsequent effect on human beings and their salvation is examined further.
Epicurus, as an atomist, puts forth a very simple ontology. Only atoms and the void have a real existence, every other thing is a composite of them, and all the qualitative features that appear in our senses have no reality in truth. They are just a by-product in the processes of our perception Epicurus, however, claims the existence of the gods, who are indestructible and blessed. In other words, the gods are eternal and the happiest of living beings. His claim, prima facie, leads to an inconsistency. Along his ontology, no eternal thing exists except for an atom itself, and aggregated things can be deconstructed and dissipated into atoms. How could he believe then in the existence of eternally aggregated matter in the case of the gods? One possible way to avoid the destruction of a god’s body is to assume his body is made from an exceptional kind of atoms.
For their epistemological purpose, Greek atomists introduced a unique material form by which objective surface information is transported to the observer precisely. They call this mediating material form of atoms eidolon. All aggregated matter emits or radiates eidola constantly into space. These kinds of atoms are different from those atoms in ordinary matter and souls. To keep on the appearances, the atoms that are shed must be compensated for and supplied in the form of the same kind of atoms. It is this supply 206 system or material circulation that assured the maintenance of a long term existence in the form of aggregation. Furthermore, the gods are eternal because of their capacity for complete material circulation.
In addition to being eternal, the gods enjoy the happiest life of all, and because of this, they also will not intervene in the world at all. Detached and far away from the world, they live in the inter-worlds and are satisfied to be by themselves. By way of their indifference to our world, we are freed from our fear of the gods, which is one  of the basic fears of human beings.
Epicureans believe that to disclose the nature of the gods and the reality of death leads us to be liberated from fear and to pass life happily in time as the gods do.},
 pages = {187--206},
 title = {エピクロスの神と原子論的救済},
 volume = {4},
 year = {2008},
 yomi = {ササキ, ミツトシ}
}