In conjunction with the current thread in which we are discussing prolepsis in relation to gods, I suspect it would be helpful to compose a list of considerations given in the thread title. What are the essential elements of ANY canonical faculty, according to Epicurus?
I have a couple of ideas but would appreciate additions, comments, suggestions, corrections, and citations to support these or their tweaked versions:
- A faculty must be present at birth, given by nature, not created through our own actions. It may be improved or tuned through use, but its essential mechanism or process is present at birth before it is ever used.
- A faculty must be a mechanism or process, such as a microphone gathering sounds, a camera gathering light, an ear hearing sound, etc.
- A faculty must not be a "conclusion" of any kind, as the "conclusion-making" process is separate from the data which is input into that process. (In that sentence words like "concept" or "idea" could be substituted.)
- A faculty is never "right" or "wrong." The faculty delivers its data without any injection of opinion.
- A faculty can operate normally or abnormally. We can be sick and our vision and our hearing be distorted or lost entirely, but the fact that they can be distorted or lost does not alter the fact that by nature there is in fact a "normal" range of operation.
- A faculty was not born for its use, but its use follows from the fact that it has been born. (Lucretius 4:820-850)