How Epicurean Metaphysics leads to Epicurean Ethics 1. The Epicurean position in metaphysics is materialistic.
Atoms interact by collisions according to deterministic mechanical laws.
The Epicurean position in epistemology is empiricistic. Since humans are nothing more than giant collections of atoms which can interact with other objects only through collisions between material atoms, knowledge for epicureans simply is sensation. Sensation in turn is nothing more than the collisions between atoms and human sense organs, which of course themselves are just other bunches of atoms. The Epicurean position in ethics is hedonistic. The Epicurean psychology assumes psychological hedonism as a theory of human motivation.