Epilogism (; lit. "appraisal" or "assessment") is a theory-free method of inference used in

Ancient Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ...

and Ancient Greek medicine in order to arrive at insight without

deductive reasoning Deductive reasoning is the process of drawing valid inferences. An inference is valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, meaning that it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. For example, t ...

or inference based on unobservables, relying solely on reflection of what is already both visible and evident. It was used by

Epicurus Epicurus (, ; ; 341–270 BC) was an Greek philosophy, ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy that asserted that philosophy's purpose is to attain as well as to help others attain tranqui ...

in his discussions of the philosophy of time, and also as a justification for his theory of psychological hedonism. In the

Empiric school The Empiric school of medicine (''Empirics'', ''Empiricists'', or ''Empirici'', ) was a school of medicine founded in Alexandria the middle of the third century BC.Heinrich von Staden, ''Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria: Edition, ...

of medicine, it was one of the three main

sources of knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

, along with direct observation and the study of observations made by others.

Epicurus

In his '' Letter to Herodotus'',

introduces epilogism as a proof-free method of philosophical argumentation for comprehending the nature of time, which he did not consider to be an independently existing

abstract object In philosophy and the arts, a fundamental distinction exists between abstract and concrete entities. While there is no universally accepted definition, common examples illustrate the difference: numbers, sets, and ideas are typically classif ...

, and therefore did not believe could be studied through observation of the external world. Epicurus claimed that although we do not have a preconception of the nature time, we nonetheless speak of having "a lot of time" or "little time" and we can arrive at a better understanding of how we conceive of time falling into discrete periods by reflecting on what we mean when we say "a lot of time." Epicurus also argued in the '' Letter to Menoeceus'' that we can arrive at insight on the relations between pleasure and pain, desire, and happiness through an assessment of our own sense experience, preconceptions and feelings beyond what we already know from them alone.

Empiric school of medicine

In the Empiric school of medicine, epilogism is one of the three sources or tripod of empiric medicine, along with personal observation and the study of observations collected by others. Menodotus of Nicomedia use of this notion was included in the extant Latin version of

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

's ''Subfiguratio empirica,'' where it was described as the third method in addition to perception and recollection. However, it is unclear whether Menodotus introduced this method to the Empiric school himself, or whether it was introduced by the earlier empiric physician Heraclides of Tarentum, who was an Epicurean. For the empirics, epilogism was reasoning that focused on a temporarily hidden subject. It was employed as a method to uncover the provisionally hidden subjects, which are not entirely inaccessible to experience. It covered the ground addressed by the commemorative sign and featured the ordinary reasoning common to all human beings. It also had an exclusive focus on the

phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...

and simply reported (without endorsing) the practice of the empirical doctor. As a medical method, it was used to infer the existence of something that is temporarily unclear, but in principle observable. It is also said that the empirics devised epilogism to distinguish their kind of reasoning from the type used by the rationalists, which required an understanding of the underlying nature of things, including the link between consequence and exclusion drawn between states of affairs. Some also consider epilogism as the most extreme form of reasoning acceptable to the empirics.

Modern reception

Epilogism is discussed in '' The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable'' by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as a way of viewing history through the accumulation of facts without major generalization and with consideration of the consequences of making causal claims.

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