Titus Lucretius Carus, The Roman Voice of

Epicurus

Man of Mystery

• Even dates for life uncertain:– b. 97-93 B.C.– d. 55-50 B.C.

• Roman or Celt?Probably Roman aristocrat:politically well connected acquaintance of Cicero

Man of Mystery, cont’d

• Close friend of Gaius Memmius, praetor for 58 B.C., later propraetor of Bithynia and patron of the lyric poet Catullus.

Death of Lucretius

• Very late tradition recorded only by St. Jerome claims that Lucretius was poisoned by a love potion and wrote his masterpiece in the lucid intervals between spasms of insanity which led, ultimately, to his death by suicide

• Validity?

Death of Lucretius, cont’d

• NO corroborating evidence in ANY other ancient sources who mention Lucretius, even other early Christian sources who wrote against him.– Lactantius and Arnobius, who (incorrectly) attacked Lucretius as an atheist, do not mention any of this.

– Cicero, who was also philosophically opposed, mentions nothing, nor does Virgil.

Death of Lucretius, cont’d

• More recently, it has been proposed that Lucretius suffered from chronic melancholy, what we call today clinical depression, and that this may have led to his suicide.

• Supporters of this theory point to certain aspects of his work for support, so without further ado…

Epicurus and Lucretius’ De Rerum

Natura• DRN is our fullest exposition of developed Epicurean philosophy.

• Of the four great ancient philosophies - Stoicism, Platonism, Aristotelians, and Epicureanism, the last had the least effect on Christian thought and is the most misunderstood by both ancients and moderns.

Epicurus and Epicureanism

• Epicurus was born in Athens in the mid-4th Century B.C. Well educated in philosophy, but not completely satisfied with the existing systems.

• Traveled in Ionia, apparently gathering a following for his developing philosophy, which was related to Democritus’ materialist/atomic system

• Returned to Athens and founded “The Garden,” his philosophical school, to which he admitted women, foreigners and even slaves.

• The universal verdict of antiquity was that Epicurus was an exceedingly kind, patient, and humane individual.

Principles of Epicureanism

• “It must be admitted that nothing can come into existence from nothing.”– Materialist Philosophy

• Smallest units of matter (minima) combine in various ways to form atoms, the first interactive bodies.

• ALL THINGS, both seen and unseen, are composed of atoms.

• Aside from body (atoms) and nothing (void) there can be nothing else - even the soul is composed of atoms and is mortal, dissipating upon death.

Principles of Epicureanism, cont’d

• If the universe is wholly material, then the only criteria of truth are: – Sense, caused by the interaction of external atoms with those of our bodies.

– Rational thought stemming from sensation and memories of sensation.

– Feeling, essentially reducible to the basic duality of pleasure or pain.

Epicurean Morality

• Feeling, as a form of sensation, is accompanied in every case, by a greater or lesser feeling of pleasure and/or pain.

• Pleasure and pain, like all feelings and sensations, are atomic movement of dislocation and adjustment.

• All creatures instinctively seek to avoid pain and seek pleasure, therefore pleasure is the end or goal of all action: pleasure is good, pain is bad.

• “Pleasure is the beginning and end of the blessed life.”

Epicurean Morality

• But every experience usually a mixture of both pleasure and pain.

• Some pleasures bring pain with them and some pains result in pleasure.

• “Therefore not every pleasure is to be chosen, nor every pain avoided.”

• If pleasure is viewed as the fulfillment of desire or the satisfaction of pain due to want, then the most pleasurable human state would be a state of satisfied equilibrium: ataraxia-“undisturbed-ness”

Epicurean Morality

• Men should therefore not act on desires which result in excesses of pleasure and pain.

• How to decide which desires to follow? The desires can be divided into three categories:– Physical and Necessary, e.g. food, clothing, shelter

– Physical, but not necessary, e.g. sexual pleasure

– Neither physical nor necessary, e.g. elaborate food and clothing.

• The first category, being necessary to life, must be satisfied. The third, which are purposeless and result in vain pretension, are to be completely suppressed. The second is to be indulged in only with prudence (thought - phronesis)

Goal of the Epicurean

• The ideal human existence, then, is a simple life, removed from the concerns of most men, who are obsessed with wealth, position, sex, etc.

• Lathe Biosas - slide through as you live, ideally along with friends who share your philosophy.

The Gods and Religion

• The Gods exist, as evidenced by universal belief in them - their simulacra (atomic emanations) have been imprinted on all human minds.

• “The blessed and immortal nature (in which the gods participate) knows no trouble itself nor causes trouble to any other, so that it is never constrained by anger or favor.”

The Gods and Religion

• The gods are paragons of ataraxia, blessedly undisturbed beings, who have almost no interaction with the world.

• They have, therefore, not created this imperfect, disturbed world, nor do they dispense punishments and rewards for the “piety” of traditional religion.

• Rather, it is a misguided traditional religion which is impious.

The Burden of Traditional Religion

• Traditional religious views oppress humans with fear of a non-existent afterlife…

The Burden of Traditional Religion

• …and drives them to inhumanly wicked acts in the name of “piety.”

Epicurean Philosophy and De Rerum Natura,

cont’d• Lucretius’ single masterpiece is a Latin exposition of Epicurean philosophy composed in five books:– Book 1: Principles of Atomism– Book 2: Physics and Epiphenomena– Book 3: Death, Religion, and “Metaphysics”

– Book 4: Sense and Sensation– Book 5: The Sensible World