Can Epicureans Be Friends?

Evans, Matthew

doi:10.5840/ancientphil200424250

Cited by 58 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…24 des Places), or indeed Cicero, who suggests in On ends that Epicurus' position is the 'light' of his followers (2,70: hoc enim vestrum lumen est) and that a great multitude of people will be glad to accept everything Epicurus teaches them as true (2,28). Torquatus, for 29 They are often discussed in the context of the Epicurean theory of friendship; see on this, e.g., Mitsis 1988: 98-128;O'Connor 1989;O'Keefe 2001;Brown 2002;Evans 2004;Armstrong 2011;Frede 2016. 30 Seminal studies which did much to undermine this unjustified view were Angeli 1988: 82-102;Sedley 1989;Erler 1992a and1992b;cf.…”

Section: The Greek Perspective Of On Ends 1-2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sint Ista Graecorum: How to be an Epicurean in Late Republican Rome – Evidence from Cicero’s On Ends 1–2

Roskam¹

2022

Epicurus in Rome

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Imagine: one day you discover the ultimate truthwhat do you do? Of course you are delighted and enthusiastically want to share your discovery with the rest of the world. Your predecessors already published, after arduous research and a painstaking thinking process, all the little bits of truth which they had fished out of a nature thatas Heraclitus already knewlikes to hide (fr. 22 B 123 = Themistius, orat. 5,69b). Then, after this age-long tradition of careful searching, the day comes that light definitively breaks through and the decisive truth is found, a turning point in intellectual history. From that very moment on, there is no need for further discussions, as the clear truth is available to everyone. This is what happened at the end of the fourth century BC, and the 'divine mind' 1 who discovered the truth was Epicurus. For later followers such as Lucretius, his discoveries eclipsed all previous achievements. They were even more precious than the gifts of Ceres and Liber and more impressive than the labours of Hercules (5,13-54; cf. also 3,1-30). No wonder, then, that Epicurus also wished to communicate his insights to all other people. He addressed his letters to everyone, men and women alike, 2 to both young and old (cf. Epist. ad Men. 122), and to both upper and lower classes, including even slaves. 3 He even showed a fundamental openness to other philosophical traditions, provided that their doctrines were compatible with the truth he found out. 4 And this eagerness to divulge the Epicurean truth urbi et orbi was taken over by later followers throughout the history of the school. It still seems to have lost nothing of its original enthusiasm in the second century AD, when Diogenes of Oenoanda published his inscription for the sake of everyone: the young, the old, and those who are somewhere in between, 'not yet old, but not indeed young either' (fr. 29.III + NF 207.I.13 -NF 207.III.13), including not only Greeks but foreigners as well (fr.

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Section: The Greek Perspective Of On Ends 1-2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sint Ista Graecorum: How to be an Epicurean in Late Republican Rome – Evidence from Cicero’s On Ends 1–2

Roskam¹

2022

Epicurus in Rome

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“…One of the most well-known Ancient hedonistic theories is Epicureanism. This type of moderate hedonism seeks to maximise happiness, but defines happiness more as a state of tranquillity than pleasure (Evans 2004).…”

Section: Consequentialism In European Antiquitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Disaster Consequentialism

Rakić¹

2018

Advancing Global Bioethics

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In this chapter I will give an interpretation of the role consequentialist ethics can have in disaster settings. I will argue that consequentialist ethics is most appropriate when decisions are taken that affect not single individuals but larger numbers of people. This is frequently the case in political decision making, especially when powerful states act in the domain of international relations, but also in disaster settings. I will focus on the latter settings and argue that in those contexts consequentialism is most adequate as a moral theory. I will also contend that different situational settings require different ethics. The moral relevance of these situational settings is primarily dependent on the number of people affected by morally relevant decisions. The formulation of my position will be preceded by a brief review of the historical development of consequentialism, primarily related to disaster settings. In order to make my arguments as vivid as possible I will use four vignettes. In two of them consequentialist ethics is appropriate, while in the other two deontology is a more reasonable moral theory. In the former two we deal with large numbers of people in disaster settings; in the latter two with "regular" settings that do not affect the lives of many individuals.

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“…This paper is not directly concerned either with the possibility of Epicurean citizenship or friendship, except incidentally in §2. For excellent recent work on the topic of the possibility and nature of Epicurean friendship see: (O'Keefe 2001a) and (Evans 2004).…”

Section: The Epicurean Reconciliation Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling Justice and Pleasure in Epicurean Contractarianism

Thrasher

2012

Ethic Theory Moral Prac

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Epicurean contractarianism is an attempt to reconcile individualistic hedonism with a robust account of justice. The pursuit of pleasure and the requirements of justice, however, have seemed to be incompatible to many commentators, both ancient and modern. It is not clear how it is possible to reconcile hedonism with the demands of justice. Furthermore, it is not clear why, even if Epicurean contractarianism is possible, why it would be necessary for Epicureans to endorse a social contract. I argue here that Epicurean contractarianism is both possible and necessary once we understand Epicurean practical rationality in a new way. We are left with an appealing version of teleological, individualistic contractarianism that is significantly different from Hobbesian contractarianism.

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Can Epicureans Be Friends?

Cited by 58 publications

References 0 publications

Sint Ista Graecorum: How to be an Epicurean in Late Republican Rome – Evidence from Cicero’s On Ends 1–2

Sint Ista Graecorum: How to be an Epicurean in Late Republican Rome – Evidence from Cicero’s On Ends 1–2

Disaster Consequentialism

Reconciling Justice and Pleasure in Epicurean Contractarianism

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