Will the Epicurean Sage Break the Law if He is Perfectly Sure that He Will Escape Detection?: A Difficult Problem Revisited

Roskam, Geert

doi:10.1353/apa.2012.0000

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…18 Us.) ;Seel 1996;Roskam 2012. chosen at random, but focus on the achievements of Torquatus' own ancestors. As such, they are a challenging ad hominem argument against Torquatus, and the latter indeed seems to pick up the message (1,34).…”

Section: A Similar Conclusion Holds True For the Many Examples Derive...mentioning

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: A Similar Conclusion Holds True For the Many Examples Derive...mentioning

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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“…KD 37-38), because he knows that there will always be the possibility of detection and subsequent punishment (KD 35 = SV 6), and because the fear of being caught will in itself be detrimental to his ἀταραξία. See also Seel 1996 andRoskam 2012. The members of Diogenes' average group, on the other hand, are not always able to make a correct calculus, and may occasionally break the law when they think that there transgression will go unnoticed, which is precisely where they are erring.…”

Section: Conclusion: Diogenes On Distant Egyptians and Jewish Neighborsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diogenes of Oenoanda on Jews and Egyptians: Some Thoughts on Theol. V, 7–VI, 2

Nijs¹

2021

Classical World

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This article deals with col. V, 7-VI, 2 of Oenoanda's continuous Theological Physics-Sequence, in which Diogenes calls the Jews and the Egyptians the δεισιδαιμονέστατοι and μιαρώτατοι of all people. Previous scholarship has already offered some interesting suggestions to explain why our otherwise cosmopolitan author would have used such harsh words. The aim of this article is to re-evaluate the plausibility of these suggestions against the backdrop of Diogenes' specific argumentative strategies in this part of the inscription. Ultimately, an attempt will be made to establish the nature of Diogenes' Epicurean view on Jews and Egyptians.

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Epicureans and the City’s Laws

Diaco

2022

Archiv Für Geschichte Der Philosophie

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The article discusses the accusation advanced by Plutarch and Cicero, according to which the Epicureans are unjust, as they would break the law to pursue pleasure if certain of impunity, and deals with this criticism by analyzing the Epicurean theory of law and justice and comparing it with friendship. The article argues that, from a doctrinal standpoint, philia has a higher place in the Epicurean’s priorities and a stronger efficacy than positive law in serving the naturally just. It thus concludes that, as Plutarch and Cicero suspected, the Epicurean’s ultimate loyalty does not lie with positive law, in spite of its importance for social order, but rather with the naturally just (dikaion), better secured by friendship.

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Will the Epicurean Sage Break the Law if He is Perfectly Sure that He Will Escape Detection?: A Difficult Problem Revisited

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 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

Diogenes of Oenoanda on Jews and Egyptians: Some Thoughts on Theol. V, 7–VI, 2

Epicureans and the City’s Laws

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