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Background
Background
Epicurus (c.341–270 BC) was born on the island of Samos and set up his own school in Athens. He developed the view that peace of mind, or tranquillity, is the goal of life. He argues that pleasure and pain are the roots of good and evil, and qualities such as virtue and justice derive from these roots, as…
‘it is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely, honourably, and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely, honourably, and justly without living pleasantly.’
An outline of Epicurus’ argument
An outline of Epicurus’ argument
Epicurus was an atheist - he did not believe in God or gods or heaven
Happiness is experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain
Unhappiness is caused by fear
Our main fear is death, but we should not fear our own death
For physical pain to exist, there must be a sensing subject.
For emotional pain to exist, there must be a conscious subject.
But when we die there will be no subject, (nothing to feel any pain)
Everything that exists is either atoms or empty space.
It makes no sense to describe the soul as empty space, because it interacts with our body.
∴ when a person dies there is no person. ‘A dead person is in pain’, or ‘I am afraid of not being able to see my family when I am dead’ - for Epicurus, this sentence is not even false, it is just nonsense. There is nothing that will be unable to do anything. (It’s like talking about a triangle with four sides.)
∴ Death is nothing to fear
Tasks
Tasks
Explain Epicurus’ argument for why we should not fear death.
Describe an objection to Epicurus’ argument
Do you find it convincing (or comforting)?
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