Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition

by Edited by Jeffrey Fish , Kirk R. Sanders

• ISBN13: 9780521194785
• ISBN10: 0521194784
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Epicureanism after the generation of its founders has been characterised as dogmatic, uncreative and static. But this volume brings together work from leading classicists and philosophers that demonstrates the persistent interplay in the school between historical and contemporary influences from outside the school and a commitment to the founders' authority. The interplay begins with Epicurus himself, who made arresting claims of intellectual independence, yet also admitted to taking over important ideas from predecessors, and displayed more receptivity than is usually thought to those of his contemporaries. The same principles of autonomy and openness figure importantly in the three major areas of focus in these essays: theology, politics and the emotions.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Note on Abbreviations	p. viii
List of Contributors	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Autodidact and student: on the relationship of authority and autonomy in Epicurus and the Epicurean tradition	p. 9
Epicurus' theological innatism	p. 29
Epicurus on the gods	p. 53
Not all politicians are Sisyphus: what Roman Epicureans were taught about politics	p. 72
Epicurean virtues, Epicurean friendship: Cicero vs the Herculaneum papyri	p. 105
Cicero's use and abuse of Epicurean theology	p. 129
The necessity of anger in Philodemus' On Anger	p. 152
Philodemus, Seneca and Plutarch on anger	p. 183
Philodemus and the fear of premature death	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 235
General index	p. 252
Index of passages	p. 257
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