Lucretius… I guess
Class 2.2 Lucretius - The Nature of Things
Our first philosophy reading this semester comes from the Roman poet and philosophy Lucretius, whose master poem “On the Nature of Things” contains a clear and pithy version of one of the historically most important arguments about whether death is bad for us.
Epicureanism
During the Roman Republic and Empire, much of classical thought was dominated by competing schools of philosophical thought, the most important of which were Stoicism and Epicureanism. Following Epicurus, Epicureans believed that what is important in life is pleasure and the avoidance of pain, which is why they have come to be associated with the goal of pursuing pleasure, as in “epicurious.com”, a recipe website for people interested in gustatory pleasures. But what epicureans really believed, was that avoiding pains is much more important than seeking pleasures.
The Nature of Things
The Nature of Things is an epic poem devoted to… offering philosophical arguments in favor of epicurean doctrines. Lucretius argues, among other important Epicurean doctrines, for the conclusions that the world is material and composed of atoms. And he is particularly keen to argue that death is not bad for us, because soothing the fear of death is very important for us to be able to live lives without fear or the pain of anticipating death.
Reading
For this week’s class, we are going to read all of Book III of The Nature of Things, which is devoted to mortality and the soul. The famous argument that others we read this semester will refer to begins at line 830 on page 81, but in order to set up this argument, Lucretius needs to spend some time first establishing that there is no life after death. His argument for this conclusion is complex and you probably will not be convinced by much of it, but we’re going to read it for context.
One natural way to do the reading is to read straight through Book III from start to finish. But another natural way to do it is to skip directly to pages 81-82 to see Lucretius’s main argument, ask yourself why it is an important assumption needed by this argument that there is no life after death, and then go back and read the whole chapter straight through. Either way, as you read, ask yourself: “What is Lucretius’s argument that death is not bad for us?” “How does it work, and how would I explain it to my roommate or parent?” “Why does Lucretius need for this argument that there is no life after death?” “Why should I find the argument interesting, if I do think that there is life after death?”