Summary
Angie Hobbs, David Sedley and James Warren join Melvyn Bragg to discuss Epicureanism, the system of philosophy based on the teachings of Epicurus and founded in Athens in the fourth century BC. Epicurus outlined a comprehensive philosophical system based on the idea that everything in the Universe is constructed from two phenomena: atoms and void. At the centre of his philosophy is the idea that the goal of human life is pleasure, by which he meant not luxury but the avoidance of pain. His followers were suspicious of marriage and politics but placed great emphasis on friendship. Epicureanism became influential in the Roman world, particularly through Lucretius's great poem De Rerum Natura, which was rediscovered and widely admired in the Renaissance.
With:
Angie Hobbs Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield
David Sedley Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
James Warren Reader in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:45.9 | the program. Hello in 1819 the retired American President Thomas Jefferson wrote to his former Secretary giving a |
| 0:54.5 | revealing account of his personal philosophy. I too am an Epicure and he said. I consider the genuine |
| 1:00.7 | doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy |
| 1:04.8 | which Greece and Rome have left us. Epicureanism was one of the major philosophical schools |
| 1:10.2 | of ancient Greece. It was founded in the 4th century BC by Epicurus and Athenian who taught that the aim of human life was |
| 1:16.2 | pleasure. His followers were wary of politics and religion, cast off their |
| 1:20.4 | fear of death and stressed the importance of friendship. |
| 1:23.0 | Epicure in ideas were a major influence on Nesons thinkers and offered a radical view of the |
| 1:28.0 | universe that anticipated far later scientific discoveries such as Darwinian evolution |
| 1:32.0 | and even quantum mechanics. |
| 1:34.0 | With me to discuss Epicureism are Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, |
| 1:41.0 | David Sedley, Lawrence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the |
| 1:44.8 | University of Cambridge, and James Warren, reader in Ancient Philosophy also at |
| 1:49.4 | the University of Cambridge. Angie Hobbs, would you begin by telling us about who Epicurus was and what's known about him? |
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