Lucretius Overview - Epicurean Beliefs

The purpose of philosophy for Lucretius was to attain a happy and tranquil life, consisting of two basic characteristics.

1)      Ataraxia: freedom from fear

2)      Aponia : absence from pain

In this system, pleasure and pain are the measures of good and evil. Good things are determined by what causes pleasure, and evil things are determined by what causes pain. Since Lucretius was an Epicurean, the belief on death is that it is the end of both the body and soul, therefore, it should not be feared since after death there is no cause of either pleasure or pain. It’s a very interesting philosophy, and someone asked in class if it was similar to atheism. I would agree with Dr. Johnson’s response to that question, which was something along the lines of that there are nonreligious people that fear death and religious people that do not fear death (whether it be because of personal reasons, religious reasons, philosophical beliefs otherwise, etc) so it’s not exactly one or the other. 

To expand on that, Epicureans believe that all events in the world are based on the motions and interactions of atoms, so they shouldn’t believe anything that cannot be tested through logical deduction. (i.e. like explained in class, if you mess up a shot in pool then it’s your fault—not that the ball randomly decided to go in a different direction because it hates you.)

But, Epicureans also believe that “swerve,” or “clinamen,” is built into the universe that adds a randomness to the universe so everything is not totally pre-determined, which accounts for the fact of free will. What do you think of Lucretius and the philosophy of freedom of fear and absence of pain? What about the ideas of swerve?