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Death of an Egoist: An Epicurean Approach to Fatal Self-SacrificeAncient Philosophy. forthcoming.Epicurus advocates direct egoism, but an Epicurean will die for a friend. To reconcile these claims, I develop an Epicurean justification for fatal self-sacrifice. Because Epicurus claims that being dead has no value, an Epicurean cannot consider self-sacrifice better than living on. However, I argue that an Epicurean can accept death as the remaining deliberative option if all others would prevent tranquility. This account may be accepted by some non-Epicureans.
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Epicurean SexApeiron. forthcoming.Epicureans give grave warnings about the dangers of sex, most prominently in Vatican Sayings 51; but we have ample evidence that Epicureans married and had children, which indicates that they did not eschew sex. I will argue that there is no inconsistency here: a wise Epicurean may, on some occasions, pursue sex, despite the risks of sex. I have two goals in this paper. First, I argue for an interpretation of Vatican Sayings 51 which, while taking seriously the dangers of sex, does not prohibit …Read more
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