One thing that I had found interesting while reading Chapter 3 was the questions that were written in the dialogues Cicero and others. “The dialogues Cicero and others wrote were not transcriptions of real exchanges, though the characters in them were real, but they were of idealized versions of conversations that undoubtedly occurred in places like the villa in Herculaneum” (Page 70). This was interesting to me because the questions that are listed are questions you don’t normally see in the ancient Greek or Roman books. For example, usually the Greeks had set beliefs on what happened after death, but one of the questions thta was asked was “What happens to us when we die?”. Another thing that I had found interesting was this quote, “Liberated from superstition, Epicurus taught, you would be free to pursue pleasure” (Page 76). This quote explains how Epicureans believe that the gods are indifferent to what humans do, making prayer pointless. Instead, they advocate for living a happy life, especially if the soul does not survive after death.
One thing I noticed was that there were multiple philosophers who were respected because they had very respectable families, while Epicurus did not. For example, on page 73 they mention his family and how he has a brother who lived with a prostitute. This is a text to world connection because there are hundreds of celebrities who have family members who are respected people in today’s world, and there are also many people who are respected that don’t have respected family members. Epicures got praised by a lot of people for his wise words of wisdom, but there were still a lot of people who didn’t respect him because of the family he has.
One question I have about this chapter is, what historical or cultural influences are mentioned that shaped Epicurean philosophy? I feel as if most philosophers base their beliefs off of historic facts and I am curious on what could have started the Epicurean philosophy.
