The following is an adaptation of an argument in Defense of Epicurus, as contained in the essay, "On The Ends of Good and Evil," written by Marcus Tullius Cicero in approximately 45 BC.
This presentation is a project of NewEpicurean.com. It is based on the translation of Cicero's work by Harris Rackham, published in 1914. What you are about to hear is not a literal reading of Rackham's translation, but a version rendered into modern American English. The listener should consult literal translations for comparison, and ultimately refer to the letter in its original Latin form.
Epicurus divided the study of philosophy into three categories. In "Canonics," he examined the tools of knowledge Nature provides us through which we can separate the true from the false, and how it is we can have confidence in what we hold to be true. In "Physics," Epicurus set forth what we can observe to be true about the basic nature of the universe. And in "Ethics," he applied our Natural tools of knowledge to study the universe around us, and thereby determine how it is we should live.
The findings of Epicurean physics were well known, in Cicero's day, from documents such as Epicurus' Letters to Herodotus and to Pythocles, and from Lucretius's epic poem, "On The Nature of Things." Ancient readers of this essay would therefore have been familiar with a number of core Epicurean ideas. For example, Epicurus taught that because we see that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it is correct to conclude that the universe was not created by any god, nor was it created by chance from chaos. Instead, Epicurus taught that the universe as a whole has existed eternally, and that it is governed now, as it always has been governed, and always will be governed, according to the Natural properties and laws of the eternal elements. Epicurus also taught that the universe as a whole is infinitely large in size; that life, at levels both lower and higher than that of men, exists throughout the universe; and that men and higher animals have free will because of the nature of the atom, which has the capacity to swerve at no fixed time and no fixed place. Thus men are not playthings, either of capricious gods or of a deterministic Fate, nor are they at the mercy of a chaos which cannot be known and predicted through the study of Nature. From these conclusions, Epicurus taught also that death is nothing to us, because it brings the end of our consciousness, and for the same reason, life is of the utmost importance, as it is our only opportunity to seek the pleasure that Nature has created us to pursue.
The following presentation presumes, but does not discuss, a basic knowledge of these conclusions from Epicurean Physics. Most of what follows is devoted to Ethics and describes how men should live, but significant passages are also devoted to the Canon of Truth by which we have confidence in these conclusions.
Cicero considered his own personal views of these topics to be much closer to those of Plato, whose philosophy Epicurus rejected, than to those of Epicurus. Thus in this text Cicero distanced himself from Epicurus' views by having them spoken by Lucius Torquatus, a devotee of the Epicurean school, rather than by Cicero himself.
Because Cicero was no friend of Epicureanism, caution must be used in considering whether his formulations of Epicurean principles are truly fair and complete. One example where caution is helpful is in the very context of the speech itself, which Cicero describes as an inquiry into the nature of "the final and ultimate good." This subject - that of whether a single "final and ultimate good" exists, and, if it exists, of what it consists - was a favorite topic of Platonists and other schools of philosophy, but not of Epicureans. In fact, Epicurus himself specifically warned his students against harping on the meaning of "the good." Because this speech does not come down to us endorsed by a member of the Epicurean school, it should be viewed as a beginning, and not as the end, of a study of Epicurus. Even with that warning in mind, however, this essay easily remains one of the most understandable, one of the most practical, one of the most compelling, and therefore, one of the most valuable, statements of Epicureanism left to us from the ancient world.
This excerpt begins with Cicero speaking to set the scene of the discussion, at his villa near Pompeii, followed quickly by the Defense of Epicurus, as delivered by Lucius Torquatus.