Mortality of the Soul
The Epicurean liberation: the soul is made of atoms, so it scatters at death — which is why 'death is nothing to us.'
The mortality of the soul is the Epicurean claim that the soul is a physical, atomic structure that disperses when the body dies, leaving no afterlife. Epicurus (late 4th–early 3rd c. BCE) made this the cure for the fear of death: since no subject survives, 'death is nothing to us.' The doctrine was later set out in soaring Latin verse by Lucretius in De Rerum Natura (1st c. BCE). It stood in sharp opposition to Platonic immortality and became a touchstone for later materialist and naturalist views of the mind.
How it traveled
- PhaedoAthens · -380explains
- De Rerum NaturaRome · -55explains
- Tusculanae DisputationesFormiae · -43explains
- Non Posse Suaviter Vivi Secundum EpicurumChaeronea · 120explains
- Consolatio ad ApolloniumChaeronea · 120explains
- Ad Se IpsumVindobona (Vienna) · 170explains
- De luctuSamosata · 180explains
- Dialogi mortuorumSamosata · 180explains
- ContemplantesSamosata · 180explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- Duties of the HeartZaragoza (Saragossa) · 1080
- Avodat HaKodesh (Ibn Gabbai)Cairo · 1523
- Reshit ChokhmahTzfat · 1575
- Ohr HaChammah on ZoharTzfat · 1620
- OdesRomeexplains
- De Resurrectione—explains
- De Anima—explains
- Pseudo‑Clementina (epitome de gestis Petri praemetaphrastica) [Sp.]—explains
- Epistulae—explains
- Refutatio Omnium Haeresium (= Philosophumena)—explains
- Fragmenta Logica et PhysicaAthensexplains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- Placita Philosophorum—explains
Key passages(20)
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
Refutatio Omnium Haeresium (= Philosophumena) · Hippolytus
Consolatio ad Apollonium · Pseudo-Plutarch
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero