I Spit Upon the Noble

Modern liberal democracies regard "pursuit of happiness" as one of the fundamental rights that governments are instituted to protect - but modern political thought has comparatively little to say about happiness itself. The modern view seems to suggest that happiness is something we ought to pursue in private, which would demote politics to an instrumental role. To understand and critique this view, I study one alternative - the philosophy of Epicurus, the ancient theorist of happiness in private life. Epicurus taught that the life of hedone or "pleasure" was the life of eudaimonia or "happiness." He advised his followers to "live unnoticed" - that is, to shun political participation on account of its coercive, unpleasant character. Epicurus' philosophy is often thought to be plainly anti-political. I argue - based on my study of Epicurean fragments and of the poem of Lucretius - that Epicureanism is, in fact, intensely political. Its hedonistic theory of the good is designed so as to deprecate love of honor and desire for public recognition: "I spit upon the noble," Epicurus declares, "when it provides no pleasure." Similarly, his physical theory describes a universe offering no s