UNE Center for Global Humanities presents “How to Be an Epicurean”
Epicureanism is today associated with the enjoyment of food and drink. But the philosophy of Epicurus, originating in the 3rd century BCE, was, in fact, a comprehensive system of cosmology, physics, biology and ethics that remains interesting and highly relevant in our present times.
So will argue scholar Catherine Wilson at the University of New England Center for Global Humanities, as the popular Portland lecture series kicks off its eleventh season with a lecture titled “How To Be an Epicurean” on Monday, September 30, at 6 p.m. at Innovation Hall at the UNE Portland Campus.
As Wilson will detail, the Epicureans believed that the world originated by mere chance, its creatures evolved over time from more primitive ones, human beings possessed free will, and the soul died when the body did. Not surprisingly, many of these views were controversial in their day, but centuries later they have proven quite prescient. And, as Wilson will argue, they are well worth our study and discussion.
A distinguished professor of philosophy at the City University of New York, Wilson has previously taught and held research fellowships in Germany, Britain and Canada, including at the University of Aberdeen, where she was formerly Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy. She is the author of seven books on philosophy and its history, including Epicureanism at the Origins of Modernity (2008) and Epicureanism: A Very Short Introduction (2015).
This first lecture of the 2019-2020 season for the Center for Global Humanities will be followed by eleven more between now and April 2020. Lectures are always free, open to the public and streamed live online.
