Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer: 

Read Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus and then Lucretius On the Nature of the Universe, Book I, “Nothing Exists Per Se Except Atoms and the Void” section and Book III, “Proem” section then jump down to “Folly of the Fear of Death” section. Epicurus offered a very different picture of the universe and the place of humans in it than did either Plato or Aristotle. Epicurus, followed by the Roman poet Lucretius centuries later, tried to offer a way for humans to be happy by teaching them how to remove the major obstacles to their happiness, superstition about the gods and the fear of death. Prepare the question, “Is anyone capable of happiness according to Epicurean philosopy? Aristotle excluded women and slaves and barbarians from full happiness because they were not capable of the excellence of soul that free males in the polis were capable of. What about Epicurus? Were there similar exclusions? Is there any reason you can think of that someone who believed the soul was composed of atoms might believe that happiness was not reserved for free males only?”