Some of us seem to have a Puritanical streak running through us. It surfaces whenever we get the chance to criticize those who actively seek and savor pleasure in their lives.
Catherine Wilson's new book allows us to take a step back and see what we're missing. She describes herself as a lecturer and has taught philosophy in the United States, Britain, Canada, and Germany. Here she examines a philosophy created by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius, a first-century BCE thinker whose writings have more pluck to them than one would have thought. Epicureanism is a way of being in the world as the pursuit of pleasure and the enjoyment of food and comfort.
But there is more to it than that. Wilson includes some nuanced material on ethics and the care of the self, seeking knowledge and avoiding error, and the self in a complex world moving toward a meaningful life. She gives us a vision of epicureanism as an adventuresome philosophy that can tough many aspects of our lives.
