Epicurus on the Self reconstructs a part of Epicurean ethics which only survives on the fragmentary papyrus rolls excavated from an ancient library in Herculaneum, On Nature XXV. The aim of this book is to contribute to a deeper understanding of Epicurus' moral psychology, ethics and of its robust epistemological framework. The book also explores how the notion of the self emerges in Epicurus' struggle to express the individual perspective of oneself in the process of one's holistic self-reflection as an individual psychophysical being.

Attila Németh is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary.

Preface

Introduction

1. Self-awareness

2. Agency and atomism

3. Self-narratives

4. Lucretius' cosmological perspective

5. The pleasures of friendship

Epilogue

Appendix - The map of the fragments of On Nature XXV

Bibliography

Index