ABSTRACT
One of the most fascinating and continually debated arguments in the philosophical literature on the badness of death comes from the work of Titus Lucretius Carus, a philosopher and poet who lived in Ancient Rome for much of his life. This chapter focuses on Lucretius’s famous Symmetry Argument. It discusses what exactly Epicureanism teaches about death—and why Epicureans thought it could not be bad. The chapter provides the passage from Lucretius’s epic poem that includes his reasons for thinking that death cannot be bad and shows how Lucretius’s passage has been regimented into the Symmetry Argument against the badness of death. It discusses the lasting influence of Lucretius’s argument, summarizing some common ways of responding. Finally, the chapter turns to two other passages from Lucretius’s poem, both of which suggest that it is actually good that our lives come to an end, and concludes by considering the implications of Lucretius’s thought for public policy.
