Se convertir à l'épicurisme : ou comment devenir pieux
Were the Epicureans really pious persons? Ancient commentators, among which Cicero and Plutarch, found it difficult to believe: according to them, Epicureans believed that priests were nothing more than butchers, and that cult participation was a mean to dodge potential accusations of atheism. Epicureans, on the other side, were convinced of their own piety. Archeological finds show us that Epicureans were actively participating in traditional cultrelated activities, as long as the school lasted. Despite this evidence, Epicurean theology remains problematic: even though their ethics proclaims the gods as models, the existence of the gods is awkward to their physics. What happened when, in cult-related practices, the gods were invoked, or when they were represented with material objects? Was the Epicurean tradition of piety only cold, distant and purely rational? Even when they bowed and prayed in the temples? But does not such a distant attitude confirm the accusation of hypocrisy brought up by intellectuals like Cicero and Plutarch? With this work, I would like to demonstrate how it was possible for an Epicurean to be pious, in a non-distant way, all the while remaining coherent with the philosophical problem of the representation of the gods. This coherence requires a “conversion” to Epicureanism (and its epistemology) by which it becomes possible not only to see the gods, but to recognize ourselves as gods.
Ancient philosophy Epicureanism Epicure Piety Epicurean epistemology