Freedom as Overcoming the Fear of Death: Epicureanism in the Subtitle of Spinoza’s Theological Political Treatise

Parrhesia 32:33-60 (2020)
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Abstract

It is often put forward that the entire political project of epicureanism consists in the overcoming of fear, whereby its scope is deemed to be very narrow. I argue that the overcoming of the fear of death should actually be linked to a conception of freedom in epicureanism. This idea is further developed by Spinoza, who defines the free man as one who thinks of death least of all in the Ethics, and who develops this idea more in the Theological Political Treatise.

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Author Profiles

Dimitris Vardoulakis
Dimitris Vardoulakis
University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury

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Why Is Spinoza an Epicurean?Dimitris Vardoulakis - 2020 - Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 24 (2):389-409.
Neo-epicureanism.Dimitris Vardoulakis - 2019 - Philosophy Today 63 (4):1013-1024.
Stasis: Notes Toward Agonist Democracy.Dimitris Vardoulakis - 2017 - Theory and Event 20 (3):699-725.

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