EARLY MODERN ACCOUNTS OF EPICUREANISM

This chapter explores the early modern influence of ancient Epicureanism, which was both profound and diffuse. It begins with the pivotal figures of Pierre Gassendi and Ralph Cudworth: the former’s comprehensive research made the Epicurean system newly accessible to a modern audience and formed a basis for his own physical theory; the latter treated Epicureanism as a dangerous foe in need of extensive refutation. The chapter then surveys three major themes of early modern Epicureanism. First, Epicurean atomism entered the fray of natural philosophy, although modern views of atomic motion tended to differ from ancient accounts. Second, materialism about the human mind, as exemplified in the work of Thomas Hobbes and Julien Offray de la Mettrie, was associated with Epicureanism. Third was the denial of divine providence, explored influentially by Pierre Bayle, Baron d’Holbach, and David Hume, sometimes accompanied by deflationary accounts of religious belief (as in Hobbes).