Der Garten und die Moderne: Epikureische Moral und Politik vom Humanismus bis zur Aufklärung (review)

Modern times are only to be understood on the basis of ancient traditions. During the age of Renaissance this becomes clear with the revival of Platonic philosophy, which, together with the Aristotelian doctrines, influences all philosophical disciplines. Apart from these well-known trends, Epicurean philosophy, with its profane character, also influences modern times. Gianni Paganini and Edoardo Tortarolo have made it their business to investigate the effects of this cultural phenomenon. The main accent lies on the reconstruction of Epicureanism in the development of law and politics. The editors are well aware of the difficulties concerning on the reception of Epicureanism. While on the one hand Epicurean physics was the subject of a wide attention, as can be seen by their influence on the development of modern concepts of matter, the effects of law and politics on the other are still widely unknown.

Paganini's and Tortarolo's book, the result of a conference, offers a collection of essays in German, French, and English. It is divided into five parts covering a time span from the period of humanism to the Enlightenment on the basis of the ancient premises.

The collection opens with a view of the old sources (Salem). The aim is to show in what ways "Epicurean politics" can be elucidated. As a result of the discussion, the disapproval of war and tyranny, the concept of utilitarianism, and the doctrine of contract seem to have dominated the ancient debates.

The reflection on humanism and Renaissance is the next step in the history of Epicureanism. During this period the reception of Epicurean thought is ramified in various ways. The concept of voluptas, as used in Lorenzo Valla's De voluptate or in Thomas More's Utopia, allows a look at the complex process of adopting the ancient theories (Mulsow/Schmitz). In addition to this, Gioralamo Caradano creates an original and noble variant of the Epicurean model of "voluptas in summa voluptas in intelligendo" (Canziano).

During the seventeenth century, the figures of Pierre Gassendi and Thomas Hobbes come to the fore. Thus, the calculation of utility developed on the base of Epicurean thought constitutes an important link between the two thinkers(Paganini). The analysis of Gassendi's Vita Epicuri gives an impression how consequently the author used the literary genre of biography to rehabilitate the scandalous philosopher of the ancient world (Taussig). Hobbes's theory of religion provokes the question in what way the relationship between belief and public practices can be described. Hobbes accepts Epicurus's separation of "private belief" and "publicly prescribed religious practices" emphasizing this position in both Leviathan and Historia Ecclesiastica (Springborg). A final look at the model of the "royal prudence," by the Frenchman Saint-Évremond, rounds off the neo-Epicurean concepts of the seventeenth century (Darmon).

The reception of Epicureanism during the age of early Enlightenment still touches upon the big topics of the Enlightenment. Thus, Pierre-Charles Jamet uses Pierre Bayle's article Épicure to show the incompatibility between the doctrine of creation and the perfection of an infinite divine being (McKenna/Mothu). The German historian of philosophy Jacob Brucker, inspired by Gassendi, reconstructs in his Historia critica philosophiae Epicurus's attempt to understand human nature on the basis of the interaction of pleasure and desire (Blackwell). Finally, Epicurean ideas are found in the writings of the deists. In this context the reaction of David Hume and Voltaire is of particular interest. Hume, although not an Epicurean in a dogmatic sense, describes in his essay "The Epicurean" the possibilities of a moderate profit of pleasure (Gawlick). Voltaire, too, is stimulated by Epicureanism without becoming a true Epicurean. Remaining an eclectic, he finally rejects the proof of the immortality of the soul as stated by Lucretius, the most important proponent of Epicurean ideas (Gawlick).

Julien Offray de la Mettrie and...