Covid-19 and Greek Philosophy Martin Ferguson Smith on Confronting Covid-19 with Guidance from Epicurus

Forum Covid-19 and Greek Philosophy Martin Ferguson Smith on confronting Covid-19 with guidance from Epicurus

At this time when the Covid-19 pandemic city. The disease was highly contagious. is killing hundreds of thousands, disrupting Doctors, not having encountered it before, the economies of prosperous nations and did not know how to treat it, and their ex- the lives of billions, and generating much posure to it meant that they suffered the fear, it may be of interest to look back to highest rate of mortality. Other high-risk Greek and Roman antiquity and see what members of the population were those with moral guidance is offered by the school of pre-existing health problems. Symptoms of the philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC). the disease included fever, coughing, vom- Plagues and pestilences were not un- iting, and diarrhoea. If the sick were not common in the ancient world. The best visited because others feared being infected, known one afflicted Athens in 430 BC, the they died of neglect; and those whose altru- second year of the Peloponnesian War, ism prompted them to visit were all too like- fought by the city and its allies against Spar- ly to pay with their lives. Those who caught ta and its allies. It is graphically documented the disease but recovered were immune to a by the historian Thucydides, who not only further attack, at least to one that was fatal. witnessed it, but caught it and recovered. Although he describes it in detail in the hope that his description will be useful in Plagues and the event of the same disease ever recurring in the future, modern authorities have been pestilences were not unable to agree in identifying it. uncommon in the In its behaviour, symptoms, and effects, it had some similarities to Covid-19. It was ancient world said to have originated in a distant country, somewhere south of Egypt, and to have af- The plague of Athens occurred nearly a fected other areas before reaching Athens, century before Epicurus was born. Most of wreaking most havoc where people were his extensive writings have perished, and we crowded together. Athens was particularly do not know whether he himself wrote about vulnerable because the war had compelled it. But his most famous follower did. That is many country people to seek shelter in the the Roman poet Lucretius, who, writing in

53 Forum the middle of the first century BC, concludes disease, as in a plague, with their false no- the sixth and last book of his brilliant epic of tions about things, and their number is in- the universe, On the Nature of Things, with creasing, for in mutual emulation they catch an account that for the most part closely fol- the disease from one another, like sheep.” lows that of Thucydides, but represents the He calls the Epicurean doctrines he is Athenians, living at a time when Epicurus’ propounding “the drugs (pharmaka) that teachings were not yet available, as being bring salvation”. morally, as well as medically, ill-equipped to deal with the calamity. Although Lucretius does not say so explicitly, it is likely that he Just as medicine is saw the physical condition of the plague’s victims as symbolic of the moral condition of no use if it fails to of unenlightened humanity. banish the diseases The idea that the unenlightened are “diseased” and require the “medicine” of of the body, Epicureanism is found both elsewhere in Lucretius and in other Epicurean sources. so philosophy is of Epicurus himself declares: “Vain is the word no use if it fails to of a philosopher by whom no human suffer- ing is cured; for just as medicine is of no use banish the diseases if it fails to banish the diseases of the body, of the mind so philosophy is of no use if it fails to banish the diseases of the mind.” Four maxims in which Epicurus sum- Epicurus, who founded his school in marises the basic principles of his moral Athens in 307/306 BC, was seen and re- system were known to his followers as the vered by his followers, both in his own time tetrapharmakos (fourfold drug therapy). and centuries after his death, as the discov- According to the Epicurean spokesman erer of the way to achieve moral health and in Cicero’s treatise On the Ends of Goods and true happiness. Teaching that pleasure is the Evils, diseases of the mind are more disrup- highest good, he identified pleasure in its tive of happiness than diseases of the body. purest form as aponia (freedom from pain) Such diseases include unlimited and empty in the body and, most importantly, atarax- desires for wealth, fame, power, and sensual ia (freedom from disturbance) in the mind. pleasures. In the second century AD, the Ep- Ataraxia is a metaphor from calm water and icurean philosopher Diogenes of Oinoanda, weather, the idea and ideal being to make a small city in the mountains of Asia Minor your mind as tranquil as the water of a har- (Turkey), explaining his philanthropic and bour undisturbed by currents, tides, and cosmopolitan mission to the place’s citizens winds. Physical illnesses and pains cannot and visitors in the largest Greek inscription always be avoided. If they are mild, they known from the ancient world, asserts: “The are tolerable and can still permit a prepon- majority of people suffer from a common derance of physical pleasure over pain. The

54 Covid-19 and Greek Philosophy

The plague of Athens. Line engraving by J. Fittler after M. Sweerts. same is often true of chronic complaints. The mind’s ability to look back and for- Severe pain naturally prevents physical ward is exploited by the wise to their ad- pleasure, but is often of short duration, be- vantage, but ruins the lives of those whose ing relieved by recovery or death. A very attitude to past events is bitter, and whose important doctrine is that mental pleasure attitude to the future is dominated by un- is more important than physical pleasure. necessary fears, especially of the gods and When the body is in pain, the mind can still death, and unnecessary desires, especially experience pleasure and mitigate present those for wealth and power. pain by the recollection of past pleasures The key to the removal of these distur- and the anticipation of pleasures to come. bances and the attainment of tranquillity of

55 Forum mind is a scientific study of the universe. and positive as possible, rejoicing in our Adopting and adapting the atomic theory good health if we are lucky enough to re- of Democritus, Epicurus showed that in a tain it, and in general to count our bless- birthless and deathless universe composed ings, including those of love and friendship, of an infinite number of atoms and an in- possession of which was very important to finite extent of void (and containing an in- him and his school. Probably he would have finite number of worlds) there is no place for hoped also that his teachings would help us gods in the creation or governance of our to review the way many of us have been liv- world, which is in any case far too imper- ing our lives and to reassess our priorities fect to have been made by providential gods and values. for human benefit: witness, for example, the That the pandemic is going to do a huge hostile climate in many areas, destructive amount of economic damage is certain, but phenomena such as violent storms, earth- for Epicurus material prosperity and wealth quakes, volcanic eruptions, and of course are far less important than moral well-be- diseases and plagues. There is no possibility ing. Indeed the pursuit of wealth, status, of there being a place where souls survive and power is incompatible with the peace of and can be punished after death. The hu- mind in which true pleasure and happiness man soul and mind, like the body, are ma- consist. As he wrote to a friend concerning terial, and when the body, of which indeed a youthful disciple: “If you wish to make Py- they are part, dies, they perish too. Death thocles rich, do not increase his means, but is nothing to fear: so long as we exist, it is diminish his desire.” not with us; and when it comes, we do not If the Covid-19 pandemic has the result exist. Hell only exists in the sense that fools of persuading some of those “plague-strick- make a hell of their lives on earth. At the en” with false opinions to change their same time those who live wisely can enjoy a ways, some significant good will have come godlike happiness. out of it. Such happiness is experienced by those who live a simple life, satisfying those desires that are natural and necessary, such as those for essential food, drink, clothing, and shelter, and eliminating those, like the Martin Ferguson Smith, Emeritus Professor of desires for wealth, status, and sensual plea- Classics at Durham University, has lived and sures, that are unnecessary and, because worked, in voluntary self-isolation, on the remote they are impossible to satisfy, certain to in- island of Foula in Shetland for 25 years. He has volve pain. edited and translated Lucretius (Harvard Uni- Epicurus would have hoped that, in the versity Press; Hackett) and discovered, deciphered, face of the Covid-19 pandemic, his teach- and published substantial new sections of the enor- ings would help the sick to bear their illness mous Greek inscription in which the Epicurean with equanimity and the rest of us to keep philosopher Diogenes of Oinoanda advertised the our worries, fears, frustrations, and disap- medicines that can cure the moral diseases from pointments in perspective, to be as calm which most human beings suffer as in a plague.