Abstract
AbstractThis chapter explores how we should respond, both psychologically and practically, to shared catastrophes like pandemics. Lucretius abruptly ends On the Nature of Things with an account of a virulent plague in Athens, a city he characterizes as wealthy and proud, whose inhabitants are nevertheless secretly anxious, hostile to science, superstitious, and enslaved to their unlimited desires. Lucretius implies that the Athenians would have handled the plague far better had they been Epicureans. Some readers suggest, not without reason, that Lucretius draws a perverse comfort from observing others in the grips of psychological struggles he does not share. Nevertheless, he does seem correct that pandemics and similar crises reveal our underlying values and test our resilience.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York