Epicureans on Death and Lucretius’ Squandering Argument

Abstract

Lucretius follows his symmetry argument that one should not fear death with a dialectical strategy, the squandering argument. The dialectical presumption behind the squandering argument is that its audience is not an Epicurean, so squanders their life. The question is whether the squandering argument (and the other Epicurean arguments that one should not fear death) works on lives that by Epicurean standards are not squandered.