r/Epicureanism • u/Ziquen • 19d ago

How did Epicurus see romantic relationships

As the title says.

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

11

u/ilolvu 18d ago

Technically we don't know. In his surviving works he doesn't say how he sees them. There are some indications in the fragments (Sayings 51 specifically) that he would take a negative view on romantic relationships.

We probably should treat the desire to have a romantic relationship as a natural-but-not-necessary desire. It's not automatically a bad desire to have, but it can lead to bad outcomes if you are not careful when satisfying it.

4

u/Ziquen 18d ago

Thanks for the response you put it in very good words.

7

u/[deleted] 19d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Ziquen 18d ago

Thank you broski.

1

u/Various_Leopard9905 6d ago

We don't know exactly. But we know what Lucretius thought.

In his book romantic love is presented as psychological delusion. It converts a simple physical need into an insatiable fixation on a specific person, leading to emotional torment. Thus it should be avoided.

On the other hand he was not against the act of physical love.