A Nietzschean Reading of Epicurus

Abstract Nietzsche’s relationship to Epicurus is usually understood to have undergone an important change from very positive to negative, or at least ambivalent, between his middle and later periods. This article argues that if Nietzsche’s published remarks on Epicurus in both periods are examined closely, this change can be seen as largely, or perhaps wholly, illusory. Rather than evincing a change, Nietzsche’s later remarks build on and deepen the insights he already expressed in his middle period, while the apparently negative stance which he develops toward Epicurus can be seen as largely or wholly rhetorical. The later Nietzsche regards Epicurus as a genuine philosopher and as far more skeptical than he appears to be. Although the paper is a contribution to our understanding of Nietzsche’s view of Epicurus, it also suggests that Nietzsche was an original reader of Epicurus and that his insights into his precursor have implications for scholarship on Epicurus and the Epicurean tradition.