Moral Responsibility and Moral Development in Epicurus’ Philosophy

This chapter shows that Epicurus had a notion of moral responsibility based on the agents’ causal responsibility—as opposed to their ability to act or choose otherwise. Thus, the central question for responsibility was whether the agent was the cause of the action, or was forced to act by something else. Actions could be attributed to agents because it is in their actions that their character manifests itself. As a result, moral development becomes all-important. Thus the chapter discusses evidence for Epicurus’ views on how humans become moral beings and on how they morally improve. Epicurus envisaged a complex web of hereditary and environmental factors as shaping the moral aspects of humans. It results that Epicurean ethics does not have the function of developing or justifying a moral system that allows for the effective allocation of blame. Rather, its function is to give everyone a chance to morally improve.