Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the kind of pleasure offered by music according to the Epicurean tradition. To do this we will consider Philodemus of Gadara’s De musica, the fundamental work to understand the Epicurean position on music and the musical debates among the philosophical schools of the Hellenistic period. By examining the theoretical perspective on music of the Stoic philosopher Diogenes of Babylon and his particular notion of scientific sense-perception (in all likelihood derived from the Academic philosopher Speusippus) with which Philode-mus extensively polemicizes, we will try to understand how music is placed in the philosophical system of Epicurus.