David Konstan

David Konstan was a classicist whose scholarship ranged across Greek and Latin literature, ancient philosophy, comedy, friendship, emotion, and beauty. A Life Worthy of the Gods returns to Epicurean psychology, especially the claim that irrational fears and desires can be answered through a material understanding of the world. Parmenides Publishing identifies it as a study of Epicurus, while an academic review explains that it substantially revises Konstan's 1973 monograph Some Aspects of Epicurean Psychology with a new introduction and bibliography. Konstan taught at Wesleyan, Brown, and New York University, and Columbia remembers his influential work on emotion in Greek culture. That career gives the book its breadth: close reading of ancient texts supports a larger inquiry into pleasure, pain, belief, and human flourishing.