issues-culture-knukim.pp.ua 148 Питанн културолог 2019 • 35 • 148-157 КУЛЬТУРНІ ПРАКТИКИ ISSN 2410-1311 (Print) ISSN 2616-4264 (Online) DOI: 10.31866/2410-1311.35.2019.188802 UDC 379.8:[140.8:17.036.1 WORLDVIEW ESSENCE OF LEISURE IN THE VIEWS OF EPICURUS AND LORENZO VALLA Iryna Petrova DSc of Cultural Studies, Professor, ORCID: 0000-0002-8146-9200, e-mail: petrovaiw@gmail.com, Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, 36, Yevhen Konovalets Str., Kyiv, Ukraine, 01133 For citation: Petrova, I. (2019). Worldview Essence of Leisure in the Views of Epicurus and Lorenzo Valla. Issues in Cultural Studies, (35), 148-157. doi: https://doi.org/10.31866/2410-1311.35.2019.188802. Abstract The purpose of the article is to compare opinions and views of Epicurus and Lorenzo Valla on the worldview essence of leisure. The research methodology is based on the use of a comparative method to substantiate the general and divergent views of leisure by famous thinkers. The research novelty. For the frst time in the national cultural studies, the author analysed the views of Epicurus and Valla on leisure in the context of its worldview essence. Conclusions. It has been proved that both Epicurus and Valla made sense of human life in the attainment of the highest good on earth by the man – a happiness that is equated by philosophers with leisure and spiritual peace. According to the ancient philosopher, the path to the highest happiness lies in the “passive” world cognition and resigning to death. Instead, Lorenzo Valla justifes a human need for pleasure as it provides a complete perception of the world. According to the Roman thinker, virtue and prudence (in the Epicurean sense) should not be a priority for pleasure, as they are only a means to pleasure. If Epicurus favours spiritual pleasures, Valla emphasizes the unity of spiritual and bodily pleasures, expressing sincere sympathy for the limitations of human sensuality. Epicurus conceived God as an immortal, blissful, prudent hedonist who stays out of mundane desires; in Valla’s view, God is the creator of worldly and unworldly goods, and therefore man has to love him as a source of these goods. According to Epicureanism, one must devote himself to leisure as a means of self-cognition and self-evolution. The ideal leisure of the Renaissance thinker is both scientifc and entertaining, which has been refected in the perception of the worldly pleasures of human communication as indispensable to human happiness. Keywords: leisure; hedonism; the ancient world; Renaissance; humanism; Epicure; Valla Introduction The issue of leisure importance in human life is updated during periods of signifcant historical changes, refected in the culture of everyday life, ideological views, socio- © Iryna Petrova, 2019 The article was received by the editorial office: 27.09.2019