Cicero argues that an Epicurcan, motivates by personal expediency, will act like a bandit when alone in the desert and presented with opportunity. And this influential view of Epicureanism holds that the Epicurean may behave with the semblance of virtue when the fear of punishment is present; but remove that fear and the Epicurean will be revealed to be no better than a bandit. Should this make the Epicurean blush? Is it really the case that the presence of oppotunity and the removal of possible repercussions will make an Epicurean act unjustly? Cicero certainly holds that the Epicurean's valuation of pleasure as the summum bonum will move him or her to commit injustice in the search for pleasure if it is expedient to do so (or at least that it should so motivate them if they were to act consistently with Epicurean principles).
