Epicurus' philosophy in life
Despite the very novel approach the school employed, it was not one known for having a large amount of followers. Those who were followers of Epicurus did embrace his teachings and sought to preserve them after he was gone. Granted, there is some confusion over the core of his teachings. The philosophy of Epicurus was known as, not surprisingly, Epicureanism.
Epicureanism was rooted in the belief in atomic materialism, which was a philosophical mindset that stressed the only true reality is one based on matter and empty space. To say Epicurus did not believe in superstitions would be an understatement. He truly loathed concepts associated with divine intervention and superstition.
Epicurus also promoted the notion that life should always entail a search for pleasure. Pleasure is often confused with pure hedonism, which is most certainly not what Epicurus was promoting. Rather, he connected pleasure, true pleasure, with the concept of living the good life. He believed that sensations themselves are always true because they originate from objective reality.
Errors arise from the interpretation of sensations. According to Epicurus, sensations are naively and materialistically explained as a continuous flow of the tiniest particles emanating from the surface of objects and entering the sense organs, thereby creating mental images of things. The goal of knowledge is to liberate humans from ignorance and superstition, fear of gods, and death, as happiness is impossible without these.
In ethics, Epicurus advocated for rational pleasure. However, he thought that Epicurus's conception of happiness as freedom from anxiety was too passive and negative. The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are three letters, which are to be found in book X of Diogenes Laertius's Lives of Eminent Philosophers , and two groups of quotes: the Principal Doctrines , reported as well in Diogenes's book X, and the Vatican Sayings , preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library.
Numerous fragments of his thirty-seven volume treatise On Nature have been found among the charred papyrus fragments at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. In addition, other Epicurean writings found at Herculaneum contain important quotations from his other works.
Moreover, numerous fragments and testimonies are found throughout ancient Greek and Roman literature, a collection of which can be found in Usener 's Epicurea. According to Diskin Clay, Epicurus himself established a custom of celebrating his birthday annually with common meals, befitting his stature as hero ctistes or founding hero of the Garden.
He ordained in his will annual memorial feasts for himself on the same date 10th of Gamelion month. Lucretius apotheosized Epicurus as the main character of his epic poem De rerum natura. The hero cult of Epicurus may have operated as a Garden variety civic religion. In Canto X Circle 6 "Where the heretics lie" of Dante 's Inferno , Epicurus and his followers are criticized for supporting a materialistic ideal when they are mentioned to have been condemned to the Circle of Heresy.
Epicurus the Sage is a two-part comic book by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth portraying Epicurus as "the only sane philosopher" by anachronistically bringing him together with many other well-known Greek philosophers. It was republished as graphic novel by the Wildstorm branch of DC Comics. Jump to: navigation , search. Influenced by [show].
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Contents [ hide ]. Main article: Epicureanism. Predecessors [show]. People [show]. Types of utilitarianism [show]. Key concepts [show]. Problems [show]. Mere addition paradox Paradox of hedonism Utility monster. Related topics [show].
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On the Nature of Things. View page ratings. Rate this page. Page ratings. What's this? Current average ratings. It is part of my profession. It is a deep personal passion. The source of my knowledge is not listed here. I would like to help improve Wikipedia, send me an e-mail optional We will send you a confirmation e-mail. We will not share your address with anyone.
Privacy policy. Saved successfully. Your ratings have not been submitted yet. Epicurus taught that the motion of atoms is constant, eternal, and without beginning or end. Epicurus was first to assert human freedom as a result of the fundamental indeterminism in the motion of atoms. This has led some philosophers to think that, for Epicurus, free will was caused directly by chance.
In his On the Nature of Things , Lucretius appears to suggest this in the best-known passage on Epicurus' position. Epicurus agreed, and said it is to these last things that praise and blame naturally attach. For Epicurus, the "swerve" of the atoms simply defeated determinism to leave room for autonomous agency. In his Letter to Menoeceus , a summary of his own moral and theological teachings, the first piece of advice Epicurus himself gives to his student is: "First, believe that a god is an indestructible and blessed animal, in accordance with the general conception of god commonly held, and do not ascribe to god anything foreign to his indestructibility or repugnant to his blessedness.
Epicurus biography of martin lewis: Epicurus remains one of the most recognized figures of Greek antiquity. He was a great philosopher who had a significant number of followers. However, as is the case with so many people from Greek antiquity, much of his writings have been lost.
Strodach, Epicurus could have easily dispensed of the gods entirely without greatly altering his materialist worldview, [ ] but the gods still play one important function in Epicurus's theology as the paragons of moral virtue to be emulated and admired. Epicurus rejected the conventional Greek view of the gods as anthropomorphic beings who walked the earth like ordinary people, fathered illegitimate offspring with mortals, and pursued personal feuds.
Epicurus himself criticizes popular religion in both his Letter to Menoeceus and his Letter to Herodotus , but in a restrained and moderate tone. The Epicurean paradox or riddle of Epicurus or Epicurus' trilemma is a version of the problem of evil. Lactantius attributes this trilemma to Epicurus in De Ira Dei , 13, God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able.
If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious , which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils?
Or why does He not remove them? Is he willing to prevent evil, but not able? Is he able, but not willing? Is he both able and willing?
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No extant writings of Epicurus contain this argument. Epicurus promoted an innovative theory of justice as a social contract. Justice, Epicurus said, is an agreement neither to harm nor be harmed, and we need to have such a contract in order to enjoy fully the benefits of living together in a well-ordered society.
Laws and punishments are needed to keep misguided fools in line who would otherwise break the contract. But the wise person sees the usefulness of justice, and because of his limited desires, he has no need to engage in the conduct prohibited by the laws in any case.
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Laws that are useful for promoting happiness are just, but those that are not useful are not just. Principal Doctrines 31— Epicurus discouraged participation in politics, as doing so leads to perturbation and status seeking. He instead advocated not drawing attention to oneself. Flavius Philostratus , Vita Apollonii 8.
Epicurus was an extremely prolific writer. Epicureanism was extremely popular from the very beginning. The overwhelming majority of surviving Greek and Roman sources are vehemently negative towards Epicureanism [ ] and, according to Pamela Gordon, they routinely depict Epicurus himself as "monstrous or laughable". Epicureanism was a notoriously conservative philosophical school; [ 6 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ] although Epicurus's later followers did expand on his philosophy, they dogmatically retained what he himself had originally taught without modifying it.
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However, in the first and second centuries AD, Epicureanism gradually began to decline as it failed to compete with Stoicism, which had an ethical system more in line with traditional Roman values. In spite of this, DeWitt argues that Epicureanism and Christianity share much common language, calling Epicureanism "the first missionary philosophy" and "the first world philosophy".
By the early fifth century AD, Epicureanism was virtually extinct. During the Middle Ages, Epicurus was remembered by the educated as a philosopher, [ ] but he frequently appeared in popular culture as a gatekeeper to the Garden of Delights, the "proprietor of the kitchen, the tavern, and the brothel. None of the Quattrocento Humanists ever clearly endorsed Epicureanism, [ ] but scholars such as Francesco Zabarella — , Francesco Filelfo — , Cristoforo Landino — , and Leonardo Bruni c.
In the seventeenth century, the French Catholic priest and scholar Pierre Gassendi — sought to dislodge Aristotelianism from its position of the highest dogma by presenting Epicureanism as a better and more rational alternative. As a result of Gassendi's modifications, his books were never censored by the Catholic Church. Epicurus's teachings were made respectable in England by the natural philosopher Walter Charleton — , whose first Epicurean work, The Darkness of Atheism Dispelled by the Light of Nature , advanced Epicureanism as a "new" atomism.
The Anglican bishop Joseph Butler 's anti-Epicurean polemics in his Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel and Analogy of Religion set the tune for what most orthodox Christians believed about Epicureanism for the remainder of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Around the same time, the Epicurean injunction to "live in obscurity" was beginning to gain popularity as well.
I consider the genuine not imputed doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. The German philosopher Karl Marx — , whose ideas are the basis of Marxism , was profoundly influenced as a young man by the teachings of Epicurus [ ] [ ] and his doctoral thesis was a Hegelian dialectical analysis of the differences between the natural philosophies of Democritus and Epicurus.
He was the one who recommended practicing virtue to derive the greatest joy from life". Friedrich Nietzsche once noted: "Even today many educated people think that the victory of Christianity over Greek philosophy is a proof of the superior truth of the former — although in this case it was only the coarser and more violent that conquered the more spiritual and delicate.
So far as superior truth is concerned, it is enough to observe that the awakening sciences have allied themselves point by point with the philosophy of Epicurus, but point by point rejected Christianity. Academic interest in Epicurus and other Hellenistic philosophers increased over the course of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with an unprecedented number of monographs, articles, abstracts, and conference papers being published on the subject.
Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. Ancient Greek philosopher, founder of Epicureanism. Not to be confused with Epictetus. Samos , Greece. Athens , Greece.