Epicurus biography of martin

Home / Historical Figures / Epicurus biography of martin

Works

Epicurus was an extremely prolific writer.

Rather, he connected pleasure, true pleasure, with the concept of living the good life. According to DiogenesLaertius, he wrote around 300 treatises on a variety of subjects. Theology

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 God is a blissful, immortal being, as is commonly held.

Do not ascribe to God anything that is inconsistent with immortality and blissfulness; instead, believe about God everything that can support immortality and blissfulness.

Although food is necessary, luxury food is not necessary.

Correspondingly, Epicurus advocates a life of hedonistic moderation by reducing desire, thus eliminating the unhappiness caused by unfulfilled desires.

Vain desires include desires for power, wealth, and fame.

This book, however, has not survived.

Epicurus was an ardent Empiricist; believing that the senses are the only reliable sources of information about the world.

He rejected the Platonic idea of "Reason" as a reliable source of knowledge about the world apart from the senses

and was bitterly opposed to the Pyrrhonists and Academic Sceptics,

who not only questioned the ability of the senses to provide accurate knowledge about the world, but also whether it is even possible to know anything about the world at all.

Epicurus maintained that the senses never deceive humans, but that the senses can be misinterpreted.

Epicurus held that the purpose of all knowledge is to aid humans in attaining Ataraxia.

He taught that knowledge is learned through experiences rather than innate and that the acceptance of the fundamental truth of the things a person perceives is essential to a person's moral and spiritual health.

In the Letter to Pythocles, he states,

If a person fights the clear evidence of his senses he will never be able to share in genuine tranquillity.

Upbringing and influences

Epicurus was born in the Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos in February 341 BC.

His parents, Neocles and Chaerestrate, were both Athenian-born, and his father was an Athenian citizen.

Epicurus grew up during the final years of the Greek Classical Period.

Plato had died 7 years before Epicurus was born and Epicurus was 7 years old when Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont into Persia.

As a child, Epicurus would have received a typical ancient Greek education.

As such it is inconceivable that he would have escaped the Platonic training in geometry, dialectic, and rhetoric.

Epicurus is known to have studied under the instruction of a Platonist named Pamphilus, probably for about 4 years.

Epicurus | Biography

Epicurus (Ἐπίκουρος 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and Sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy.

He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents.

Influenced by Democritus, Aristippus, Pyrrho, and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as "the Garden", in Athens.

Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects.

He openly allowed women and slaves to join the school as a matter of policy.

Epicurus is said to have originally written over 300 works on various subjects, but the vast majority of these writings have been lost:

Only 3 letters written by him—the letters to Menoeceus, Pythocles, and Herodotus—and 2 collections of quotes—the Principal Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings—have survived intact, along with a few fragments of his other writings.

Most knowledge of his teachings comes from later authors, particularly the biographer DiogenesLaertius, the Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius and the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus,

and with hostile but largely accurate accounts by the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus, and the Academic Sceptic and statesman Cicero.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to help people attain a happy (Eudaimonic), tranquil life characterized by Ataraxia (peace and freedom from fear) and Aponia (the absence of pain).

He advocated that people were best able to pursue philosophy by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends.

He taught that the root of all human neurosis is death denial and the tendency for human beings to assume that death will be horrific and painful, which he claimed causes unnecessary anxiety, selfish self-protective behaviours, and hypocrisy.

According to Epicurus, death is the end of both the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared.

Epicurus taught that although the Gods exist, they have no involvement in human affairs.

He taught that people should behave ethically not because the Gods punish or reward people for their actions, but because amoral behaviour will burden them with guilt and prevent them from attaining Ataraxia.

Epicurus was an empiricist, meaning he believed that the senses are the only reliable source of knowledge about the world.

He derived much of his physics and cosmology from the earlier philosopher Democritus (c.

More original writings of Epicurus have survived to the present day than of any other Hellenistic Greek philosopher.

Nonetheless, the vast majority of everything he wrote has now been lost and most of what is known about Epicurus's teachings come from the writings of his later followers, particularly the Roman poet Lucretius.

The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are 3 relatively lengthy letters, which are quoted in their entirety in Book X of DiogenesLaertius's Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers,

and 2 groups of quotes: the Principal Doctrines (Κύριαι Δόξαι), which are likewise preserved through quotation by DiogenesLaertius, and the Vatican Sayings, preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library that was first discovered in 1888.

In the Letter to Herodotus and the Letter to Pythocles, Epicurus summarizes his philosophy on nature and, in the Letter to Menoeceus, he summarizes his moral teachings.

Numerous fragments of Epicurus's lost 37 volume treatise On Nature have been found among the charred papyrus fragments at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.

Scholars first began attempting to unravel and decipher these scrolls in 1800, but the efforts are painstaking and are still on-going.