Epicurus
Happiness is freedom from pain and fear; death is nothing to fear, since we will not be there to experience it.
Placement
Happiness as freedom from pain and tranquility of the soul; fear of the gods and of death is groundless.
Key ideas
- Ataraxia
- “Death is nothing to us”
- Atomism
Influence
Influenced by 2
Democritus
influenced by ✓
Epicurus took over Democritus’ atoms and void, giving atoms weight and, by later reports, a swerve, and grounded on them an ethics free of fear of death. Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus; Letter to Menoeceus; Lucretius II.216–293; Cicero, De finibus I.17–21; SEP “Epicurus”
Democritus › c. 460–370 BCE
Pyrrho of Elis
influenced by disputed ✓
Epicurus’ teacher Nausiphanes had heard Pyrrho, and Epicurus admired Pyrrho’s way of life, often asking about him; any doctrinal debt is disputed (Diogenes Laertius IX.64). Diogenes Laertius IX.64, IX.69, X.8; SEP “Pyrrho”
Pyrrho of Elis › c. 360–270 BCE
Influenced 4
Lucretius
influenced
Lucretius set out Epicurus’ physics and ethics in Latin hexameters, praising him as the Greek who first dared to defy religion (De rerum natura I.62–79, III.1–30). Lucretius, De rerum natura I.62–79, III.1–30, V.1–54; SEP “Lucretius”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Lucretius › c. 99–55 BCE
Seneca
influenced
Seneca ended many early Letters to Lucilius with a saying of Epicurus, crossing into the enemy camp ‘not as a deserter but as a scout’ (Letter 2.5). Seneca, Epistulae morales 1–29, esp. 2.5; SEP “Seneca”
Evidence: AI draft
Seneca › c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
Pierre Gassendi
influenced ✓
Gassendi set out to revive Epicurus’ atomism and ethics of tranquillity, purged of what Christianity could not accept, in his Life of Epicurus (1647) and Syntagma philosophicum (1658). P. Gassendi, De vita et moribus Epicuri (1647); Animadversiones in decimum librum Diogenis Laertii (1649); Syntagma philosophicum (1658); SEP “Pierre Gassendi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Pierre Gassendi › 1592–1655
Karl Marx
influenced
Marx’s doctoral dissertation (1841) defended Epicurus’ swerve of the atoms against Democritus’ determinism, reading it as the principle of the freedom of self-consciousness. K. Marx, Differenz der demokritischen und epikureischen Naturphilosophie (dissertation, Jena 1841; printed 1902); SEP “Karl Marx”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Karl Marx › 1818–1883
Criticism
Criticized by 2
Carneades
criticised by
Carneades objected that Epicurus needed no atomic swerve to save free will, since a voluntary movement of the mind needs no external cause. Cicero, De fato 23, 31–32
Evidence: AI draft
Carneades › c. 214–129 BCE
Cicero
criticised by
Cicero rejected Epicurus’ ethics in On Ends II (45 BCE): pleasure cannot be the highest good, as it leaves no room for virtue for its own sake. Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum I–II; De natura deorum I.57–124
Evidence: AI draft
Cicero › 106–43 BCE
Criticizes 1
Aristippus of Cyrene
criticised disputed
Epicurus held against the Cyrenaics that painless tranquillity, not only pleasure in motion, is the highest pleasure; whether this targets Aristippus himself is disputed. Diogenes Laertius 10.136–137; IEP “Cyrenaics”
Evidence: AI draft
Aristippus of Cyrene › c. 435–356 BCE
Works
- c. 300 BCELetter to Menoeceus
A short guide to the happy life: death is nothing to us.
Position
Epicurus aimed to free people from fear and anxiety. Building on Democritus’ atomism, he taught that the gods do not interfere in the world and that death, the dissolution of the soul’s atoms, is “nothing to us”: where death is, we are not. The goal of life is pleasure, understood not as indulgence but as the absence of bodily pain and mental disturbance (ataraxia). It is reached through simple living, prudence and above all friendship; his “fourfold remedy” sums up the teaching. Lucretius carried it to Rome, and modern hedonism and utilitarianism owe much to it.
Life & context
Epicurus was born on Samos to Athenian parents and taught in Mytilene and Lampsacus before settling in Athens around 306 BCE. There he bought a house with a garden, where he lived with friends – including women and slaves – in a community known simply as “the Garden”. Of his many writings, three letters and collections of maxims survive.
Further main works
- Letter to Herodotus (c. 300 BCE)
- Principal Doctrines (c. 300 BCE)
- On Nature (c. 300 BCE, fragments)
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