Epicurus

Greek philosopher

• Born: 341 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Island of Samos, Greece
• Died: 270 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Athens, Greece

Epicurus founded The Garden, a school of Greek philosophy, which has had a significant influence on Western philosophers, statesmen, and literary figures.

Early Life

Epicurus (ehp-ih-KYUR-uhs) was born on the Greek island of Samos, about two miles off the coast of Turkey. His father, Neocles, was an immigrant from an old Athenian family who had moved to the distant island for economic reasons and who made his living as an elementary school teacher. Epicurus was forever disadvantaged in the eyes of the men of Athens because of his rustic birth and the low social status of his father’s occupation. To make matters worse, his mother was reputedly a fortune-teller. His experiences as her apprentice might well account for Epicurus’s later criticism of all kinds of superstitions and even for his controversial renunciation of the ancient Greek myths and stories.

Epicurus shared a happy family life with his parents and three brothers, Neocles, Chaeredemus, and Aristobulus, who would eventually become his disciples. It is recorded by Diogenes Laertius that he began to study philosophy at the age of fourteen, because he was unsatisfied with his schoolmasters’ explanations of the meaning of “chaos” in Hesiod. Others contend that he was drawn to philosophy by the works of Democritus, echoes of which can be seen in Epicurus’s later writings.

At eighteen, Epicurus served his two years of compulsory military duty in Athens, at an exciting time when both Xenocrates and Aristotle were lecturing. He clearly familiarized himself with the works of Aristippus, Socrates, and Pyrrhon of Elis. He served in the garrison with the future playwright Menander, with whom he established a close friendship. Many critics believe that they see the impress of Epicurus’s ideas on Menander’s later plays.

After his military service, Epicurus rejoined his family, who, with other Athenian colonists, had been expelled from Samos by a dictator and had subsequently moved to Colophon. Not much is known of the ten years that Epicurus spent at Colophon, but it might be surmised that he spent much of his time in study and contemplation, perhaps even visiting the intellectual center of Rhodes. At around the age of thirty he moved to Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, to become a teacher. As he developed his own philosophy, he came into conflict with the numerous followers of Plato and Aristotle on that island, and after only a short stay, he left. He took with him, however, Hermarchus, a man who would become a lifetime friend and, perhaps more important, after Epicurus’s death, the head of his Athenian school.

Hermarchus and Epicurus moved to Lampsacus on the Hellespont for the fertile years between 310 and 306 b.c.e. At Lampsacus, Epicurus gathered around him the devoted disciples and the influential patrons who would make it possible for him, at the age of thirty-five, to move to Athens and begin the major stage of his career. They presented to him the house and the garden in the outskirts of Athens that would be both his school and his home for the rest of his life.

Life’s Work

Once established in Athens, Epicurus founded his school, called The Garden, after the practice of the resident members, who, in almost monastic fashion, provided for their own food by gardening. The many statues, statuettes, and engraved gems that bear the image of Epicurus’s long, narrow, intelligent face, with its furrowed brows and full beard, attest the devotion of his followers and the unusually enduring influence of his ideas.

Epicurus organized his Garden school in a strict hierarchical system, at the apex of which stood only himself: The Master. One of the common slogans of the school was “Do all things as if Epicurus were looking at you.” While this motto may sound dictatorial, it represented a benevolent tyranny to which all the disciples and students of Epicurus happily adhered, and it no doubt accounts for the consistently accurate promotion of his philosophical ideas, even after his death.

Three men—Metrodorus, Hermarchus, and Plyaenus—reached the rank of associate leaders in The Garden and were understood to follow in their master’s footsteps so closely that they might teach the Epicurean doctrine in its purest form. Beneath them were the many assistant leaders, unknown to modern scholars by name, and the numerous students. Among Epicurus’s students were women (for example, the distinguished Leontion) and slaves (Epicurus’s own slave Mys was one of his favorite students). The accessibility of the Epicurean philosophy, which eschewed most classical learning, ensured a remarkably heterogeneous following.

Despite many later slanders against him, by writers who misconstrued his emphasis on pleasure as a license for sensory excess, the overwhelming evidence supports the idea that Epicurus lived in his Garden school simply and privately, following his own dictate to “live unobtrusively.” His health, which was delicate and complicated by a bladder or kidney stone, would certainly not have survived the riotous living ascribed to him by his detractors.

Fortunately, both Epicurus and his closest disciples were prolific writers, and in some ways the home of Epicurus was a kind of publishing house for their works. Still, only a small portion of that original writing is extant, and an even smaller part is translated into English. Of Epicurus’s three hundred or more books (it is best to think of them as scrolls), all that remains are some fragments of his central work De natura (c. 296 b.c.e.; On Nature, in Epicurus: The Extant Remains, 1926), three important letters recorded by Diogenes Laertius in the early third century b.c.e., and some miscellaneous correspondence, which shows Epicurus’s affectionate relationship with his friends. As Plato had his Socrates, Epicurus had the Roman poet Lucretius, from whose book De rerum natura (c. 60 b.c.e.; On the Nature of Things, 1682) most modern understanding of Epicurus’s ideas comes.

Through Lucretius’s works one is introduced to Epicurus’s theories on matter and space, the movements and the shapes of atoms, life and the mind, sensation and sex, cosmology and sociology, and meteorology and geology. In addition to Epicurus’s atomic theory, which in some interesting respects presages modern physics, the parts of Epicurus’s philosophy that still have the power to move people are the simple axioms of behavior around which he organized life at The Garden.

Rejecting much of traditional education because it did not foster happiness through tranquillity (which was the ultimate goal of life), Epicurus had a more profound respect for common sense than for classical learning. Prudence was an important virtue, and the senses were the ultimate sources of all knowledge. The highest good in life was attaining a secure and lasting pleasure. To Epicurus, pleasure was not unbridled sensuality but freedom from pain and peace of mind. These two goods could easily be obtained by simple living, curbing one’s unnecessary desires, and avoiding the stresses and compromises of a public life. It might even be profitable to avoid love, marriage, and parenting, he said, because they usually bring more pain than pleasure. Friendship, on the other hand, was regarded as one of the highest and most secure forms of pleasure.

Epicurus thought that the great aim of philosophy was to free people of their fears. He was not an atheist, but he considered the gods to be very remote—living in Epicurean serenity—and not likely to be tampering viciously with the lives of mortals. For Epicureans, the soul dies with the body and, therefore, not even death was to be feared.

Perhaps the most salient criticisms of Epicurus’s ethics of self-reliance and free will are that they are very negative (viewing wisdom as an escape from an active, hazardous, but possibly full life) and very selfish (placing the good of the individual above the needs of society or the state). While these criticisms may be valid, the life of Epicurus showed that there was much everyday merit in his philosophy. He was blessed with many lifelong friendships, and his enthusiastic followers kept his ideas alive long into the fourth century. Even on his deathbed, he exhibited that almost Eastern detachment and calm that was the major goal of his philosophy. In a letter that he wrote to friends at his last hour, he commented that the extreme pain of his abdomen was considerably relieved by the happy thoughts he had of his talks with them.

Significance

Epicurus’s thought outlived most other important Greek philosophical systems, but it too was finally overwhelmed in the fourth century by Christianity, which considered it just another pagan creed. Some critics believe, however, that the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament was likely a member of the school and that the Epistles of Saint Paul in the New Testament were strongly influenced by Epicurean thought.

Ironically, it was a French priest, Pierre Gassendi, who revived interest in Epicurus in the seventeenth century with his short treatise De vita et moribus Epicuri libri octo (1647; eight books on the life and manners of Epicurus). This interest was manifested in English by Walter Charleton and further fueled by Sir William Temple, a renowned seventeenth century English essayist. In the early nineteenth century, the United States had an avowed Epicurean as its president: Thomas Jefferson.

Discoveries of inscriptions and manuscripts in Asia Minor and Herculaneum have kept scholars debating the issues raised in the works of Epicurus up to the present day. Richard W. Hibler, for example, has studied Epicurus, focusing on what he has to teach about pedagogy. There is no question that as long as humans worry about ethics, strive after the good life, or try to make sense of the universe, the voice of Epicurus will continue to be heard.

Bibliography

Diogenes Laertius. Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. The most valuable parts of this early third century work are the many quoted extracts directly from the writings of Epicurus. Diogenes’ unusual focus on the ancient philosophers as living men gives an interesting view of Epicurus, who is, surprisingly, treated more extensively in this work than is Socrates.

Durant, Will. The Life of Greece. 1939. Reprint. New York: MJF Books, 1992. Contains an excellent chapter, “The Epicurean Escape,” that places Epicurus in the context of his times and also evaluates the tenets of his philosophy.

Edwards, Paul, ed. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1972. Contains a lucid short explanation of Epicurus’s complex theory and a definitive scholarly bibliography.

Epicurus. The Essential Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Fragments. Translated by Eugene Michael O’Connor. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1993. Translation of works; includes bibliography.

Hibler, Richard W. Happiness Through Tranquillity: The School of Epicurus. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984. Hibler’s interest in Epicurus is primarily as a great teacher; consequently, he follows his discussion of the philosopher’s life and works with a summary of twenty points that are especially relevant to readers who wish to know more about Epicurus’s educational methodology.

Hicks, R. D. Stoic and Epicurean. 1910. Reprint. New York: Russell and Russell, 1961. Hicks compares the Stoics with the Epicureans. He gives an excellent, extended account of Epicurus’s theory. Includes useful chronological table and index.

Lucretius. On the Nature of the Universe. Translated by Ronald Latham. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964. This philosophical poem forms the basis of the modern reading of Epicurus. Lucretius, in true Epicurean fashion, avoided the usual occupations of his times—war and politics—to devote himself to an extensive exposition of Epicurus’s teachings.

Rist, J. M. Epicurus: An Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Rist describes his book as an unambitious and elementary account of the philosophy of Epicurus. It is, in fact, a fine introduction to the thought of Epicurus and takes full advantage of the most important developments in Epicurean scholarship.