Epicurus
341-271 BCE · Greek (Athenian citizen, born in the Athenian colony of Samos) · Ethics, Hedonism, Atomism, Philosophy of Death, Theology, Philosophy of Friendship
Get used to believing that death is nothing to us.
Born on the Athenian colony of Samos in 341 BCE, Epicurus established the Garden outside Athens by 306 — a philosophical community unlike any other in antiquity: women, slaves, and free men living together as friends, practicing a way of life rather than debating one. He died in 271 BCE from kidney stones, writing in his final hours that the joy of philosophical conversation with a friend outweighed the physical agony. It was the system in practice.
Topics Epicurus addresses
- pleasure as the highest good
- ataraxia
- aponia
- the four-part cure
- katastematic vs kinetic pleasure
- the desire taxonomy
- death is nothing to us
- the symmetry argument
- the canonic
- prolepsis
- atoms and void
- the swerve
- the material soul
- the gods exist but do not concern themselves with us
- the intermundia
- friendship as supreme practical good
- justice as compact
- live unnoticed
- against the fear of death
- against superstition and the fear of the gods
- the infinity of worlds
- emergent properties of macroscopic bodies
- the swerve and freedom of the will
- against Plato
Questions to put to Epicurus
Pleasure, Tranquility, and the Pleasant Life
- What do you mean by pleasure as the highest good?
- What's the difference between katastematic and kinetic pleasure?
- How is your view not just a disguised form of asceticism?
- Why do you divide desires into natural-and-necessary, natural-but-not-necessary, and unnecessary?
- What's the four-part cure and how does it work?
- How much do I actually need to be happy on your view?
Death and the Fear of Death
- Why do you say death is nothing to us?
- How does the symmetry between before-birth and after-death work?
- Doesn't death deprive me of future good experiences I could have had?
- What about your deathbed letter claiming joy counterbalanced the kidney-stone pain?
- How should I think about my own mortality day to day?
The Gods and Religion
- Do the gods actually exist or are they just ethical ideals?
- If the gods don't care about us, why should we care about them?
- What's wrong with the popular religious picture of angry or rewarding gods?
- Where do the gods live and what do they do all day?
- How do we know the gods exist if they never intervene?
Atoms, the Swerve, and the Material Soul
- What are atoms and void, and why are they all that exists?
- What is the swerve and why does it matter?
- How does the swerve give us free will in a material universe?
- Why do you think the soul is made of atoms?
- What happens to the soul-atoms when we die?
Friendship, the Garden, and Living Unnoticed
- Why is friendship the greatest practical good for happiness?
- What does 'live unnoticed' mean and why should I avoid public life?
- How did the Garden work as a community?
- Why did you admit women and slaves to the school?
- Is friendship for its own sake or for usefulness?
The Canonic and How We Know What's True
- What are the three criteria of truth?
- How can sensations always be true if we make mistakes all the time?
- What is a prolepsis and how does it form?
- How do feelings serve as a criterion for what to pursue and avoid?
Converse with Epicurus on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Epicurus's own writing, cited to the page.