According to Epicurus, death is the end of both the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared. 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 behaviors, and hypocrisy. He advocated that people were best able to pursue philosophy by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. Most knowledge of his teachings comes from later authors, particularly the biographer Diogenes Laërtius, 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 Skeptic and statesman Cicero.įor 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). Only three letters written by him-the letters to Menoeceus, Pythocles, and Herodotus-and two collections of quotes-the Principal Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings-have survived intact, along with a few fragments of his other writings. Epicurus is said to have originally written over 300 works on various subjects, but the vast majority of these writings have been lost. He openly allowed women and slaves to join the school as a matter of policy. Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects. 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. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Seneca the Younger, Hermarchus, Diogenes of Oenoanda, Lucretius, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx, Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Metrodorus, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Philodemus, GassendiĮpicurus ( / ˌ ɛ p ɪ ˈ k j ʊər ə s/ Greek: Ἐπίκουρος Epikouros 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy.
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