Epicurus

Epicurus (/ˌɛpɪˈkjʊərəs, ˌɛpɪˈkjɔːrəs/;[2]

Greek: Ἐπίκουρος, Epíkouros, "ally,
comrade"; 341–270 BC) was an ancient
Greek philosopher who founded a school
of philosophy now called Epicureanism.
Only a few fragments and letters of
Epicurus's 300 written works remain.
Much of what is known about Epicurean
philosophy derives from later followers
and commentators.
 Epicurus

Roman marble bust of Epicurus

Born February 341 BC

Samos

Died 270 BC
Athens

Era Ancient philosophy

Region Western philosophy

School Epicureanism, atomism, materialism,

 hedonism
Main Physics, ethics, epistemology
interests
Notable Pleasure principle,
ideas
the "moving"/"static" pleasures
distinction,
ataraxia, aponia, atomic swerve[1]

Influences
Democritus, Pyrrho

Influenced
Seneca the Younger, Hermarchus, Lucretius,
Hobbes, Kant, Bentham, Stuart Mill, Thomas
Jefferson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx,
Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Onfray,
Hadrian, Metrodorus, David Hume,
Philodemus, Amafinius, Catius, Michel
Foucault, Gassendi, Han Ryner
For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy
was to attain the happy, tranquil life,
characterized by ataraxia—peace and
freedom from fear—and aponia—the
absence of pain—and by living a self-
sufficient life surrounded by friends. He
taught that the root of all human neurosis
was 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.
According to Epicurus, death is the end of
both the body and the soul and therefore
should not be feared. He also taught that
the gods neither reward nor punish
humans; that the universe is infinite and
eternal; and that occurrences in the natural
world are ultimately the result of atoms
moving and interacting in empty space.

Biography
His parents, Neocles and Chaerestrate,
both Athenian-born, and his father a
citizen, had emigrated to the Athenian
settlement on the Aegean island of Samos
about ten years before Epicurus's birth in
February 341 BC.[3] As a boy, he studied
philosophy for four years under the
Platonist teacher Pamphilus. At the age of
eighteen, he went to Athens for his two-
year term of military service. The
playwright Menander served in the same
age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus.

After the death of Alexander the Great,

Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers
on Samos to Colophon, on the coast of
what is now Turkey. After the completion
of his military service, Epicurus joined his
family there. He studied under
Nausiphanes, who followed the teachings
of Democritus. In 311/310 BC Epicurus
taught in Mytilene but caused strife and
was forced to leave. He then founded a
school in Lampsacus before returning to
Athens in 306 BC where he remained until
his death.[4] There he founded The Garden
(κῆπος), a school named for the garden he
owned that served as the school's meeting
place, about halfway between the
locations of two other schools of
philosophy, the Stoa and the Academy.

Epicurus's teachings were heavily

influenced by those of earlier
philosophers, particularly Democritus.
Nonetheless, Epicurus differed from his
predecessors on several key points of
determinism and vehemently denied
having been influenced by any previous
philosophers, whom he denounced as
"confused". Instead, he insisted that he
had been "self-taught".[5]

Epicurus never married and had no known

children. He was most likely a
vegetarian.[6][7] He suffered from kidney
stones,[8] to which he finally succumbed in
270 BC[9] at the age of seventy-two, and
despite the prolonged pain involved, he
wrote to Idomeneus:

I have written this letter to you

on a happy day to me, which is
also the last day of my life. For I
have been attacked by a painful
inability to urinate, and also
dysentery, so violent that nothing
can be added to the violence of
my sufferings. But the
cheerfulness of my mind, which
comes from the recollection of all
my philosophical contemplation,
counterbalances all these
afflictions. And I beg you to take
care of the children of
Metrodorus, in a manner worthy
of the devotion shown by the
young man to me, and to
philosophy.[10]
Three Epicurus bronze busts were
recovered from the Villa of the Papyri, as
well as text fragments.[11]

Konstan from the Stanford Encyclopedia

of Philosophy notes "Short citations of
Epicurus' works appear in other writers
(e.g., Plutarch, Sextus Empiricus, and the
Greek commentators on Aristotle), often
taken out of context or presented in a
polemical and distorted fashion. [..] The
school tended to be conservative and later
thinkers embellished rather than altered
Epicurus' own teachings."[12]
The school
In Mytilene, the capital of the island
Lesbos, and then in Lampsacus Epicurus
taught and gained followers. In Athen
Epicurus bought a property for his school
called "Garden", later the name of Epicurus
school.[12] The primary members were
Hermarchus, the financier Idomeneus,
Leonteus and his wife Themista, the
satirist Colotes, the mathematician
Polyaenus of Lampsacus, Leontion, and
Metrodorus of Lampsacus, the most
famous popularizer of Epicureanism. His
school was the first of the ancient Greek
philosophical schools to admit women as
a rule rather than an exception.[note 1] An
inscription on the gate to The Garden is
recorded by Seneca the Younger in epistle
XXI of Epistulae morales ad Lucilium:[13]

Stranger, here you will do well to

tarry; here our highest good is
pleasure.

Epicurus emphasised friendship as an

important ingredient of happiness, and the
school resembled in many ways a
community of friends living together.
However, he also instituted a hierarchical
system of levels among his followers, and
had them swear an oath on his core
tenets.

According to Diskin Clay, Epicurus himself

established a custom of celebrating his
birthday annually with common meals,
befitting his stature as heros ktistes
("founding hero") of the Garden. He
ordained in his will annual memorial feasts
for himself on the same date (10th of
Gamelion month).[14] Epicurean
communities continued this tradition,[15]
referring to Epicurus as their "saviour"
(soter) and celebrating him as hero.
Lucretius apotheosized Epicurus as the
main character of his epic poem De rerum
natura. The hero cult of Epicurus may have
operated as a Garden variety civic
religion.[16] However, clear evidence of an
Epicurean hero cult, as well as the cult
itself, seems buried by the weight of
posthumous philosophical
interpretation.[17] Epicurus' cheerful
demeanour, as he continued to work
despite dying from a painful stone
blockage of his urinary tract lasting a
fortnight, according to his successor
Hermarchus and reported by his
biographer Diogenes Laërtius, further
enhanced his status among his
followers.[8]
Teachings

Small bronze bust of Epicurus from Herculaneum.

Illustration from Baumeister, 1885

Prefiguring science and ethics

Epicurus is a key figure in the development
of science and scientific methodology
because of his insistence that nothing
should be believed, except that which was
tested through direct observation and
logical deduction. He was a key figure in
the Axial Age, the period from 800 BC to
200 BC, during which, according to Karl
Jaspers, similar thinking appeared in
China, India, Iran, the Near East, and
Ancient Greece. His statement of the Ethic
of Reciprocity as the foundation of ethics
is the earliest in Ancient Greece, and he
differs from the formulation of
utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill by emphasising the
minimisation of harm to oneself and
others as the way to maximise happiness.

Epicurus's teachings represented a

departure from the other major Greek
thinkers of his period, and before, but was
nevertheless founded on many of the
same principles as Democritus. Like
Democritus, he was an atomist, believing
that the fundamental constituents of the
world were indivisible little bits of matter
(atoms; Greek: ἄτομος atom os,
"indivisible") flying through empty space
(Greek: κενόν kenon). Everything that
occurs is the result of the atoms colliding,
rebounding, and becoming entangled with
one another. His theory differs from the
earlier atomism of Democritus because he
admits that atoms do not always follow
straight lines but their direction of motion
may occasionally exhibit a "swerve"
(Greek: παρέγκλισις parenklisis; Latin:
clinamen). This allowed him to avoid the
determinism implicit in the earlier
atomism and to affirm free will.[18]

He regularly admitted women and slaves

into his school and was one of the first
Greeks to break from the god-fearing and
god-worshipping tradition common at the
time, even while affirming that religious
activities are useful as a way to
contemplate the gods and to use them as
an example of the pleasant life. Epicurus
participated in the activities of traditional
Greek religion, but taught that one should
avoid holding false opinions about the
gods. The gods are immortal and blessed
and men who ascribe any additional
qualities that are alien to immortality and
blessedness are, according to Epicurus,
impious. The gods do not punish the bad
and reward the good as the common man
believes. The opinion of the crowd is,
Epicurus claims, that the gods "send great
evils to the wicked and great blessings to
the righteous who model themselves after
the gods," whereas Epicurus believes the
gods, in reality, do not concern themselves
at all with human beings.

It is not the man who denies the

gods worshipped by the
multitude, who is impious, but he
who affirms of the gods what the
multitude believes about them.[19]

Pleasure as absence of
suffering

Epicurus' philosophy is based on the

theory that all good and bad derive from
the sensations of what he defined as
pleasure and pain: What is good is what is
pleasurable, and what is bad is what is
painful. His ideas of pleasure and pain
were ultimately, for Epicurus, the basis for
the moral distinction between good and
evil. If pain is chosen over pleasure in
some cases it is only because it leads to a
greater pleasure. Although Epicurus has
been commonly misunderstood to
advocate the rampant pursuit of pleasure,
his teachings were more about striving for
an absence of pain and suffering, both
physical and mental, and a state of
satiation and tranquillity that was free of
the fear of death and the retribution of the
gods. Epicurus argued that when we do
not suffer pain, we are no longer in need of
pleasure, and we enter a state of ataraxia,
"tranquillity of soul" or
"imperturbability".[20][21]

Epicurus distinguishes between two

different types of pleasure: "moving"
pleasures (κατὰ κίνησιν ἡδοναί) and
"static" pleasures (καταστηματικαὶ
ἡδοναί).[22][23] "Moving" pleasures occur
when one is in the process of satisfying a
desire and involve an active titillation of
the senses.[22] After one's desires have
been satisfied, (e.g., when one is full after
eating), the state of satiety is a "static"
pleasure.[22] For Epicurus, static pleasures
are the best pleasures.[22]

Epicurus' teachings were introduced into

medical philosophy and practice by the
Epicurean doctor Asclepiades of Bithynia,
who was the first physician who
introduced Greek medicine in Rome.
Asclepiades introduced the friendly,
sympathetic, pleasing and painless
treatment of patients. He advocated
humane treatment of mental disorders,
had insane persons freed from
confinement and treated them with natural
therapy, such as diet and massages. His
teachings are surprisingly modern,
therefore Asclepiades is considered to be
a pioneer physician in psychotherapy,
physical therapy and molecular
medicine.[24]

Epicurus explicitly warned against

overindulgence because it often leads to
pain. For instance, Epicurus warned
against pursuing love too ardently. He
defended friendships as ramparts for
pleasure and denied them any inherent
worth.[25] He also believed, contrary to
Aristotle,[26] that death was not to be
feared. When a man dies, he does not feel
the pain of death because he no longer is
and therefore feels nothing. Therefore, as
Epicurus famously said, "death is nothing
to us." When we exist, death is not; and
when death exists, we are not. All
sensation and consciousness ends with
death and therefore in death there is
neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of
death arises from the belief that in death,
there is awareness.

From this doctrine arose the Epicurean

epitaph: Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo ("I
was not; I was; I am not; I do not care"),
which is inscribed on the gravestones of
his followers and seen on many ancient
gravestones of the Roman Empire. This
quotation is often used today at humanist
funerals.[27]

As an ethical guideline, Epicurus

emphasised minimising harm and
maximising happiness of oneself and
others:

It is impossible to live a pleasant

life without living wisely and well
and justly, and it is impossible to
live wisely and well and justly
without living pleasantly.
 ("justly" meaning to prevent a
"person from harming or being
harmed by another")[28]

Epicurean paradox

The "Epicurean paradox" or "Riddle of

Epicurus" is a version of the problem of
evil. Lactantius attributes this trilemma to
Epicurus in De Ira Dei:

God, he says, either wishes to

take away evils, and is unable; or
He is able, and is unwilling; or He
is neither willing nor able, or He
is both willing and able. If He is
willing and is unable, He is feeble,
which is not in accordance with
the character of God; if He is able
and unwilling, He is envious,
which is equally at variance with
God; if He is neither willing nor
able, He is both envious and
feeble, and therefore not God; if
He is both willing and able, which
alone is suitable to God, from
what source then are evils? Or
why does He not remove them?
In Dialogues concerning Natural Religion
(1779), David Hume also attributes the
argument to Epicurus:

Epicurus’s old questions are yet

unanswered. Is he willing to
prevent evil, but not able? then is
he impotent. Is he able, but not
willing? then is he malevolent. Is
he both able and willing? whence
then is evil?

No extant writings of Epicurus contain this

argument and it is possible that it has
been misattributed to him.

Perhaps the earliest expression of the

trilemma appears in the writings of the
sceptic Sextus Empiricus (160–210
AD),who wrote in his Outlines of
Pyrrhonism:

Further, this too should be said.

Anyone who asserts that god
exists either says that god takes
care of the things in the cosmos
or that he does not, and, if he
does take care, that it is either of
all things or of some. Now if he
takes care of everything, there
would be no particular evil thing
and no evil in general in the
cosmos; but the Dogmatists say
that everything is full of evil;
therefore god shall not be said to
take care of everything. On the
other hand, if he takes care of
only some things, why does he
take care of these and not of
those? For either he wishes but is
not able, or he is able but does
not wish, or he neither wishes nor
is able. If he both wished and was
able, he would have taken care of
everything; but, for the reasons
stated above, he does not take
care of everything; therefore, it is
not the case that he both wishes
and is able to take care of
everything. But if he wishes and is
not able, he is weaker than the
cause on account of which he is
not able to take care of the things
of which he does not take care;
but it is contrary to the concept of
god that he should be weaker
than anything. Again, if he is able
 to take care of everything but
does not wish to do so, he will be
considered malevolent, and if he
neither wishes nor is able, he is
both malevolent and weak; but to
say that about god is impious.
Therefore, god does not take care
of the things in the cosmos.

Epistemology

Epicurus emphasised the senses in his

epistemology, and his Principle of Multiple
Explanations ("if several theories are
consistent with the observed data, retain
them all") is an early contribution to the
philosophy of science.

There are also some things for

which it is not enough to state a
single cause, but several, of which
one, however, is the case. Just as
if you were to see the lifeless
corpse of a man lying far away, it
would be fitting to list all the
causes of death in order to make
sure that the single cause of this
death may be stated. For you
 would not be able to establish
conclusively that he died by the
sword or of cold or of illness or
perhaps by poison, but we know
that there is something of this
kind that happened to him.[29][30]

Politics

In contrast to the Stoics, Epicureans

showed little interest in participating in the
politics of the day, since doing so leads to
trouble. He instead advocated seclusion.
This principle is epitomised by the phrase
lathe biōsas (λάθε βιώσας), meaning "live
in obscurity", "get through life without
drawing attention to yourself", i.e., live
without pursuing glory or wealth or power,
but anonymously, enjoying little things like
food, the company of friends, etc. Plutarch
elaborated on this theme in his essay Is
the Saying "Live in Obscurity" Right? (Εἰ
καλῶς εἴρηται τὸ λάθε βιώσας, An recte
dictum sit latenter esse vivendum) 1128c;
cf. Flavius Philostratus, Vita Apollonii
8.28.12 .

But the Epicureans did have an innovative

theory of justice as a social contract.
Justice, Epicurus said, is an agreement
neither to harm nor be harmed, and we
need to have such a contract in order to
enjoy fully the benefits of living together in
a well-ordered society. Laws and
punishments are needed to keep
misguided fools in line who would
otherwise break the contract. But the wise
person sees the usefulness of justice, and
because of his limited desires, he has no
need to engage in the conduct prohibited
by the laws in any case. Laws that are
useful for promoting happiness are just,
but those that are not useful are not just.
(Principal Doctrines 31–40)

Works
Epicurus, Nuremberg Chronicle

The only surviving complete works by

Epicurus are three letters, which are to be
found in book X of Diogenes Laërtius'
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, and two
groups of quotes: the Principal Doctrines
(Κύριαι Δόξαι), reported as well in
Diogenes' book X, and the Vatican Sayings,
preserved in a manuscript from the
Vatican Library.
Numerous fragments of his thirty-seven
volume treatise On Nature have been
found among the charred papyrus
fragments at the Villa of the Papyri at
Herculaneum. In addition, other Epicurean
writings found at Herculaneum contain
important quotations from his other
works. Moreover, numerous fragments and
testimonies are found throughout ancient
Greek and Roman literature, a collection of
which can be found in Usener's Epicurea.

According to Diogenes Laertius, the major

works of Epicurus include:
1. Thirty-seven treatises on Natural
Philosophy
2. On Atoms and the Void
3. On Love
4. Abridgment of the Arguments employed
against the Natural Philosophers
5. Against the Doctrines of the Megarians
6. Problems
7. Fundamental Propositions
8. On Choice and Avoidance
9. On the Chief Good
10. On the Criterion (the Canon)
11. Chaeridemus, a treatise on the Gods
12. On Piety
13. Hegesianax
14. Four essays on Lives
15. Essay on Just Dealing
16. Neocles
17. Essay addressed to Themista
18. The Banquet
19. Eurylochus
20. Essay addressed to Metrodorus
21. Essay on Seeing
22. Essay on the Angle in an Atom
23. Essay on Touch
24. Essay on Fate
25. Opinions on the Passions
26. Treatise addressed to Timocrates
27. Prognostics
28. Exhortations
29. On Images
30. On Perceptions
31. Aristobulus
32. Essay on Music
33. On Justice and the other Virtues
34. On Gifts and Gratitude
35. Polymedes
36. Timocrates (three books)
37. Metrodorus (five books)
38. Antidorus (two books)
39. Opinions about Diseases, addressed to
Mithras
40. Callistolas
41. Essay on Kingly Power
42. Anaximenes
43. Letters

Legacy

Bust of Epicurus leaning against his disciple

Metrodorus in the Louvre Museum
Elements of Epicurean philosophy have
resonated and resurfaced in various
diverse thinkers and movements
throughout Western intellectual history.

The atomic poems (such as 'All Things are

Governed by Atoms') and the philosophy
of naturalism espoused by Margaret
Cavendish were influenced by Epicurus.

His emphasis on minimising harm and

maximising happiness in his formulation
of the Ethic of Reciprocity was later picked
up by the democratic thinkers of the
French Revolution, and others, like John
Locke, who wrote that people had a right
to "life, liberty, and property."[31] To Locke,
one's own body was part of one's property,
and thus one's right to property would
theoretically guarantee safety for one's
person, as well as one's possessions.

This triad, as well as the egalitarianism of

Epicurus, was carried forward into the
American freedom movement and
Declaration of Independence, by the
American founding father, Thomas
Jefferson, as "all men are created equal"
and endowed with certain "unalienable
rights," such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness." Jefferson considered
himself an Epicurean.[32]
In An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, David Hume uses Epicurus
as a character for explaining the
impossibility of our knowing God to be any
greater or better than his creation proves
him to be.

Karl Marx's doctoral thesis was on The

Difference Between the Democritean and
Epicurean Philosophy of Nature . Epicurus
was first to assert human freedom as
coming from a fundamental
indeterminism in the motion of atoms.
This has led some philosophers to think
that for Epicurus free will was caused
directly by chance. In his On the Nature of
Things (De rerum natura), Lucretius
appears to suggest this in the best-known
passage on Epicurus' position.[33] But in
his Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus follows
Aristotle and clearly identifies three
possible causes - "some things happen of
necessity, others by chance, others
through our own agency." Aristotle said
some things "depend on us" (eph'hemin).
Epicurus agreed, and said it is to these last
things that praise and blame naturally
attach. For Epicurus, the "swerve" (or
clinamen) of the atoms simply defeated
determinism to leave room for
autonomous agency.[34]
Epicurus was also a significant source of
inspiration and interest for both Arthur
Schopenhauer, having particular influence
on the famous pessimist's views on
suffering and death, as well as one of
Schopenhauer's successors: Friedrich
Nietzsche. Nietzsche cites his affinities to
Epicurus in a number of his works,
including The Gay Science, Beyond Good
and Evil, and his private letters to Peter
Gast. Nietzsche was attracted to, among
other things, Epicurus' ability to maintain a
cheerful philosophical outlook in the face
of painful physical ailments. Nietzsche
also suffered from a number of
sicknesses during his lifetime. However,
he thought that Epicurus' conception of
happiness as freedom from anxiety was
too passive and negative.

In Greece, in February of every year since

2011 a two-day Panhellenic Symposium of
Epicurean Philosophy is held.[35]

In literature and popular

media
Paul the Apostle encountered Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers as he was
ministering in Athens.[36]

Horace describes himself as Epicuri de

grege porcum "a swine from Epicurus's
herd" in his Epistles.[37]

In Canto X Circle 6 ("Where the heretics

lie") of Dante's Inferno, Epicurus and his
followers are criticised for supporting a
materialistic ideal when they are
mentioned to have been condemned to the
Circle of Heresy.

Chaucer's Frankeleyn, in the General

Prologue of his Canterbury Tales, is
described as an Epicurean: "Wel loved he
by the morwe a sop in wyn; / To lyven in
delit was evre his wone, / For he was
Epicurus owene sone, / That heeld
opinioun that pleyn delit / Was verray
felicitee parfit" (344-38). [He well loved
bread soaked in wine for breakfast; / To
live in pleasure was ever his custom, / For
he was a son of Epicurus, / Who was of
the opinion that pure pleasure / Was true
perfect happiness.]

Epicurus the Sage is a two-part comic book

by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth
portraying Epicurus as "the only sane
philosopher" by anachronistically bringing
him together with many other well-known
Greek philosophers. It was republished as
graphic novel by the Wildstorm branch of
DC Comics.
Epicurus and Epikoros
In Rabbinic literature the term Epikoros is
used, without a specific reference to
Epicurus, yet it seems apparent that the
term was derived from his name.[38]

Epicurus's apparent hedonistic views (as

Epicurus' ethics was hedonistic) and
philosophical teachings, though opposed
to the Hedonists of his time, countered
Jewish scripture, the strictly monotheistic
conception of God in Judaism and the
Jewish belief in the afterlife and the world
to come.
The Talmudic interpretation is that the
Aramaic word is derived from the root-
word ‫( פק"ר‬PKR; lit. licentious), hence
disrespect.

The Christian censorship of the Jewish

Talmud in the aftermath of the Disputation
of Barcelona and during the Spanish
Inquisition and Roman Inquisition, let the
term spread within the Jewish classical
texts, since Roman Catholic Church
censors replaced terms like Minim
("sectarians", coined on the Christians)
with the term Epikorsim or Epicursim,
meaning heretics.
See also
Epikoros (Judaism)
Philosophy of happiness
Separation of church and state

Notes
1. Two women, Axiothea and Lastheneia,
were known to have been admitted by Plato.
See Hadot, Pierre. Qu'est-ce que la
philosophie antique?, page 99, Gillimard
1995. Pythagoras is also believed to have
inducted one woman, Theano, into his order.
1. Bunnin & Yu (2004). The Blackwell
Dictionary of Western Philosophy. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.
2. Jones, Daniel (2006). Cambridge English
Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th edition.
Cambridge UP.
3. Apollodorus of Athens (reported by
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent
Philosophers, 10.14–15 ) gives his birth on
the fourth day of the month February in the
third year of the 109th Olympiad, in the
archonship of Sosigenes
4. "Epicurus - Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy" .
5. "Epicurus' Attitude to Democritus"
JSTOR
6. "The Hidden History of Greco-Roman
Vegetarianism" .
7. Dombrowski, Daniel A. (1984). The
Philosophy of Vegetarianism .
ISBN 0870234315.
8. Bitsori, Maria; Galanakis, Emmanouil
(2004). "Epicurus' death". World Journal of
Urology. 22 (6): 466–469.
doi:10.1007/s00345-004-0448-2 .
PMID 15372192 .
9. In the second year of the 127th Olympiad,
in the archonship of Pytharatus, according
to Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent
Philosophers, 10.15
10. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent
Philosophers, 10.22 (trans. C.D. Yonge).
11. Sheila Dillon (2006). "Ancient Greek
Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and
Styles" . Cambridge University Press. p. 45
– via Google Books.
12. David Konstan. "Epicurus" . Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
13. "Epistulae morales ad Lucilium" .
14. D. Smith, Nicholas. Reason and religion
in Socratic philosophy. p. 160. ISBN 0-19-
513322-6.
15. Glad, Clarence E. Paul and Philodemus:
adaptability in Epicurean and early Christian
psychology. p. 176. ISBN 90-04-10067-9.
16. Nussbaum, Martha Craven. The Therapy
of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic
Ethics. p. 119. ISBN 0-691-14131-2.
17. Clay, Diskin. Paradosis and survival:
three chapters in the history of Epicurean
philosophy. p. 76. ISBN 0-472-10896-4.
18. The only fragment in Greek about this
central notion is from the Oenoanda
inscription (fr. 54 in Smith's edition). The
best known reference is in Lucretius's On
the nature of things, [1] .
19. letter by Epicurus to Menoeceus; see
Diogenes Laërtius de clarorum
philosophorum vitis, dogmatibus et
apophthegmatibus libri decem (X, 123)
20. Folse, Henry (2005). How Epicurean
Metaphysics leads to Epicurean Ethics .
Department of Philosophy, Loyola
University, New Orleans, LA.
21. Konstan, David. Epicurus, The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013
Edition) .forthcoming URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013
/entries/epicurus/ >
22. Epicurus | Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
23. Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, X:136.
24. C, Yapijakis (2009). "Hippocrates of Kos,
the father of clinical medicine, and
Asclepiades of Bithynia, the father of
molecular medicine. Review". In Vivo. 23
(4): 507–14. PMID 19567383 .
25. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. "II.82". De finibus
bonorum et malorum. ISBN 3-519-01219-7.
26. Rosenbaum, Stephen. Appraising Death
In Human Life: Two Modes Of Valuation, in
French, Peter, and Wettstein, Howard
(editors), Life And Death: Metaphysics And
Ethics, Midwest Studies In Philosophy,
volume XXIV. Blackwell Publishers, Inc.,
2000, p.153 (Aristotle 'seems to have
believed [in] fearing death ... . [But] his
conclusion should be understood to be
[merely] that the fact that a person dies is
bad [because] nothing is any longer good or
bad for him or her.') Books.Google.com
(accessed 2011-Feb-04)
27. "Epicurus (c 341-270 BC)" . British
Humanist Association.
28. "Epicurus Principal Doctrines 5 and 31
transl. by Robert Drew Hicks" . 1925.
29. Lucretius.
30. The poem version can be found in:
Carus, Titus Lucretius (Jul 2008). Of The
Nature of Things . Project Gutenberg
EBook. 785. William Ellery Leonard
(translator). Project Gutenberg. Book VI,
Section Extraordinary and Paradoxical
Telluric Phenomena, Line 9549–9560
31. John Locke (1689) "Two Treatises of
Government#Property"
32. Jefferson considered himself an
Epicurean (1819): "Letter, Thomas Jefferson
to William Short"
33. 2.251-262 "On the Nature of Things,
289-293" Check |url= value (help) – via
Perseus Project.
34. "Epicurus page on Information
Philosopher; cf. Letter to Menoeceus,
§134" .
35. http://epicuros.gr/pages/en.htm
36. The Holy Bible , Acts 17:18 – via
Biblegateway.com
37. Horace, Epistles Bk I, ep. 4 v. 16.
uah.edu
38. "Epikoros" . encyclopedia.com.
References
  Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "Epicurus".
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. 2:10.
Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two
volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, X:136

Further reading
Texts
Epicurus (1994). Inwood, Brad; Gerson,
Lloyd P., eds. The Epicurus Reader.
Selected Writings and Testimonia.
Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 0-87220-
242-9.
Epicurus (1993). The essential Epicurus :
letters, principal doctrines, Vatican
sayings, and fragments. Eugene
O'Connor, trans. Buffalo, N.Y.:
Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-810-
4.
Epicurus (1964). Letters, principal
doctrines, and Vatican sayings. Russel M.
Geer, trans. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Laertius, Diogenes (1969). Caponigri, A.
Robert, ed. Lives of the Philosophers.
Chicago: Henry Regnery Co.
Lucretius Carus, Titus (1976). On the
nature of the universe. R. E. Latham,
trans. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-
14-044018-6.
Körte, Alfred (1987). Epicureanism : two
collections of fragments and studies (in
Greek). New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-
6915-3.
Oates, Whitney J. (1940). The Stoic and
Epicurean philosophers, The Complete
Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus,
Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius. New
York: Modern Library.
Diogenes of Oinoanda (1993). The
Epicurean inscription. Martin Ferguson
Smith, trans. Napoli: Bibliopolis.
ISBN 88-7088-270-5.
Studies
Asmis, Elizabeth (1984). Epicurus'
Scientific Method. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press. ISBN 978-08014-1465-
7.
Bailey C. (1928). The Greek Atomists and
Epicurus, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of
Greek Philosophy from Thales to the
Stoics. Analysis and fragments. Victoria:
Trafford. ISBN 1-4120-4843-5.
Gordon, Pamela (1996). Epicurus in
Lycia. The Second-Century World of
Diogenes of Oenoanda. Ann Arbor: Univ.
of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-10461-6.
Gottlieb, Anthony (2000). The Dream of
Reason. A History of Western Philosophy
from the Greeks to the Renaissance. New
York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04951-5.
Hibler, Richard W. (1984). Happiness
Through Tranquillity. The school of
Epicurus. Lanham, MD: University Press
of America. ISBN 0-8191-3861-4.
Hicks, R. D. (1910). Stoic and Epicurean .
New York: Scribner.
Jones, Howard (1989). The Epicurean
Tradition. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-
415-02069-7.
 O'Keefe, Tim (2009). Epicureanism.
University of California Press.
Panichas, George Andrew (1967).
Epicurus. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Rist, J.M. (1972). Epicurus. An
introduction. London: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-08426-1.
Warren, James (2009). The Cambridge
Companion to Epicureanism. New York:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-
05218-7347-5.
William Wallace. Epicureanism . SPCK
(1880)

External links
 Wikisource has original works written by
  or about:
Epicurus

Wikimedia Commons has media related

to Epicurus.

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

 
Epicurus

  Greek Wikisource has original text

related to this article: Κύριαι Δόξαι
  Greek Wikisource has original text
related to this article: Ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς
Μενοικέα
Society of Friends of Epicurus –
Epicurean community
Konstan, David. "Epicurus" . In Zalta,
Edward N. Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
O'Keefe, Tim. "Epicurus" . Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Stoic And Epicurean by Robert Drew
Hicks (1910) (Internet Archive)
Epicurus.net – Epicurus and Epicurean
Philosophy
Epicurus and Lucretius – small article
by "P. Dionysius Mus"
The Difference Between the Democritean
and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature –
Karl Marx's doctoral thesis
Epicurus on Free Will
The Garden of Epicurus – useful
summary of the teachings of Epicurus
Philosophy of Happiness (PDF)
Epicurea, Hermann Usener - full text
Works by or about Epicurus at Internet
Archive
Works by Epicurus at LibriVox (public
domain audiobooks)  
Portrait
Discussion, bibliography, 3D models of
the lost portrait
Primary sources
Principal Doctrines – unidentified
translation
Principal Doctrines – the original Greek,
two English translations, and a parallel
mode
Vatican Sayings – unidentified
translation
Vatican Sayings – the original Greek
with an English translation
Letter to Herodotus
Letter to Pythocles
Letter to Menoeceus
Epicurus: Fragments - Usener's
compilation in English translation
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