Download Handout - John Provost, PhD

Epicureanism
Introduction
A great school of philosophy was the Epicureans. The founder, Epicurus,
was born in 342 (Aristotle was still alive for another twenty years) to a poor
Athenian colonist. He began the study of philosophy when he was fourteen
years old. He founded his school in 311 and lived in Athens from 307 until
his death in 270 when he was about 72 years old. His school was considered
a bit of a scandal because it included slaves and women.
The less demands we make, the less money we need, the more we are likely
to be able to enjoy the simple blessings of a life of appreciation, rather than a
life of acquisition. With increased prosperity come worries and
complications. Epicurus was not advocating a menial poverty. That too has
its worries and problems that are also tiresome and anxiety provoking. But to
find a life of minimum needs and simple tastes is the life in which you are
most likely to find peace and serenity. It was Epicurus who is known for the
saying that “a man could be happy on the rack.” He means that serenity and
happiness are found in one’s attitude and mind, not in ones circumstances.
Philosophy
Epicurus was a prolific author. He was known to have written 300 books!
All of these are lost except for some fragments, a few letters and a statement
of principles. His philosophy was not focused on the great metaphysical
questions that haunted Plato and Aristotle. His philosophy is mainly seeking
a way of life that will promote happiness. And for Epicurus, happiness is
pleasure. “Pleasure, he said, is the beginning and the end of the blessed life.”
He did not mean sensual indulgence primarily, but rather freedom from pain
and fear. For Epicurus, philosophy is not to be theoretical, but practical. A
life that does not draw attention to itself and does not seek to become
involved in others affairs is the life most likely to bring peace and calmness.
Metaphysics
The closest Epicurus came to getting into metaphysics was in his attempt to
deal with a person’s fears about the gods and fears concerning death and
dying. He saw the source of both fears to be religion. To deal with this
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Epicurus came up with a system that showed that the gods (whose existence
he did not doubt) lived in a world more perfect than this. Living in
perfection they had no concern for our imperfect world and thus were not
involved.
In terms of death, Epicurus turned to the atomic theories of the pre-Socratic
philosophers of Ionia for his answers. He believed that both our bodies and
souls were a temporary constellation of atoms that came together during our
life and then were scattered upon our death. And thus death was simply the
loss of consciousness, like falling asleep, and thus there was nothing to fear.
Epicurus also had no interest in science for theoretical reasons. Science was
only helpful in helping us free ourselves from fear of the gods. That is, if
science could offer us a natural explanation for something that had once
been attributed to the gods, than it was good. But if it offered us several
different and contradictory explanations then there was no need to decide
between them. What did it matter? The main thing was not attributing the
mysteries of nature to the gods.
Epicurus’ atomism was also part of his essentially materialistic
understanding of the universe. As a result there is none of the teleology that
we saw in Plato and Aristotle. The universe is not moving toward any end.
Material stuff comes together for a while and falls apart. Evil in life is often
the result of humans not understanding what promotes the good life. Any
other evil is due to the randomness of how the atoms come together. Just as
they come together in a way that can promote life, so they can come together
in a way that destroys life. But there is no more an evil force in life then
there is a good force.
Summary
Piety, then, is not a matter of getting in good with the gods and avoiding
evil, but of right thinking. Understanding the nature of the universe (and thus
freeing oneself from fear of the gods and fear of death and dying) is a
manifestation of right thinking. Right thinking is demonstrated in living a
simple life of affection among a few friends and in having as few desires as
possible.
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