Epicurus Summary

Epicurus 341-271 B.C. Greek philosopher who introduced an ethical philosophy based on simple pleasure, friendship, and the avoidance of political activity and public life. He was the founder of school... Read more

Epicurus(341–270 Bce) Epicurus was born on Samos to parents who were Athenian citizens. Evidence about his philosophical debts and development must be sifted from conflicting reports arising ou... Read more

Epicurus (342-270 BC) was a Greek philosopher and the founder of Epicureanism. He was the first of the overt therapy philosophers and an upholder of the atomic theory.Epicurus was born either in Samos... Read more

The following excerpts from Cicero range from the most judicious of Cicero's critiques of Epicurus, when he engages details of Epicurus's ideas, to his most vehement manifestations of di... Read more

The excerpt below, originally delivered as a lecture in 1919, encapsulates the Epicurean system, which Stace finds "amiable and shallow," and also ascribes to the general view that Epicu... Read more

Originally published in France in 1946, Festugière's Epicurus and his Gods quickly became standard criticism in discussions of Epicurean theology. In the excerpt below, Festugière... Read more

In his Faith of Epicurus Farrington stresses the centrality of friendship in Epicurean doctrine. The excerpt that follows fills out his thesis, explaining the significance of context, and, especially,... Read more

In the following excerpt, Irwin places Epicurean thought in the context of Greek political and intellectual history. He investigates the movement's doctrine using the tools of logic. I. the H... Read more

In the following excerpt from Against Colotes, Plutarch seeks out logical contradictions and inconsistencies in Epicurean philosophy, focusing largely on ideas of sensation and sense perception. (1... Read more

In the following excerpt from Book VIII of The City of God, St. Augustine includes Epicureanism in his castigation of philosophies that value materialism above religious faith. Thus not only the do... Read more

Although mistakenly attributed to St. Evremond for some decades, the essay on Epicurus's morals was actually composed by Sarasin, a seventeenth-century French intellectual and cardinal. His pie... Read more

A professor at the University of Heidelberg, Zeller first published his landmark work on Epicurus in German. The following excerpt presents an overview of Epicureanism as a meeting of scientific and m... Read more

Pleasure is a source of enjoyment or delight, as described by dictionary.com. Hedonism is the pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses. Your view of pleasure cle... Read more