Philosophy of The Epicureans

General Observations

The founder of the Empicurean School, Epicurus, was born in Athens about 342 B.C. and grew up in Samos. At Samos he learned philosophy, and Nausiphenes taught him Democritus' doctrine. In 306 B.C. he moved to Athens, and opened his school in his own garden, which became a center of elegant life for himself and his friends. Epicurus was a cultured, fashionable man. In his garden filled with statues, he lived happily, teaching and discussing philosophy with his friends. He died in 270 B.C., and in his will bequeathed the house and garden to his disciples.

Epicurus was a voluminous writer, but most of his writings have been lost. His doctrine was summarized in pamphlets, and these were given to his pupils to be learned by heart. He was considered as a god by his disciples, who held annual celebrations in his honor.

The Latin poet Lucretius Carus (96-55 B.C.), an enthusiastic admirer of Epicurus, expressed Epicurus' doctrine in his poem De natural rerum, which remains the basic source for the Epicurean philosophy.

Theory of Knowledge

The Epicureans, like the Stoics, recognized as valid only that knowledge which originates and stops in the senses. All other cognition is only the result of sensations and combinations of many sensations (Sensism).

To explain how sensations originate in the senses, the Epicureans had recourse to the theory of "eidola," small images which are distinct from the object of the sensation and are made present to our perceptive organs and through them to the soul. Cognitions is thus reduced to sensation.

Still there is a difference between Stoics and Epicureans, concerning the criteria of true and false sensations. The Stoics placed the criterion in the judgment. But according to the Epicureans, the judgment is the result of sensations, and hence cannot be the criterion of truth. According to what Epicurus says in his Canon -- i.e., the treatise which gives the rules of cognition -- the criterion is in the sensation. All sensations are true because they carry the evidence with them, and it is impossible for error to exist in sensation. The error exists in the anticipated sensations, that is, when we wish to judge of sensations not yet had. In such anticipations error is possible.

Physics (Metaphysics)

If in his theory of knowledge Epicurus is a sensist, in his physics he is a materialist. Since philosophy must be practical and is subordinated to practice, Epicurus noted that two things impede man from living happily:

• Fear of God; and

• Fear of the horrors beyond the grave.

It was necessary, therefore, to have a physics (metaphysics) in which there would be no further reason for the existence of these fears. Epicurus had recourse to the atomic mechanical physics of Democritus (see The Atomists for more information), in which the atoms that move in infinite space are associated and dissociated, without the intervention of any cause beyond the motion of the atoms. The movement is eternal and pertains to the nature of the atoms.

To meet the difficulty which had been raised against Democritus, that if the atoms are moved from top to bottom they cannot meet one another, Epicurus proposes that, though being qualitatively equal, they are quantitatively different, some being round and others square, some lighter, other heavier; however, the atoms have a certain spontaneity which directs their movement. Lucretius Carus called it "clinamen." This spontaneity directs the atoms to associate themselves with like kind.

The universe, the Epicureans said, is infinite and in the infinity of space worlds are formed and dissolved by the same law. Between one world and another there are empty spaces. In these spaces the gods, made up of atoms, live happily among themselves, unconcerned with the world of men.

The human soul is also formed of atoms which are separated at death. No thought, therefore, of death and of the time which will come after it enters the Epicurean teaching. Similarly, we should have no thought of the time before our birth, for then our soul in its original state was dissolved into atoms.

In a world of this kind, where there is no fear of the gods or of the life beyond the grave, man, governed by mechanical laws, must strive to live as best he can. The ideal of the Epicurean sage is to form a model of life corresponding to such a world. We shall examine this ideas in the Epicurean moral teaching.

Ethics

According to Epicurus, nature and reason show us that pleasure is the sole good and that pain is the sole evil. The very animals, guided by nature, are inclined to pleasure and flee from every kind of pain. Man also must follow this rule: to attain a state of pleasure. But the pleasure of which Epicurus speaks is not that which is immediate, but reasoned, selected, balanced pleasure. One must not be possessed by pleasure, but must possess the pleasures. The wise man knows how to sift everything; he does not accept any pleasure without giving himself an account of its effects; he does not refuse pain when this can be a cause of greater pleasure. It is in this balance of the wise man that the autarchy of the Epicurean sage consists.

More specifically, pleasure can be considered in the immediate emotion, the gentle emotion of which Aristipus spoke, and also in the certain absence of pain. The Epicurean sage must consider the negative part, the absence of pain in a sensation rather than the positive part -- that is, the emotional effects which can be derived from it. Vigilance over oneself shows us that the root of every pain is the desire for pleasure. Desire is in itself an evil, and it is necessary to watch over it and discipline it.

Concerning desires, Epicurus distinguishes three classes:

• Natural and necessary, such as the desire to eat, to clothe oneself;

• Natural and not necessary, such as the desire for family and society; and

• Unnatural and unnecessary, such as the desire for riches, honor, and glory.

The wise man must moderate himself in reference to these desires, and must content himself only with those of the first class; those which are natural and necessary. The sage who has a crust of bread, said Epicurus, has no reason to envy Zeus. One should put far from himself the desires of the second type and especially those of the third class, for these produce anxiety and disturbances which are contrary to the life and spirit of the sage. If you wish to preserve the tranquillity of your soul, live the hidden life, live far from the family and from politics.

But at the cost of contradicting his mechanical physics, Epicurus, who had renounced family and politics, did not know how to renounce certain goods of the spirit. He admits above all the pleasures which come from admiring artistic works. A cultured man like Epicurus, who lived in an Athens which had seen the splendors of the Age of Pericles, did not know how to renounce these pleasures. For the same artistic motives he admitted the veneration of the gods. The gods, confined to intermundane space, cannot do us harm. It is necessary, however, to respect and venerate them, because they can show man the model of the happy life which they really enjoy. Religion, hence, is disinterested, consisting in a sentiment of art more than one of devotion.

In a particular manner Epicurus does not know how to renounce friendship. Solitude brings discomfort and fear. Hence one must surround himself with friends. "Before eating your bread," said Epicurus, "look for someone with whom to eat it."

Epicurus put into practice this model of life. He lived at Athens in a splendid garden which was adorned with statues and enlightened by the presence of friends with whom he passed the time reasoning about art. His example was followed by his pupils who, no less than the Pythagoreans, made themselves famous for the bonds of friendship they cultivated; they founded associations, in type a kind of modern club which held the members together and kept alive the doctrine of the master.

The model of life of Epicurus was largely accepted in the age immediately following him. It has not entirely disappeared, for it lives again in our times as an ideal, especially among the wealthy classes.

The Epicurean does not admit suicide -- though, granted his material metaphysics, he could have justified it better than the Stoics. The virtues of prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude should teach man not to allow himself to be overcome by evils, but to know how to avoid them.