65
See: Democritus and Leucippus 45 ■ Socrates 46–49 ■ Plato 50–55 ■
Aristotle 56–63 ■ Jeremy Bentham 174 ■ John Stuart Mill 190–93
THE ANCIENT WORLD
Epicurus
Born to Athenian parents on
the Aegean island of Samos,
Epicurus was first taught
philosophy by a disciple of
Plato. In 323 BCE, Alexander
the Great died and, in the
political conflicts that
followed, Epicurus and his
family were forced to move
to Colophon (now in Turkey).
There he continued his studies
with Nausiphanes, a follower
of Democritus.
Epicurus taught briefly
in Mytilene on the island of
Lesbos, and in Lampsacus on
the Greek mainland, before
moving to Athens in 306 BCE.
He founded a school, known
as the The Garden, consisting
of a community of friends and
followers. There he set down
in great detail the philosophy
that was to become known
as Epicureanism.
Despite frequent ill health,
and often being in great pain,
Epicurus lived to the age
of 72. True to his beliefs, he
described the last day of his
life as a truly happy day.Key worksEarly 3rd century BCE
On Nature
Prinicipal Doctrines,
Vatican SayingsThe goal of life
ishappiness.Death is the end
of sensation,
so cannot be
physically
painful.Deathis the end
of consciousness,
so cannot be
emotionally
painful.Our unhappiness
is caused byfear,
and our main
fear isof death.Death is
nothing
to fear.If we can
overcome fear
of death, we
can be happy.we die, we are unaware of our
death, since our consciousness
(our soul) ceases to exist at the
point of death. To explain this,
Epicurus takes the view that the
entire universe consists of either
atoms or empty space, as argued
by the atomist philosophers
Democritus and Leucippus.
Epicurus then reasons that the soul
could not be empty space, because
it operates dynamically with the
body, so it must be made up of
atoms. He describes these atoms
of the soul as being distributed
around the body, but as being so
fragile that they dissolve when
we die, and so we are no longer
capable of sensing anything. If you
are unable to feel anything, mentally
or physically, when you die, it is
foolish to let the fear of death cause
you pain while you are still alive.
Epicurus attracted a small but
devoted following in his lifetime,
but he was perceived as being
dismissive of religion, which made
him unpopular. His thinking was
largely ignored by mainstream
philosophy for centuries, but it
resurfaced in the 18th century, in
the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill. In revolutionary
politics, the tenets of Epicureanism
are echoed in the words of the
United States’ Declaration of
Independence: “life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.” ■