The Testimony of Cicero
Clement of Alexandria Stromates: 2.21,127.2
p. 182 Stahlin (450 U)45
[1-11]For the Cyrenaics and Epicurus belong to the class of those who take
their starting point from pleasure; for they say expressly that living
pleasantly is the goal and that only pleasure is the perfect good, but
Epicurus says that the removal of pain is also pleasure; and he says that
that which first and by itself draws [us] to itself is worth choosing, and
obviously this thing is certainly kinetic.Ibid.: 2.21,128.1, p. 182 Stahlin (509 U) [1-12]
Epicurus and the Cyrenaics say that what is primarily [or: at first]
congenial to us is pleasure; for virtue comes along for the sake of pleasure
and produces pleasure.Ibid. 2.21,130.8-9 pp. 184-5 Stahlin (451 U) [1-13]
... These Cyrenaics reject Epicurus' definition of pleasure, i.e., the
removal of what causes pain, stigmatizing it as the condition of a corpse;
for we rejoice not only over pleasures, but also over conversations and
ambitions. But Epicurus thinks that all joy of the soul supervenes on the
prior experiences of the body.The Testimony of Cicero
The Roman statesman and philosophical writer, Cicero (active in the
first century B.c.), was a lively critic of Epicureanism. He is sometimes
unfair and dismissive, but even his polemic yields information of value
to the student of Epicureanism.On Goals 1.18-20 [1-14]
- Epicurus generally does not go far wrong when he follows Democri-
tus ... but these are the catastrophes which belong to Epicurus alone.
He thinks that these same indivisible and solid bodies move down in a
straight line by their own weight and that this is the natural motion of
all bodies. 19. Then this clever fellow, when it occurred to him that if
they all moved directly down and, as I said, in a straight line, it would
never come about that one atom could make contact with another and
so ... he introduced a fictitious notion: he said that an atom swerves by