Epicuro: opere, frammenti, testimonianze sulla sua vita

by Epicurus, Gabriele Giannantoni (Foreward), Ettore Bignone (Editor)

Delle opere di Epicuro, che nel 310 a.C. circa, a 32 anni, fondò una scuola filosofica a Mitilene, trasferita nel 306 ad Atene, sono state conservate la Lettera a Meneceo, che è un compendio della sua etica e del suo ideale di saggezza; le Massime capitali, cioè una raccolta di quaranta sentenze ed insegnamenti, che i discepoli dovevano imparare a memoria per conservare inalterati i principi fondamentali della dottrina; la Lettera ad Erodoto, che è un compendio della sua fisica e della logica; la Lettera a PitocleTestamento e vari frammenti di opere e di lettere. Tutti questi testi, insieme alla biografia di Diogene Laerzio sono compresi in questa edizione. All'idea platonica che il mondo non abbia valore di per sé ma in un fine che lo trascende, Epicuro oppone il suo meccanicismo e il suo «materialismo», che sono l'espressione di una realizzata conciliazione con la realtà; e alla concezione della scienza come contemplazione di verità eterne, Epicuro oppone quella della scienza come progressivo strumento di liberazione dai timori e dalla superstizione religiosa. Per questo la sua lettura può essere ancora oggi un punto di riferimento essenziale in una situazione per tanti aspetti influenzata dalla tradizione platonica.


Edizione priva di ISBN
Edition without ISBN
Edición sin ISBN

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Epicurus (Greek: Ἐπίκουρος, Epikouros, "upon youth"; Samos, 341 BCE – Athens, 270 BCE; 72 years) was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by aponia, the absence of pain and fear, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and bad, that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared, that the gods do not reward or punish humans, that the universe is infinite and eternal, and that events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

His parents, Neocles and Chaerestrate, both Athenian citizens, had immigrated to the Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos about ten years before Epicurus' birth in February 341 BCE. As a boy he studied philosophy for four years under the Platonist teacher Pamphilus. At the age of 18 he went to Athens for his two-year term of military service. The playwright Menander served in the same age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers on Samos to Colophon. After the completion of his military service, Epicurus joined his family there. He studied under Nausiphanes, who followed the teachings of Democritus. In 311/310 BC Epicurus taught in Mytilene but caused strife and was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in 306 BC. There he founded The Garden, a school named for the garden he owned about halfway between the Stoa and the Academy that served as the school's meeting place.

Even though many of his teachings were heavily influenced by earlier thinkers, especially by Democritus, he differed in a significant way with Democritus on determinism. Epicurus would often deny this influence, denounce other philosophers as confused, and claim to be "self-taught".

Epicurus never married and had no known children. He suffered from kidney stones, to which he finally succumbed in 270 BCE at the age of 72, and despite the prolonged pain involved, he wrote to Idomeneus:

"I have written this letter to you on a happy day to me, which is also the last day of my life. For I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation, counterbalances all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me, and to philosophy."

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus

Reviews

[Kevin Spirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vorrei condividere la massima capitale XXIII, a mio avviso più attuale che mai in un mondo in cui sembra che tutto debba essere eseguito, ogni decisione debba esser preso in modo più razionale possibile, come se la sensazione, cosa infatti sempre vera e giusta poiché dentro di noi, fosse da combattere e fosse la strada per i „deboli“.


- Ove tu ti opponga a tutte le sensazioni, non avrai neppur più alcun criterio a cui riferirti, per giudicare quelle che tu dichiari fallaci. -

[Michele Bommartini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frammento n. 30:
"Se vuoi far ricco Pitocle, non accrescere gli averi, ma sfrondane i desideri".