What do you think?
Rate this book
Epicurus of Samos: His Philosophy and Life
Epicurus of Samos (341-270 BCE) was the founder of the philosophical system to which he gave his name: Epicureanism. It is a label that is often misused and misunderstood today, with ‘a life of pleasure’ as the key aim misinterpreted as a life of indulgence. In fact, the philosophy of Epicurus demonstrated also by his life, was anything but! He established a school in Athens called The Garden, underpinned by his system of ethics.
He promoted, by his own example, a simple, ordered, calm and reflective life.
A life of true pleasure, he proposed, is only possible when unharnessed desire for wealth, position, luxury and power has been dissolved and instead steady living and friendship are the watchwords. It is against this background that the understanding and acceptance of the vicissitudes of life, and the inevitability of death, are the rules by which to live.
This was in contrast to Platonism on the one hand and the Cynics on the other. The second major facet of Epicurus’ philosophy was his physics, in which he adopted and furthered the theory of atomism introduced by Democritus (460-370 BCE): there was no ‘first mover’, no creation myth, no afterlife. Atoms underpinned all existence. Epicurus was a prodigious author, producing many books - yet very few survive.
Diogenes Laertius, the third-century Greek biographer, in his sizeable Lives of Eminent Philosophers, devotes Book X, the final book, to Epicurus. In it he gives an account of the life of the philosopher and including three letters from Epicurus to friends, to Herodotus, Pythocles and Menoeceus.
The biography concludes with the concise The Principal Doctrines of Epicurus. Then there are various fragments which have come down to us: The Vatican Sayings (a collection found in the Vatican Library, originally compiled in the 14th century and rediscovered in the 19th century); Epicurean Fragments collected in the 19th century from many classical authors; further fragments included in the collection The Villa of the Papyri; and Diogenes’ Wall Inscription.
There are also important works clearly influenced by Epicurus, notably the long important poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) by Lucretius (c99 BCE-c55 BCE). And finally, there is a chapter on The Legacy.
This represents comments by such figures as Cicero (who though principally a Stoic clearly retained an admiration for Epicurus) and later Epicureans, including Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the US. In Epicurus of Samos, His Life and Philosophy, Hiram Crespo, (founder of the Society of Epicurus) has compiled all the source texts and provided introductions to the topic and each chapter. The title is an original commission by Ukemi Audiobooks.
He promoted, by his own example, a simple, ordered, calm and reflective life.
A life of true pleasure, he proposed, is only possible when unharnessed desire for wealth, position, luxury and power has been dissolved and instead steady living and friendship are the watchwords. It is against this background that the understanding and acceptance of the vicissitudes of life, and the inevitability of death, are the rules by which to live.
This was in contrast to Platonism on the one hand and the Cynics on the other. The second major facet of Epicurus’ philosophy was his physics, in which he adopted and furthered the theory of atomism introduced by Democritus (460-370 BCE): there was no ‘first mover’, no creation myth, no afterlife. Atoms underpinned all existence. Epicurus was a prodigious author, producing many books - yet very few survive.
Diogenes Laertius, the third-century Greek biographer, in his sizeable Lives of Eminent Philosophers, devotes Book X, the final book, to Epicurus. In it he gives an account of the life of the philosopher and including three letters from Epicurus to friends, to Herodotus, Pythocles and Menoeceus.
The biography concludes with the concise The Principal Doctrines of Epicurus. Then there are various fragments which have come down to us: The Vatican Sayings (a collection found in the Vatican Library, originally compiled in the 14th century and rediscovered in the 19th century); Epicurean Fragments collected in the 19th century from many classical authors; further fragments included in the collection The Villa of the Papyri; and Diogenes’ Wall Inscription.
There are also important works clearly influenced by Epicurus, notably the long important poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) by Lucretius (c99 BCE-c55 BCE). And finally, there is a chapter on The Legacy.
This represents comments by such figures as Cicero (who though principally a Stoic clearly retained an admiration for Epicurus) and later Epicureans, including Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the US. In Epicurus of Samos, His Life and Philosophy, Hiram Crespo, (founder of the Society of Epicurus) has compiled all the source texts and provided introductions to the topic and each chapter. The title is an original commission by Ukemi Audiobooks.
Audiobook
Published May 14, 2020
3 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Epicurus
156 books833 followersEpicurus (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
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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 8, 2025
I really enjoyed this audiobook. I appreciate how many sources it brings together to create a thorough overview of the existent words of Epicurus.
September 24, 2025
Learning from Epicurus of Samos – His Philosophy and Life by Hiram Crespo
10 out of 10
Being called an epicurean may sound like an insult, given the transformation that the meaning of the word has suffered through the centuries…although Epicurus was no slob, spending his days lazily sleeping around and eating huge meals, probably most of the ancient systems of thought are misunderstood in this day and age – and we can only imagine what will happen in the future, when cancel culture and new standards might send many to the dust bin, because they were not woke enough, or in the case of the other camp, for their frugality maybe – the stoics are supposed to be self-flagellating hermits and the epicureans…well, binge drinking, party animals that do drugs and everything else that is dangerous and deadly.
The Hamburger model envisaged by Harvard Professor Tal Ben-Shahar, the one whose lectures have been the most popular in the history of that Ivy League’s university, who spoke of those who would rather take a hamburger that is succulent, tasty but dangerous and for the long term damaging, the nihilists that refuse everything, long and short term pleasure…the best model is of course the one proposed by the Epicureans – and we could always create the Best Cocktail, adding some flavors from other Camelots, some lemons from Stoicism, a few cherries from Utilitarianism and always think of the Categorical Imperative…I am just fooling around, in case you have not noticed, the under signed is Epicurean at heart and thus believes there is nothing without pleasure and if joking is one of the paths to Aponia, then we need to jest
Epicurus and his followers were not the slaves of sex or debauchery that some would think, on the contrary, we may have to include this with the historical myths – one of the ones that I have seen demolished recently is the Richard III fallacy…we have learned to see him as the ultimate monster, the one who has killed his nephews in order to get on the throne, a villain so vicious that he stopped at nothing to advance his let us call them epicurean goals…The Daughter of Time by Josephine Fey destroys that falsehood http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/10/t...
The ancient philosopher has had a very active life, he could not take infinite naps and write about 300 works on various subjects…his look at God, exposed in the Epicurean paradox would still be poignant today…’God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them?’
In some ways, we can see that this proves the again that being an advocate of pleasure does not exclude, hard, efficient work, indeed, the great thinker was an advocate of wisdom and being a sage translates into understanding that we must choose to avoid a pleasure that has enjoyable consequences in the moment, but could be injurious, even fatal in the longer term…the example of drug addiction – and others will be included here too, for alcohol, gambling and other extreme tendencies result in illness and then death – and the aim is for higher goals, Ataraxia, Aporia and the coveted Eudaimonia…
‘The Tetrapharmakos presents a summary of the key points of Epicurean ethics-Don't fear god, Don't worry about death, What is good is easy to get, What is terrible is easy to endure’…the perspective on death reminds me of Socrates and this is a point which I touch in the annex to this note, some ideas jotted down a few days ago, and it strikes one as so decent and formidable at the same time, for indeed, when we die, we are no more and feel nothing, therefore it makes absolute sense to avoid taking pains and torturing ourselves, bringing injury in the present and days, years to come, by obsessing about something which, once it will have happened, we will not be there to experience it in any way…
A touch of lime from one of the stoics is all right now, to enjoy the Marguerita of Epicure – or you do not add lemon to that – for Seneca has said that ‘life is not short, it is exactly as it should be, only we treat time as if it were a currency we have in abundance, we can use as much as we want and then waste it with enterprises that are not worth it, indeed, we even feel like killing time quite often’, when we should use the experience of Dostoevsky, who had been condemned to death and he then experienced his last few minutes before moving to the other world – he divided the last three minutes into…well, three, one to say goodbye to family and friends in his imagination, another to pass his life in front of his eyes and the last for a ray of sunshine falling on a bell tower nearby – and when he was pardoned, he survived to write in his Magnum opera about this, through the man who would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean, than die and part with this world of Pleasure…
In this wonderful book, we read about Epicurus – his Philosophy and life as promised, but we also find what enemies say – well, enemies might be wrong, for some just had different ideas, but I am not deleting that, because the criticism of others could be coming from more than thinkers with a different doctrine, they act too violently to be less than adversaries, enemies ultimately – and we come to different ages and learn about the Epicurean philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, who has imprinted this notion on the American nation, with his inclusion in the Declaration of Independence of the idea of the ‘pursuit of happiness’
Another luminary, surely not as well-known as Jefferson, though his country has been elected as the Country of the Year by the most prestigious media outlet in the world, The Economist, a few years ago, ex-president of – let us see if you know about him and then you can google for him – Jose Mujica has spoken about consumerism – what if Indians had as many cars per person as in the West – and then he said ‘The old thinkers. Epicurus, Seneca and even the Aymara put it this way, a poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more, and more and more.” This is a cultural issue…’ there are many quotes that could be included here, but you can use the internet to learn more about this splendorous system A life of happiness is nothing else but a life of pleasure…Laugh and philosophize at the same time…Send me a pot of cheese, Without pleasure we're doing it the wrong way, Without gratitude we have no benefit from epicurean thinking…included are some thoughts of no consequence, written down in the mistaken epicurean spirit of dumb indulging in pleasure, even if to no useful end…
Epicurus versus Epictetus
It is not so much Epicurus against Epictetus in fact, as one discovers when approaching epicureanism and stoicism, which are not in fact opposites, having so much in common in their ancient forms at least…but this is part of the misconception, one of the myths that affect us – a couple that come to mind – one of them unrelated, perhaps - would be the myth that makes us think we would be happy, if only we could move to California, one of the Pacific or Caribbean islands, but when we get there, we experience Hedonic Adaptation and get used with the palm trees, white sand, splendid waves and notice and get annoyed by the hurricanes, wild fires, power cuts and extremely expensive bills for anything – some of these would be for the islands – while another historical myth would be that Richard III has killed his nephews and he was a villain, when the opposite is true – I mean, he was more like a hero and not that the nephews killed him, but that he had nothing to do with their murder…
Being a follower of Epicurus – which I think yours truly is, maybe even worse, accused as he is – for all the good reasons presumably – that he is selfish, lazy, detached, carless, passé, outré, senile and much more and worse – is often meant to be – or is it always – someone inclined to take the easy life option, choose La Dolce Vita, over the ascetic, hermit lifestyle that is wrongfully thought to be the Stoic alternative…the latter would be without light and hope for some, a choice that implies living in a hermitage more or less, without joy and human emotions, giving up pleasure for the prison of a masochist practitioner.
Indeed, exaggerations have modified the perception of these philosophies that seem in fact to be very close to each other, if we go beyond the present day misconceptions…epicurean doctrine is not about indulging ourselves with huge meals and inept pleasure seeking, on the contrary, Epicurus has insisted on moderation and the need to see what pleasures are sensible and which are dangerous, if we seek them and remain oblivious to what happens once we have obtained a pleasant feeling, which is followed by a consequent disease let us say…
The best results might be obtained from combining the two systems – though the thought comes to mind that in fact Epicurus was a reasonable stoic, he pledged allegiance to restraint as much as a stoic would do…what is the difference between him and Epictetus actually…I wonder – and live a life where we are aware of the dangers of excess, obtain satisfaction from the example of…Harpagon from The Miser by Moliere http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/t... who infamously said that ‘we eat to live and not live to eat’…
Evidently, Harpagon was saying that because he was a Miser and desperate to save on everything, meals, drink, air if possible and the need for balance, for the Aristotelian Golden Mean would be acute here…we must not be like Harpagon, but giving all we have and putting family on the street is not right either…or is it that Harpagon is the ultimate stoic and we need to follow him as a role model…in the age of consumerism that would give way to restraint, economy to save the planet and live something for future generations to live on maybe this is the attitude we all need to take – another possibility is that I am looking at every chance to justify my own austerity, which is pushed to extremes…
It is propelled by an overwhelming – at times – anxiety in the face of an uncertain future – will there be resources to keep up with the quite expensive lifestyle of today, or will we be forced to sell the house and move to a studio, what will happen to the boys aka macaws if that happens, given their propensity to scream and shout at times to a level that would have the apartment building up in arms and with the police at the door, until we have to…what, move to the woods, give them to the Zoo…will they take them there and then would they die, used as they are to be pampered, given food in bowl that they only need to ingurgitate, after they wrinkle their nose…well, beaks…and what about quarantine, do they stay separate to be checked for disease…
This is where Stoicism comes into the picture with its rules…’it is not what happens, but what we make of what happens – only something similar seems to be included in the thinking of Epicurus, infatuated with pleasures as he is mistakenly thought to have been by our contemporaries – yes, Epicurus said that pleasure is at the center of life, but then so did Aristotle, in some other manner, speaking of happiness as the ultimate goal…and they were right and besides, the meaning they attributed to pleasure was different…
Epicurus was all in favor of Eudaimonia, as an enlighted, accomplished existence, the joys he had in mind were more of the spirit and the result of applying epicurean precepts would be an elevated, sophisticated, intellectual existence, without abuses and exaggerations…Ataraxia is another central concept and that makes me think that just as Stoicism is close to Zen Buddhism, there are elements that unite these philosophies and indeed, all other meaningful, reasonable, serious systems of thought
The Epicurean perspective on death reminds me of the jolt I received when I first encountered Socrates – the latter was named the wisest man of ancient times by the Oracle at Delphi and when he analyzed the situation, the great philosopher came to the conclusion that this must have happened because he never claims to know what he does not know and this must be an important mark of wisdom…indeed, he applied it to the important issue of death…we know nothing of it, nobody came back to tell us about it, therefore to be scared of it is to pretend to know what we do not in reality know…
Epicurus insists on about the same lines regarding death, telling displaces and readers of this age that when we live we must not worry about death, for we are alive and when we die, we are no more, so there is nothing there to be scared of, only about this anxiety, feverish scare that will detract from out pleasure of living…one of the ways we can feel pleasure is to eliminate negative thoughts, for we cannot have both positive and negative thoughts at the same time – albeit Scott Fitzgerald said that ‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
10 out of 10
Being called an epicurean may sound like an insult, given the transformation that the meaning of the word has suffered through the centuries…although Epicurus was no slob, spending his days lazily sleeping around and eating huge meals, probably most of the ancient systems of thought are misunderstood in this day and age – and we can only imagine what will happen in the future, when cancel culture and new standards might send many to the dust bin, because they were not woke enough, or in the case of the other camp, for their frugality maybe – the stoics are supposed to be self-flagellating hermits and the epicureans…well, binge drinking, party animals that do drugs and everything else that is dangerous and deadly.
The Hamburger model envisaged by Harvard Professor Tal Ben-Shahar, the one whose lectures have been the most popular in the history of that Ivy League’s university, who spoke of those who would rather take a hamburger that is succulent, tasty but dangerous and for the long term damaging, the nihilists that refuse everything, long and short term pleasure…the best model is of course the one proposed by the Epicureans – and we could always create the Best Cocktail, adding some flavors from other Camelots, some lemons from Stoicism, a few cherries from Utilitarianism and always think of the Categorical Imperative…I am just fooling around, in case you have not noticed, the under signed is Epicurean at heart and thus believes there is nothing without pleasure and if joking is one of the paths to Aponia, then we need to jest
Epicurus and his followers were not the slaves of sex or debauchery that some would think, on the contrary, we may have to include this with the historical myths – one of the ones that I have seen demolished recently is the Richard III fallacy…we have learned to see him as the ultimate monster, the one who has killed his nephews in order to get on the throne, a villain so vicious that he stopped at nothing to advance his let us call them epicurean goals…The Daughter of Time by Josephine Fey destroys that falsehood http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/10/t...
The ancient philosopher has had a very active life, he could not take infinite naps and write about 300 works on various subjects…his look at God, exposed in the Epicurean paradox would still be poignant today…’God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them?’
In some ways, we can see that this proves the again that being an advocate of pleasure does not exclude, hard, efficient work, indeed, the great thinker was an advocate of wisdom and being a sage translates into understanding that we must choose to avoid a pleasure that has enjoyable consequences in the moment, but could be injurious, even fatal in the longer term…the example of drug addiction – and others will be included here too, for alcohol, gambling and other extreme tendencies result in illness and then death – and the aim is for higher goals, Ataraxia, Aporia and the coveted Eudaimonia…
‘The Tetrapharmakos presents a summary of the key points of Epicurean ethics-Don't fear god, Don't worry about death, What is good is easy to get, What is terrible is easy to endure’…the perspective on death reminds me of Socrates and this is a point which I touch in the annex to this note, some ideas jotted down a few days ago, and it strikes one as so decent and formidable at the same time, for indeed, when we die, we are no more and feel nothing, therefore it makes absolute sense to avoid taking pains and torturing ourselves, bringing injury in the present and days, years to come, by obsessing about something which, once it will have happened, we will not be there to experience it in any way…
A touch of lime from one of the stoics is all right now, to enjoy the Marguerita of Epicure – or you do not add lemon to that – for Seneca has said that ‘life is not short, it is exactly as it should be, only we treat time as if it were a currency we have in abundance, we can use as much as we want and then waste it with enterprises that are not worth it, indeed, we even feel like killing time quite often’, when we should use the experience of Dostoevsky, who had been condemned to death and he then experienced his last few minutes before moving to the other world – he divided the last three minutes into…well, three, one to say goodbye to family and friends in his imagination, another to pass his life in front of his eyes and the last for a ray of sunshine falling on a bell tower nearby – and when he was pardoned, he survived to write in his Magnum opera about this, through the man who would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean, than die and part with this world of Pleasure…
In this wonderful book, we read about Epicurus – his Philosophy and life as promised, but we also find what enemies say – well, enemies might be wrong, for some just had different ideas, but I am not deleting that, because the criticism of others could be coming from more than thinkers with a different doctrine, they act too violently to be less than adversaries, enemies ultimately – and we come to different ages and learn about the Epicurean philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, who has imprinted this notion on the American nation, with his inclusion in the Declaration of Independence of the idea of the ‘pursuit of happiness’
Another luminary, surely not as well-known as Jefferson, though his country has been elected as the Country of the Year by the most prestigious media outlet in the world, The Economist, a few years ago, ex-president of – let us see if you know about him and then you can google for him – Jose Mujica has spoken about consumerism – what if Indians had as many cars per person as in the West – and then he said ‘The old thinkers. Epicurus, Seneca and even the Aymara put it this way, a poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more, and more and more.” This is a cultural issue…’ there are many quotes that could be included here, but you can use the internet to learn more about this splendorous system A life of happiness is nothing else but a life of pleasure…Laugh and philosophize at the same time…Send me a pot of cheese, Without pleasure we're doing it the wrong way, Without gratitude we have no benefit from epicurean thinking…included are some thoughts of no consequence, written down in the mistaken epicurean spirit of dumb indulging in pleasure, even if to no useful end…
Epicurus versus Epictetus
It is not so much Epicurus against Epictetus in fact, as one discovers when approaching epicureanism and stoicism, which are not in fact opposites, having so much in common in their ancient forms at least…but this is part of the misconception, one of the myths that affect us – a couple that come to mind – one of them unrelated, perhaps - would be the myth that makes us think we would be happy, if only we could move to California, one of the Pacific or Caribbean islands, but when we get there, we experience Hedonic Adaptation and get used with the palm trees, white sand, splendid waves and notice and get annoyed by the hurricanes, wild fires, power cuts and extremely expensive bills for anything – some of these would be for the islands – while another historical myth would be that Richard III has killed his nephews and he was a villain, when the opposite is true – I mean, he was more like a hero and not that the nephews killed him, but that he had nothing to do with their murder…
Being a follower of Epicurus – which I think yours truly is, maybe even worse, accused as he is – for all the good reasons presumably – that he is selfish, lazy, detached, carless, passé, outré, senile and much more and worse – is often meant to be – or is it always – someone inclined to take the easy life option, choose La Dolce Vita, over the ascetic, hermit lifestyle that is wrongfully thought to be the Stoic alternative…the latter would be without light and hope for some, a choice that implies living in a hermitage more or less, without joy and human emotions, giving up pleasure for the prison of a masochist practitioner.
Indeed, exaggerations have modified the perception of these philosophies that seem in fact to be very close to each other, if we go beyond the present day misconceptions…epicurean doctrine is not about indulging ourselves with huge meals and inept pleasure seeking, on the contrary, Epicurus has insisted on moderation and the need to see what pleasures are sensible and which are dangerous, if we seek them and remain oblivious to what happens once we have obtained a pleasant feeling, which is followed by a consequent disease let us say…
The best results might be obtained from combining the two systems – though the thought comes to mind that in fact Epicurus was a reasonable stoic, he pledged allegiance to restraint as much as a stoic would do…what is the difference between him and Epictetus actually…I wonder – and live a life where we are aware of the dangers of excess, obtain satisfaction from the example of…Harpagon from The Miser by Moliere http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/t... who infamously said that ‘we eat to live and not live to eat’…
Evidently, Harpagon was saying that because he was a Miser and desperate to save on everything, meals, drink, air if possible and the need for balance, for the Aristotelian Golden Mean would be acute here…we must not be like Harpagon, but giving all we have and putting family on the street is not right either…or is it that Harpagon is the ultimate stoic and we need to follow him as a role model…in the age of consumerism that would give way to restraint, economy to save the planet and live something for future generations to live on maybe this is the attitude we all need to take – another possibility is that I am looking at every chance to justify my own austerity, which is pushed to extremes…
It is propelled by an overwhelming – at times – anxiety in the face of an uncertain future – will there be resources to keep up with the quite expensive lifestyle of today, or will we be forced to sell the house and move to a studio, what will happen to the boys aka macaws if that happens, given their propensity to scream and shout at times to a level that would have the apartment building up in arms and with the police at the door, until we have to…what, move to the woods, give them to the Zoo…will they take them there and then would they die, used as they are to be pampered, given food in bowl that they only need to ingurgitate, after they wrinkle their nose…well, beaks…and what about quarantine, do they stay separate to be checked for disease…
This is where Stoicism comes into the picture with its rules…’it is not what happens, but what we make of what happens – only something similar seems to be included in the thinking of Epicurus, infatuated with pleasures as he is mistakenly thought to have been by our contemporaries – yes, Epicurus said that pleasure is at the center of life, but then so did Aristotle, in some other manner, speaking of happiness as the ultimate goal…and they were right and besides, the meaning they attributed to pleasure was different…
Epicurus was all in favor of Eudaimonia, as an enlighted, accomplished existence, the joys he had in mind were more of the spirit and the result of applying epicurean precepts would be an elevated, sophisticated, intellectual existence, without abuses and exaggerations…Ataraxia is another central concept and that makes me think that just as Stoicism is close to Zen Buddhism, there are elements that unite these philosophies and indeed, all other meaningful, reasonable, serious systems of thought
The Epicurean perspective on death reminds me of the jolt I received when I first encountered Socrates – the latter was named the wisest man of ancient times by the Oracle at Delphi and when he analyzed the situation, the great philosopher came to the conclusion that this must have happened because he never claims to know what he does not know and this must be an important mark of wisdom…indeed, he applied it to the important issue of death…we know nothing of it, nobody came back to tell us about it, therefore to be scared of it is to pretend to know what we do not in reality know…
Epicurus insists on about the same lines regarding death, telling displaces and readers of this age that when we live we must not worry about death, for we are alive and when we die, we are no more, so there is nothing there to be scared of, only about this anxiety, feverish scare that will detract from out pleasure of living…one of the ways we can feel pleasure is to eliminate negative thoughts, for we cannot have both positive and negative thoughts at the same time – albeit Scott Fitzgerald said that ‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
November 14, 2021
Stranger, you would do good to stay awhile, for here the highest good is pleasure
August 20, 2023
This is overall a fantastic resource on Epicurean philosophy, as a selection of major primary sources and some secondary portraits. The audiobook presentation is very clear and maintains interest as well as clarity with the use of two alternating narrators, one mostly handling expositional material, the other reciting the texts themselves.
My only grips is a rather technical one, though fairly important, regarding the translation of the material appearing at the end of the letter of Pythocles, where begins Diogenes Laertius’ list of Epicurean “wise man” sayings. Some of the renderings given here are directly opposite the sense of those given in most other sources, and indeed, not only contradict the ethical teachings of Epicureanism, but render a major disservice to unfamiliar readers. Take for instance “nor again will the wise man marry and rear a family”, which is followed by “occasionally he may marry owing to special circumstances in his life”. This is stilted and confusing. Generally it is given as “The wise man will marry and have children…but only in accord with the circumstances of his life”, which is much clearer, and the sense is meaningfully different. There is also “the wise man will also feel grief”, where I’ve generally seen, “the wise man will not be subject to grief”, the latter better following the comments made regarding funeral rites and not mourning the death of friends. These corrections are in accord with those of Hiram Crespo himself, who is the compiler of the current edition, and are to be found on his own website (link below), so it’s odd that he would allow them to enter here. I won’t enumerate the rest of the discrepancies. The remainder of the book seems in accord with consensus and internal logic for the most part, so overall this is a reliable and recommendable source, I would just, as always, recommend consulting multiple translations.
https://epicureandatabase.wordpress.c...
My only grips is a rather technical one, though fairly important, regarding the translation of the material appearing at the end of the letter of Pythocles, where begins Diogenes Laertius’ list of Epicurean “wise man” sayings. Some of the renderings given here are directly opposite the sense of those given in most other sources, and indeed, not only contradict the ethical teachings of Epicureanism, but render a major disservice to unfamiliar readers. Take for instance “nor again will the wise man marry and rear a family”, which is followed by “occasionally he may marry owing to special circumstances in his life”. This is stilted and confusing. Generally it is given as “The wise man will marry and have children…but only in accord with the circumstances of his life”, which is much clearer, and the sense is meaningfully different. There is also “the wise man will also feel grief”, where I’ve generally seen, “the wise man will not be subject to grief”, the latter better following the comments made regarding funeral rites and not mourning the death of friends. These corrections are in accord with those of Hiram Crespo himself, who is the compiler of the current edition, and are to be found on his own website (link below), so it’s odd that he would allow them to enter here. I won’t enumerate the rest of the discrepancies. The remainder of the book seems in accord with consensus and internal logic for the most part, so overall this is a reliable and recommendable source, I would just, as always, recommend consulting multiple translations.
https://epicureandatabase.wordpress.c...
June 10, 2025
DNF at 31% (2 hours in)
Lowkey this is just too much physics and overall I do not see the point of this work unless you're forced to study philosophy, but for the commonfolk it's a dense piece of work without much value, since those same things Epicurus talks about can be learned in a much simpler, more concise manner.
I was also having difficulty following along sometimes and there was no written text available, which made it all the more unbearable.
Also, at the beginning of the book, where his biography is laid out, it's mention of this woman related to Epicurus (I believe) who is essentially a slave/property (the men are the ones who choose husbands and that husband has to be a member of the Epicurus' school). And she's only supported as long as she does as they say. Eugh.
Plus, he had literal slaves. Sure, he is a man of his time, yet I think those are still important things to consider, when these men speak of 'human nature' and yet at the same time fail to see lower classes and women as human beings in the first place.
Lowkey this is just too much physics and overall I do not see the point of this work unless you're forced to study philosophy, but for the commonfolk it's a dense piece of work without much value, since those same things Epicurus talks about can be learned in a much simpler, more concise manner.
I was also having difficulty following along sometimes and there was no written text available, which made it all the more unbearable.
Also, at the beginning of the book, where his biography is laid out, it's mention of this woman related to Epicurus (I believe) who is essentially a slave/property (the men are the ones who choose husbands and that husband has to be a member of the Epicurus' school). And she's only supported as long as she does as they say. Eugh.
Plus, he had literal slaves. Sure, he is a man of his time, yet I think those are still important things to consider, when these men speak of 'human nature' and yet at the same time fail to see lower classes and women as human beings in the first place.
October 7, 2021
I am really amazed by this philosopher and his philosophy. It is a pity that I only know him until now.
Epicurism has quite a lot of similarities with the modern world and science compared with other philosophical schools (Stoicism, Platonism).
1) It is much more scientific and materialistic.
2) It does not depend on gods or the ideal world.
3) It has a positive and a yes-saying worldview.
One thing that I don't understand now is why Epicurism is not popular.
I need to investigate more about this philosophical school and the comparison between Stoicism and Epicurism.
There are some things about Stoicism that I don't like during my research about it:
+ It has a weird theological part.
+ It has a negative view of the world.
Epicurism has quite a lot of similarities with the modern world and science compared with other philosophical schools (Stoicism, Platonism).
1) It is much more scientific and materialistic.
2) It does not depend on gods or the ideal world.
3) It has a positive and a yes-saying worldview.
One thing that I don't understand now is why Epicurism is not popular.
I need to investigate more about this philosophical school and the comparison between Stoicism and Epicurism.
There are some things about Stoicism that I don't like during my research about it:
+ It has a weird theological part.
+ It has a negative view of the world.
February 26, 2023
2,400 years before the philosopher contributed critical thought in temperance. Early axioms emerged of diet, kindness, pleasure, clouds, atoms, transference, and much else. Yes, much of the early science evolved to make this collection similar children’s stories. But, extraordinary to consider what knowledge and frameworks of thought were mature at the time. Rising and viral competing memes worked to destroy these early works. Maybe threatened by simpler observations that once reasoned enabled freedom of thought. And nature and time as eagerly waged against the knowledge in libraries and letters. A pleasant revisiting of a collection of history.
October 12, 2022
I was unable to neither formulate nor locate a summary of Epicurus' life and philosophy more thorough yet brief than the one that can be found on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
November 1, 2021
This is a collection of letters and essays collected throughout history by various scholars and philosophers about Epicurus, the founder of Epicureanism.
A great primer!
A great primer!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews