Epicurus (341-270 BC) is often seen as an advocate of a luxurious life, rich in good food and other pleasures. This is incorrect. Epicurus was, if anything, an ascetic: someone who thought that pleasures and good food have a negative effect on our happiness and that we should train ourselves to enjoy the simpler pleasures of life.
This article is part of The Ultimate Guide to Epicurus.
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Epicurus (341-270 BC)
When one hears of Epicurus today, it’s generally in the context of good food or other pleasurable enjoyments.
Source: Epicurious
And the American Heritage Dictionary defines “Epicurean” thus:
- Devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of good food and comfort.
- A devotee to sensuous and luxurious living; an epicure.
But this is quite a misunderstanding, as we will see later.
Epicurus was born around 341 BCE, seven years after Plato’s death. He grew up in the Athenian colony of Samos, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, close to what is today the shore of Turkey.
Like Aristotle and many other famous Greek philosophers, he was not a real Athenian – he did have the citizenship, but he was one from the colonies, not a member of one of the core Athenian tribes. But also, like Aristotle and many others, he was attracted to the legend of Athens, its democracy, its market and splendid public buildings, where all sorts of philosophers, from the finest in the known world down to the crazy preacher of the day, would give speeches and teach their students. If you were a young philosopher at around the fifth or fourth century BC, then Athens was the only place worth being.
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Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle (384-322 BC), born in Stageira, Greece, is one of the most influential philosophers who ever lived. He worked not only in philosophy, but also wrote dozens of books on all topics, from astronomy and biology to literary theory.
Epicurus was about 19 when Aristotle died and he studied philosophy under followers of Plato and Democritus. Democritus had developed a theory of atoms, tiny, indivisible particles of matter, and Epicurus saw in this a way out of superstitious beliefs in Gods, spirits and fate. If everything was indeed atoms, then the world was a purely material place. Even the human mind must then be made of these atoms and the laws that govern our thoughts must be, in principle, as rational and understandable as those governing the movement of a horse-cart or a ball rolling down a slope. We will see later how this belief in atoms allowed Epicurus to remove one of the main causes of anxiety and fear for the people of that time: the fear of the wrath of the Gods. If the world was just atoms flying around, then the Gods had no say in its destiny …
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