Principal Doctrines

by Epicurus, William de Witt Hyde, Charles Bradlaugh

Epicurus posited a materialistic physics, in which pleasure, by which he meant freedom from pain, is the highest good. Serenity, the harmony of mind and body, is best achieved, through virtue and simple living.

Genres: Philosophy, Classics, Nonfiction, Ancient History

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

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

[Miloš Lazarević]

Zanimljiv pregled, u prevodu Miloša Đurića. Može koristiti onima koji bi da se upoznaju s Epikurovom filozofijom, ali i onima koji bi hteli da prodube već postojeće (sa)znanje.

''Vidimo, dalje: um se rađa s telom,
s njim skupa raste, stari slično s njime.
Jer k’o što deca hode slabačka
teturavo, i misao nejaka
njih prati. Kad ojača uzrast Snagom,
tad razbor raste, urana moć se snaži.
Kad najzad vreme telo uzdrma
nadmoćnom silom, klonu udovi,
otupi snaga - hramlje tad i mis’o,
i jezik bunca, posrće nam um,
napušta nas odjednom, ode sve.
I duša dakle mora kao dim
u vazdušne visine sva iščilit;
L jer s telom skupa rađa se i raste,
i pada skupa, vremenom umorna.''

[Ermina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Epikur u epizodi: kako doći od naslađivanja u životu do sastava atoma i značenja Boga.

[Sisko Mencetic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Od 40 par njih je bas onako masnih neke su meh a za neke mislim da mi treba reread al eto ne moze sve bit 5 zvjezdica (plus u usporedbi s pismom menekeju ocekivala sam nesto masnije od epikura..)

[Caesar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this work a neutral rating of 3 out of 5. It is simply a list of principles Epicurus believed were necessary to attain a happy and tranquil life.

Epicurus was extremely influential in his time. His work was revered to such an extent that references to his philosophy were made by all intellectual scholars of his era.

His common sense yet revolutionary ideas of living a content life reverberated through history. It is virtually impossible to come across any work of psychology or philosophy written since that does not pay tribute to him or his ideology.

Unfortunately, most of his work is lost to time and we are left only with second-hand accounts.
This 10-minute read is a window into his philosophy. But most importantly it provides an understanding of what is meant when thinkers, past and present, mention the name Epicurus or make references to his philosophy.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very short summary of the key thoughts of Epicurus' thinking. I think most of these flow from a few core beliefs:

A. There are no gods we should fear -- there is no afterlife; celestial and atmospheric phenomena are not the expression of diving wrath; there is no standard of justice imposed upon us by the gods.

B. Pleasure is the highest good, and pain the greatest evil.

From these, everything else follows. Of course, given the Greek mythology, I find it a little hard to fault him on #1, though in the end he's wrong. As far as I can tell, Judaism was unknown to the Greeks at this time. Socrates, Aristotle, and others had both concluded that humans had both spirit and body, but Epicurus seems to conclude that we are just body.

From believe #A he infers a pretty twisted definition of justice -- "There never was an absolute justice, but only an agreement made in reciprocal association...providing against the infliction or suffering of harm." (#33) In other words, there is no absolute justice, just what society agrees to construct. This same philosophy is very present today, standing in stark contrast to the claims of the Declaration of Independence, and addressed at length in Mere Christianity. He ends up with a very utilitarian, relative, and perennially shifting view of justice ("for the time being it was just", #37), where the utility relates to the removal of fear and the embrace of pleasure. How sad.

I find one of his doctrines very apropos to statements I've heard from modern philosophy: "If you fight against all your sensations, you will have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means of judging even those judgments which you pronounce false." (#23) One point for Epicurus on this one.

[Nicolas Name · Rating 2 out of 5]

For such a central figure in philosophy, his surviving works are pretty bare.

This was less than 30 minutes long on audiobook, and is rather disjointed series of tips that read like a bad, abbreviated version of a self-help book.

Seneca and Epictetus referenced Epicurus more thoroughly than here, and his philosophy there, as presented by those two authors, survived better than his own work. Shows the passage of time, that even central figures of philosophy can become rather obscure, in two thousand years.

[Allen Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.”

“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly.”

“…wherever the laws have ceased to be advantageous because of a change in circumstances, in that case the laws were for that time just when they were advantageous for the mutual dealings of the citizens, and subsequently ceased to be just when they were no longer advantageous.”

[Alok · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

"Of all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends."

Though my first work of Epicurus, this is too small, there's little here to comment upon. I'd like to explore more of his views on pleasure and justice. Hopefully Letter to Menoeceus, On the Nature of Things etc. would be more insightful.

[John Hubbard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting thoughts and an useful tool to bridge Aristotle to the Reformation philosophers.

[maty ♡︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy and fast to read, i agree with most of the stuff and ye

[zuzu · Rating 3 out of 5]

don't fear the gods; nor death

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Far too brief a summary and should be treated as a book report, rather than an analysis of the principal doctrines.

[Madeleine Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Logged completing a seven-page book for class because it is mutually good between me and myself that I beat my friends in the Goodreads reading challenge.

[Thomas Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The principal doctrines is the essential guide to Epicurus's ethics. Epicurus was a contemporary of Aristotle, and I would recommend referring to the Doctrines while reading the Nicomachean Ethics to better understand Epicurus. His view of justice is interesting, although I disagree with some of what he says. As a break from well known Greeks, I found his works (or what's left) to be entertaining. He isn't a big name, but he isn't a Sophist or a Stoic either.

[Bryan Heck · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, but some disagreements. He makes statements that aren't very confusing to understand, but as far as adding up to being fully correct, or even consistent, I believe it may lack some.

[Lou Robertella · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enigma

Having read Seneca's quotes of him,I got a better concept of his thoughts regarding his philosophy. It's our loss that his original works are lost.