Ethics Paper

11/2/2020 Topic: EPICURUS BIOGRAPHY AND PHILOSOPHY

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EPICURUS BIOGRAPHY AND PHILOSOPHY

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Epicurus was born in the early part of the year 344, B. C, the third year of the 109th Olympiad, at Gargettus, in the neighborhood of Athens. His father, Neocles, was of the Aegean tribe. Some allege that Epicurus was born in the island of Samos; but, according to others, he was taken there when very young by his parents, who formed a portion of a colony of Athenian citizens, sent to colonize Samos after its subjugation by Pericles. The father and mother of Epicurus were in very humble circumstances; his father was a schoolmaster, and his mother, Chrestrata, acted as a kind of priestess, curing diseases, exorcising ghosts, and exercising other fabulous powers. Epicurus has been charged with sorcery, because he wrote several songs for his mother's solemn rites. Until eighteen, he remained at Samos and the neighboring isle of Teos; from where he removed to Athens, where he resided until the death of Alexander, when, disturbances arising, he fled to Colophon. This place, Mitylene, and Lampsacus, formed the philosopher's residence until he was thirty-six years of age; at which time he founded a school in the neighborhood of Athens. He purchased a pleasant garden, where he taught his disciples until the time of his death.

We are told by Laertius that those disciples who were regularly admitted into the school of Epicurus, lived together, not in the manner of the Pythagoreans, who cast their possessions into a common stock; for this, in his opinion, implied mutual distrust rather than friendship; but upon such a footing of friendly attachment, that each individual cheerfully supplied the necessities of his brother.

The habits of the philosopher and his followers were temperate and exceedingly frugal, and formed a strong contrast to the luxurious, although refined, manners of the Athenians and the common stereotypical understanding of them even today. For at the entrance of the garden, the visitor of Epicurus found the following inscription:

The hospitable keeper of this mansion, where you will find pleasure the highest good, will present you with barley cakes and water from the spring. These gardens will not provoke your appetite by artificial dainties, but satisfy it with natural supplies. Will you not, then, be well entertained?

And yet the owner of the garden, over the gate of which these words were placed, has been called "a glutton" and "a stomach worshipper!"

From the age of thirty-six until his death, he does not seem to have left Athens, except temporarily. When Demetrius besieged Athens, the Epicureans were driven into great difficulties

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for want of food; and it is said that Epicurus and his friends subsisted on a small quantity of beans which he possessed, and which he shared equally with them.

The better to prosecute his studies, Epicurus lived a life of celibacy. Temperate and continent himself, he taught his followers to be so likewise, both by example and precept. He died in 273 B. C, in the seventy-third year of his age; and, at that time, his warmest opponents seem to have paid the highest compliments to his personal character; and, on reading his life, and the detailed accounts of his teachings, it seems difficult to imagine what has induced the scandal which has been heaped upon his memory.

We cannot quote from his own works, in his own words, because, although he wrote much, only a summary of his writings has come to us uninjured; but his doctrines have been so fully investigated and treated on, both by his opponents and his disciples, that there is no difficulty or doubt as to the principles inculcated in the school of Epicurus.

Philosophy for Epicurus is the exercise of reason in the pursuit and attainment of a happy life; where it follows, that those studies which conduce neither to the acquisition nor the enjoyment of happiness are to be dismissed as of no value at all. The end of all speculation ought to be, to enable men to judge with certainty what is to be chosen, and what to be avoided, to preserve themselves free from pain, and to secure health of body, and tranquility of mind. True philosophy is so useful to every man, that the young should apply to it without delay, and the old should never be weary of the pursuit of it; for no man is either too young or too old to correct and improve his mind, and to study the art of happiness.

Happy are they who possess by nature a free and vigorous intellect, and who are born into a country where they can prosecute their inquiries without restraint. For it is philosophy alone which raises a man above vain fears and base passions, and gives him the perfect command of himself. Nothing ought to be dearer to a philosopher than truth. He should pursue it by the most direct means devising no actions himself, nor suffering himself to be imposed upon by others, neither poets, orators, nor logicians, making no other use of the rules of rhetoric or grammar, than to enable him to speak or write with accuracy and clarity, and always preferring a plain and simple to an ornamented style. While some doubt of everything, and others profess to know everything, a wise man will embrace only such tenets as are built upon experience, or upon certain and indisputable axioms.

The following is a summary of his Moral Philosophy:

The end of living, or the ultimate good, which is to be sought for its own sake, according to the universal opinion of mankind, is happiness; yet men, for the most part, fail in the pursuit of this end, either because they do not form a right idea of the nature of happiness, or because they do not make use of the proper means to attain it. Since it is every man's interest to be happy through the whole of life, it is wise to employ philosophy in the search of happiness without delay; and there cannot be a greater folly, than to be always beginning to live.

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The happiness which belongs to man, is that state in which he enjoys as many of the good things, and suffers as few of the evils incident to human nature as possible; passing his days in a smooth course of permanent tranquility. A wise man, though deprived of sight or hearing, may experience happiness in the enjoyment of the good things which yet remain; and when suffering torture, or laboring under some painful disease, can mitigate the anguish by patience, and can enjoy, in his afflictions, the consciousness of his own constancy. But it is impossible that perfect happiness can be possessed without the pleasure which attends freedom from pain, and the enjoyment of the good things of life.

Pleasure is in its nature good, as pain is in its nature evil; the one is, therefore, to be pursued, and the other to be avoided, for its own sake. Pleasure, or pain, is not only good, or evil, in itself, but the measure of what is good or evil, in every object of desire or aversion; for the ultimate reason why we pursue one thing, and avoid another, is because we expect pleasure from the former, and pain from the latter.

If we sometimes decline a present pleasure, it is not because we are averse to pleasure itself, but because we conceive, that in the present instance, it will be necessarily connected with a greater pain. In like manner, if we sometimes voluntarily submit to a present pain, it is because we judge that it is necessarily connected with a greater pleasure.

Although all pleasure is essentially good, and all pain essentially evil, it does not then necessarily follow, that in every single instance the one ought to be pursued, and the other to be avoided; but reason is to be employed in distinguishing and comparing the nature and degrees of each, that the result may be a wise choice of that which shall appear to be, upon the whole, good.

This happy state can only be obtained by a prudent care of the body, and a steady government of the mind. The diseases of the body are to be prevented by temperance, or cured by medicine, or rendered tolerable by patience. Against the diseases of the mind, philosophy provides sufficient antidotes. The instruments which it employs for this purpose are the virtues; the root of which, when all the rest proceeds, is prudence. This virtue comprehends the whole art of living discreetly, justly, and honorably, and is, in fact, the same thing as wisdom. It instructs men to free their understandings from the clouds of prejudice; to exercise temperance and fortitude in the government of themselves: and to practice justice towards others. Although pleasure, or happiness, which is the end of living, be superior to virtue, which is only the means, it is every one's interest to practice all the virtues; for in a happy life, pleasure can never be separated from virtue.

A prudent man, in order to secure his tranquility, will consult his natural disposition in the choice of his plan of life. If, for example, he is persuaded that he should be happier in a state of marriage than in celibacy, he ought to marry; but if he be convinced that matrimony would be an impediment to his happiness, he ought to remain single. In like manner, such persons as are naturally active, enterprising, and ambitious, or such as by the condition of their birth are placed in the way of civil offices, should accommodate themselves to their nature and situation, by

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engaging in public affairs; while such as are, from natural temper, fond of leisure and retirement, or, from experience or observation, are convinced that a life of public business would be inconsistent with their happiness, are unquestionably at liberty, except where particular circumstances call them to the service of their country, to pass their lives in obscure repose.

The only evils to be avoided are bodily pain, and distress of mind. Bodily pain should be endured by a wise man with patience and firmness; because, if it be slight, it may easily be borne; and if it be intense, it cannot last long. Mental distress commonly arises not from nature but from opinion. A wise man will therefore arm himself against this kind of suffering by reflecting that the gifts of fortune, the loss of which he may be inclined to deplore, were never his own but dependent upon circumstances which he could not command. Therefore, if they happen to leave him he will endeavor to obliterate their remembrance by occupying his mind in pleasant contemplation and engaging in agreeable avocations.

Epicurus was a materialist who held that the only reliable evidence was that of the senses. Therefore, in a theoretical sense, one would not expect that he would be favorably disposed to the concept of God (or the gods). However, in an ethical sense, Epicurus rightly understood that the question of happiness could not be resolved without dealing, to one extent or another, with the question of God. He thus came up with one of the most interesting and unique attitudes toward the gods of any philosopher.

In his “Letter to Menoeceus” he states:

First of all believe that god is a being immortal and blessed… believe about him everything that can uphold his blessedness and immortality. For gods there are, since the knowledge of them is by clear vision. But they are not such as the many believe them to be.

However, he goes on to conclude:

Become accustom to the fact that death is nothing to us: For all good and evil consist in sensation: but death is deprivation of sensation.

Here Epicurus displays both a keen social psychology and a great theoretical integrity. For he knows well from the beginning that his system can have no place for an afterlife yet he also knows that to deny the gods would create a conflict both within the mind of the average man, and between him and his fellow men. So, almost like giving to Caesar what is due to Caesar and to God what is due to God, Epicurus gives the gods their due yet calmly points out that in the end “death is nothing to us.” And his calm and reasonable attitude here seems something many current day militant atheists and agnostics might learn a great lesson from.

In closing, it is important to note that although the instruction of Epicurus to obtain the greatest amount of pleasure and the least amount of pain for oneself may seem hedonist and self-serving it is in fact in line with the Christian teaching that one should love your neighbor as you love yourself. For in both teachings is contained the idea that the effective love of self leads to the

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effective love of others. In this way the free thought of Epicurus served as a guide, and many would say even a direct inspiration, the later Utilitarian philosophy of Bentham and Mill which in its own right sought a direct connection to the Golden Rule.

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