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EPICURUS

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher. He was born in 341 BC on the island of Samos and died in 270 BC. He settled at Athens in 306 BC, and purchased a garden in a favourable situation, where he established a philosophical school - founding the Epicurean School of philosophy. Here he spent the remainder of his life, living in a simple manner and taking no part in public affairs. His pupils were numerous and enthusiastically devoted to him. His theory of the universe was based on the atomic theory of Democritus.

The fundamental principle of his ethical system was that pleasure and pain are the chief good and evil, the attainment of the one and the avoidance of the other of which are to be regarded as the end of philosophy. He endeavoured, however, to give a moral tendency to this doctrine. He exalted the pure and noble enjoyments derived from virtue, to which he attributed an imperishable existence, as incalculably superior to the passing pleasures which disturb the peace of mind, the highest good, and are therefore detrimental to happiness. Peace of mind, based on meditation, he considered as the origin of all good.

The philosophy of Epicurus has been violently opposed and frequently misrepresented; but while it is not open to the charges of gross sensualism which have been brought against it, it cannot be considered as much better than a refinement of sensualism. In ancient times his philosophy appears to have been more popular in Greece than in Rome, although his disciples were numerous in both, and the Latin poem of Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, is a poetical exposition of his doctrines. Epicurus was allegedly a very prolific writer, but few of his works survive.
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