Epicurus
341 BCE – 270 BCE Greek philosopher
The philosopher who made a serene, fear-free life the aim of wisdom.
- Religion
- Held the gods exist but take no interest in human affairs; taught that fear of death and the divine is irrational.
- Affiliations
- Founded the Garden, a philosophical community in Athens open to women and slaves.
Epicurus taught that pleasure, understood as freedom from pain and anxiety, is the goal of life. Building on Democritus, he held the universe to be atoms and void, with no divine meddling. His ethics of moderation and friendship shaped later materialism and Enlightenment thought.
Connections
- influenced Democritus — Epicurus built his physics on Democritean atomism.