Epicurus's Belief

The first four Principal Doctrines, deal with anxiety in people’s lives, and how they should think. Epicurus, is telling people not to fear death, God, nor pains in one’s life because they do not last long and they are for the week. The problem with this way of thinking, is that it removes the true God from the person’s life. But, that is not what he is saying. He, “believed that the true life of pleasure consisted in an attitude of imperturbable emotional calm which needed only simple pleasures, a healthy diet, a prudent moral life, and good friends” (pg. 342). This is quit opposite of what people say of Epicureanism in today’s time.

Born of different stations, languages and creeds, Epictetus and Seneca are Roman philosophers who externally appear to be very different. Epictetus was born to a slave mother, sold as a slave himself and spent the majority of his youth as a slave in Rome. Seneca was born into money; he became tutor to a boy named Nero who later acquired position of Emperor of Rome in 54 A.D. Though these two men seem to be from very different worlds, they have a shared purpose in studying philosophy. The purpose of their writings was to teach people how to live well. Though they had a shared purpose, they suggested its achievement through different means. Epictetus professed an ‘expect the worst so you wont be disappointed when it happens’

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was credited with writing the famous quote “No great thing is created suddenly.” Stoicism is a form of ancient Greek philosophy that teaches self-control in order to overcome otherwise destructive moments. In 50 CE, Epictetus was born as a slave in Hierapolis, but in 130 CE, he passed away as one of the best-known philosophers. After being liberated from slavery in 68 CE, Epictetus began teaching Stoicism in Rome. Comparable to the “great thing” that was not created suddenly in Epictetus’ quote, Epictetus’ freedom from slavery was also not granted to him suddenly. Since Epictetus was a slave for eighteen years, he knew that it takes time for great things to happen.

Epicurus supported that the images people had for gods were varying due to the different preconceptions that had been implanted to every person separately. Very often there were false convictions expressed by people even if their preconceptions reflected their own natural goals. Lucretius protested against voices who presented gods as having evil intents and as prone to partiality and fury: “Unhappy human race, to attribute such behavior, and bitter wrath too, to the gods! What lamentations did they lay up for themselves in those days, what wounds for us, what tears for our descendants’’? Moreover, Lucretius stated: ‘‘Unless you expel these ideas from your mind and drive far away beliefs unworthy of the gods and alien to their tranquillity,

Much like Epicurus, Gassendi taught the idea of atoms and of a void; however, he modified this theory to reconcile with the standards of Christianity. He believed there were a limited number of atoms in this void created by God. While Epicurus believed that atoms had different shapes and moved at different speeds, Gassendi argued that atoms were extensions of the objects they belonged to, sharing the same weight, shape, and size. Despite this differentiation, Gassendi can be credited for presenting Epicurean atomism in Europe during his

Born of different backgrounds, upbringings, and experiences, Epictetus and Seneca are Roman philosophers who outwardly appear very different. Epictetus spent most of his youth as a slave while Seneca was born into money and became a tutor of Nero. Although these two men seem to be very dissimilar, they each shared a common purpose in studying philosophy and teaching people on how to live well. Each suggested different paths for how to do so. Epictetus suggests in his book, The Discourses and The Enchiridion, that living a life in accordance with nature could be achieved by living moderately. Seneca suggests in his work, Letters from a Stoic, that a happy man is self-sufficient and realizes that happiness depends only on interior perfection. Despite the differences, both Epictetus and Seneca are considered Stoics because of their shared belief in the idea that character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness. The world outside ourselves will never give us happiness, nor will it be responsible for our unhappiness. It doesn’t matter what’s happening outside ourselves, Epictetus and Seneca claim that the only thing that matters is how we interpret those events. Further evaluating Seneca’s, Letters from a Stoic and Epictetus’s, The Discourses and The Enchiridion, we will clearly be able to differentiate the two in their ideas and opinions regarding stoicism and the keys to living a well, happy life.

In Ancient Rome diseases were quite common, and with little knowledge of medical practices, the average age of life expectancy was approximately thirty-five years old. However, a lot of babies died before they were even one-year-old. Roughly, about a quarter of all babies born died before they were a year old, this statistic being one out of every four babies born. This was generally from birth defects or inherited diseases, as well as being so small and weak that they were not able to fight anything off. A lot of children also died. About half of all the babies born died before they turned the age of ten, the reasoning behind this being the same for that of babies. From the ages of ten and forty, it is believed that hardly anybody died of disease since, at this age, people are generally healthy and strong. If death occurred during this age period, it was generally because men were killed in war or because women died in childbirth. It was very unusual for people to live into their older years of life. Despite this, diseases spread throughout Rome easily and since nobody had proper knowledge on medical practices, many people died this way.

Lucretius believed that religion is a fraud and cannot explain the unknown. One finds that Humans are fearful of the unknown which leads them to search for answers. When one cannot find answers, they will turn elsewhere-- like from religion. Religion offers explanations for the unknown and priests use this to claim power. Lucretius had an amazing scientific passion. He wanted to find answers to the unanswerable. Clyde makes Lucretius stand out, "for the union of high speculative power, deep moral earnestness, and imagination that rises to the loftiest reaches of awe and grandeur" (2). Lucretius fought for the idea that anything cannot become nothing and vice versa. In the book On the Nature of The Universe, Lucretius further solidifies his stance against religion saying, "so great the power religion had for evil" (1.101). Lucretius believes that religion was used as a social control to

According to Epicurus, all things are experienced through sensation and once we die we no longer experience anything as there is no sensation after death.

Heraclitus was one of the natural philosophers from Ephesus in Asia Minor, circa 540-480 B.C. , who believed that constant change or flow was the basic characteristic of nature. He believed the world was characterized by opposites and it would cease to exist without their constant interplay. “God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, hunger and satiety,” he said, believing God can be seen most clearly in constant transformations and contrasts in nature. (p 28) But instead of God he used the greek word “logos” which means reason, as he believed that there must be a kind of “universal reason” or “universal law” guiding everybody and everything that happens in nature. Thus amid constant flux and opposites throughout nature, Heraclitus believed an Entity or one-ness , called God or “logos” was the source of everything.

The philosophies that influenced me most would be epicureanism and skepticism. Epicureanism states that one should not be focused only on pleasure and that’s exactly how I feel. I like to have a good time and enjoy myself, but in moderation because that should not be what life is all about. Skepticism says that one can not know something for sure and that’s why I always like to get all the facts on hearing something before jumping to conclusions. I am the same way when it comes to meeting someone new, I am very unsure of them at first until I get to know them better. I like to have more time and information instead of making my mind up about them from the first impression. After learning more about philosophy and looking back I really was not aware that I was practicing these and applying them to my daily life. I was taught growing up that I should work hard and not live as if life is one big party, to a point. Then as I got older I think I learned to be more skeptic because I have been betrayed one to many times. I did not realize that what I was doing and applying to my life and relationships were actually philosophies.

Epicurus believed atoms are particles that are composed of an infinite amount of something and must have space to move. Likewise, the particles must be the smallest thing to be and have shape. This theory is based on two aspects, atom and void. Void is the absence of anything. Atoms travel through void at the same speed despite certain factors, such as size, shape, and weight. Atoms swerve randomly and collide in the void, therefore determining how an object gets its different shapes and sizes in the world. On the other hand, Epicurus resembles a libertarian. For instance, Epicurus believes how we live our lives is guided by what we enjoy and/or don’t enjoy. Pleasure, as defined by Epicurus, is the absence of pain. Therefore, an ideal life is a life that has no pain. Also, Epicurus states that a person should not be dependent on stuff because then that person will be at less of a risk for pain in the future. The problem of combining these two views is the issue of free will. Atomism believes that atoms swerve due to a person deciding their choices, therefore explaining their choices. While

After a long and laborious research on the way Epicurus and Epicureans conceived the nature of gods, the scholars were divided into two interpretative groups up to date; the first one was characterized by its realistic approach on the Epicurean theology while the other examined this complicated theology from a more idealistic aspect. According to realists, Epicurus’ gods were

To begin with I believe that the two ideologies that I find to be the best to analyze this case are Epicureanism and the beliefs of Aristotle. Though I may be partial to these since I believe that they support my feelings on the topic I also think that they make sense for this case. According to the Epicureans, as well as Aristotle, Frederick lived an unhappy life. In my opinion the Epicureans are most correct about his case.

Stoicism is a philosophy which originated in Greece around 300 B.C. It got its name from the place where its founder, Zeno, taught. He held his school in the stoa poikilê, a colonnade in Greece, and thus, he and his followers became known as Stoics. Stoicism also spread to Rome, where influential people including Seneca and Marcus Aurelius were adherents to Stoicism.