Ancient Philosophy · Part 19 · The Hellenistic schools · B2
Epicurus and the Garden
Part 19 of Ancient Philosophy: Epicurus taught that the goal of life is pleasure, and was called a glutton for it by his enemies for two thousand years. In fact, his pleasure meant freedom from pain and fear, simple food, and friends, in a garden where women and slaves studied beside citizens. Gerunds (eating simply is pleasant; afraid of dying; by avoiding pain), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight, the most misunderstood philosopher of antiquity: Epicurus.
The man who said pleasure is the highest good. Our teachers call anyone who denies God’s care an “Epicurean”.
And in time, your people will call any heretic an apikoros. Let us see what he really said.
He liked bread and water, and on special days, a little pot of cheese.
Epicurus was born on Samos in 341 BCE. Around 306 BCE he bought a house with a garden in Athens and founded a school there, simply called the Garden. Unusually, it welcomed women, including courtesans, and slaves, who studied and wrote alongside citizens.
Epicurus taught that the goal of life is pleasure, by which he meant above all the absence of pain in the body and of disturbance in the mind (ataraxia). He took over the atomism of Democritus, and argued that understanding nature frees us from fear of the gods and of death.
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