Floating over Epicureanism, for all its appeal, is a sense of loneliness.
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But really, where does the world of Paula Deen end and Epicureanism begin?
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Hemingway was a master not of a realized stoicism but of a wounded epicureanism.
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Epicureanism and stoicism are probably two of the most perverted words in the English language.
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She notes and answers doubts that have dogged Epicureanism, but urges readers to make up their own mind.
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Epicureanism spread as the Greek city-state fell into decline, empires emerged and social authority grew distant and impersonal.
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" His sycophantic teaching assistant gushes to him about "the way you marry Epicureanism with presentism, then reboot them both into something deeply, deeply moral.
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The spindly handled spoons and forks have been created by one of the country's most famous designers to fit the pinnacle of pancake Epicureanism.
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With eight competitors vying for one prize, Prince Carl Philip led a panel of eight judges, drawn from the ranks of international epicureanism and cuisine.
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Above and behind him looms a Jefferson shorn of his avowed Epicureanism and depicted as if his perfunctory expressions of respect for Cicero and Aristotle ought to be accorded more weight than his strong expressions of admiration for Locke and Bacon.
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I am not a classicist or a philosopher, so I won't go into how actual philosophers point out that Epicureanism wasn't anywhere as widespread in the classical world as Greenblatt suggests, and that Greenblatt vastly inflates its influence both before and during the so-called Renaissance.
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I was rather fascinated to read in Tom Holland's book about Baiae, the Roman resort on the Gulf of Naples which was the Roman equivalent of the Hamptons or Malibu, complete with that combination of sexual libertinism and dietary epicureanism which I associate with certain members of today's American elite.
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It's not my place to point out that the book conveniently disregards a key part of Epicureanism, ataraxia, that urges us to withdraw from the world and to "be indifferent to suffering and death in other people" — a disturbing apathy at odds with much of modernity, not to mention the civic ethics of the early modern period.
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There's a Very Short Introduction to Sport, much as there's a Very Short Introduction to Philosophy, but while you can also read books in the series on Epicureanism, Existentialism, Metaphysics, and Hermeneutics, to say nothing of some sixty other philosophical topics, you cannot, at present, read one on soccer or skiing or cricket or golf or any other organized sport.
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Epicureanism flourished in the Late Hellenistic era and during the Roman era, and many Epicurean communities were established, such as those in Antiochia, Alexandria, Rhodes, and Herculaneum. By the late 3rd century CE Epicureanism all but died out, being opposed by other philosophies (mainly Neoplatonism) that were now in the ascendant. Interest in Epicureanism was resurrected in the Age of Enlightenment and continues in the modern era.
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Epicureanism does not deny the existence of the gods; rather it denies their involvement in the world. According to Epicureanism, the gods do not interfere with human lives or the rest of the universe in any way-thus, it shuns the idea that frightening weather events are divine retribution.The Cambridge companion to Epicureanism, edited by James Warren, page 124 One of the fears the Epicurean ought to be freed from is fear relating to the actions of the gods.The Cambridge companion to Epicureanism, edited by James Warren, age 105 The manner in which the Epicurean gods exist is still disputed.
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Roman Epicurus bust Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism. Some writings by Epicurus have survived.
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Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus (c. 100 BC – c. 43 BC) was a Roman senator and the father-in-law of Julius Caesar through his daughter Calpurnia. He was reportedly a follower of a school of Epicureanism that had been modified to befit politicians, as Epicureanism itself favoured withdrawal from politics.
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Edinburgh: J. Ogle. Already in the 17th century, the atomist Pierre Gassendi had adapted Epicureanism to the Christian doctrine.
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Nonetheless, "Epicureanism" remained a pejorative, synonymous with extreme egoistic pleasure-seeking, rather than a name of a philosophical school. This reputation discouraged orthodox Christian scholars from taking what others might regard as an inappropriately keen interest in Epicurean teachings. Epicureanism did not take hold in Italy, France, or England until the seventeenth century.
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The French priest and philosopher Pierre Gassendi is responsible for reviving Epicureanism in modernity as an alternative to Aristotelianism. In the seventeenth century, the French Catholic priest and scholar Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) sought to dislodge Aristotelianism from its position of the highest dogma by presenting Epicureanism as a better and more rational alternative. In 1647, Gassendi published his book De vita et moribus Epicuri (The Life and Morals of Epicurus), a passionate defense of Epicureanism. In 1649, he published a commentary on Diogenes Laërtius's Life of Epicurus.
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Apatheia is contrasted with ataraxia, a related concept in Epicureanism and Pyrrhonism, although some Latin Stoic authors, such as Seneca the Younger use the term interchangeably with apatheia. In Epicureanism ataraxia comes from freedom from pain and fear. In Pyrrhonism it comes from the eradication of disturbing feelings that depend on beliefs about non- evident matters (i.e., dogma).
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Homosexuality was generally seen as normal in Ancient Greece and is today accepted in Epicureanism, as in other forms of secular humanism.
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Epicureanism also suffered decay in the wake of Christianity, which was also rapidly expanding throughout the Roman Empire. Of all the Greek philosophical schools, Epicureanism was the one most at odds with the new Christian teachings, since Epicureans believed that the soul was mortal, denied the existence of an afterlife, denied that the divine had any active role in human life, and advocated pleasure as the foremost goal of human existence. As such, Christian writers such as Justin Martyr ( 100– 165 AD), Athenagoras of Athens ( 133– 190), Tertullian ( 155– 240), and Clement of Alexandria ( 150– 215), Arnobius (died 330), and Lactantius all singled it out for the most vitriolic criticism. In spite of this, DeWitt argues that Epicureanism and Christianity share much common language, calling Epicureanism "the first missionary philosophy" and "the first world philosophy".
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The first scholarly dissertation on Epicurus, De voluptate (On Pleasure) by the Italian Humanist and Catholic priest Lorenzo Valla was published in 1431. Valla made no mention of Lucretius or his poem. Instead, he presented the treatise as a discussion on the nature of the highest good between an Epicurean, a Stoic, and a Christian. Valla's dialogue ultimately rejects Epicureanism, but, by presenting an Epicurean as a member of the dispute, Valla lent Epicureanism credibility as a philosophy that deserved to be taken seriously. None of the Quattrocento Humanists ever clearly endorsed Epicureanism, but scholars such as Francesco Zabarella (1360–1417), Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), Cristoforo Landino (1424–1498), and Leonardo Bruni ( 1370–1444) did give Epicureanism a fairer analysis than it had traditionally received and provided a less overtly hostile assessment of Epicurus himself.
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His naturalistic explanations were meant to bolster the ethical and philosophical ideas of Epicureanism, not to reveal true explanations of the physical world.
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Summary of Cassius's Epicureanism also in David Sedley, "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius," Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997), p. 41. Momigliano saw Cassius as moving from an initial Epicurean orthodoxy, which emphasized disinterest in matters not of vice and virtue, and detachment, to a "heroic Epicureanism."Momigliano, Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), p. 157. For Cassius, virtue was active.
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The systems of Hellenistic philosophy, such as Stoicism and Epicureanism, offered an alternative to traditional religion, even if their impact was largely limited to educated élites.
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In the 17th century, the French Franciscan priest, scientist and philosopher Pierre Gassendi wrote two books forcefully reviving Epicureanism. Shortly thereafter, and clearly influenced by Gassendi, Walter Charleton published several works on Epicureanism in English. Attacks by Christians continued, most forcefully by the Cambridge Platonists. In the early modern period, scientists adopted atomist theories, while materialist philosophers embraced Epicurus' hedonist ethics and restated his objections to natural teleology.
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Although not strictly a religion but a Hellenistic philosophy, Epicurean ethics prescribes a therapeutic approach to the vices with the goal of attaining a life of pleasure with the aid of the virtues. Most of the techniques used in Epicureanism involve challenging false beliefs and attaining beliefs that are aligned with nature. In this, Epicureanism posits an entirely naturalistic, non-religious theory of virtue and vice based on the rational pursuit of pleasure.
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Epicureanism rapidly spread beyond the Greek mainland all across the Mediterranean world. By the first century BC, it had established a strong foothold in Italy. The Roman orator Cicero (106 – 43 BC), who deplored Epicurean ethics, lamented, "the Epicureans have taken Italy by storm." The overwhelming majority of surviving Greek and Roman sources are vehemently negative towards Epicureanism and, according to Pamela Gordon, they routinely depict Epicurus himself as "monstrous or laughable".
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Moles, Philosophy and ethics, pp. 165–69, 177 The Satires also include a strong element of Epicureanism, with frequent allusions to the Epicurean poet Lucretius.Satires 1.1.25–26, 74–75, 1.2.
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Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt, Dee L. Clayman, Oxford University Press, 2014, p.33 Some modern Epicureans have argued that Epicureanism is a type of religious identity, arguing that it fulfils Ninian Smart's "seven dimensions of religion", and that the Epicurean practices of feasting on the twentieth and declaring an oath to follow Epicurus, insistence on doctrinal adherence, and the sacredness of Epicurean friendship, make Epicureanism more similar to some non-theistic religions than to other philosophies.
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The second possibility is what Tolstoy describes as Epicureanism. Being fully aware that life is ephemeral, one can enjoy the time one has. Tolstoy's problem with this is essentially moral. He states that Epicureanism may work fine and well for the minority who can afford to live "the good life," but one would have to be morally empty to be able to ignore the fact that the vast majority of people do not have access to the wealth necessary to live this kind of life.
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By the end of the Roman Empire, having undergone Christian attack and repression, Epicureanism had all but died out, and would be resurrected in the 17th century by the atomist Pierre Gassendi, who adapted it to the Christian doctrine. Some writings by Epicurus have survived. Some scholars consider the epic poem On the Nature of Things by Lucretius to present in one unified work the core arguments and theories of Epicureanism. Many of the papyrus scrolls unearthed at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum are Epicurean texts.
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The Anglican bishop Joseph Butler's anti- Epicurean polemics in his Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel (1726) and Analogy of Religion (1736) set the tune for what most orthodox Christians believed about Epicureanism for the remainder of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Nonetheless, there are a few indications from this time period of Epicurus's improving reputation. Epicureanism was beginning to lose its associations with indiscriminate and insatiable gluttony, which had been characteristic of its reputation ever since antiquity. Instead, the word "epicure" began to refer to a person with extremely refined taste in food.
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In modern popular usage, an Epicurean is a connoisseur of the arts of life and the refinements of sensual pleasures; Epicureanism implies a love or knowledgeable enjoyment especially of good food and drink. Because Epicureanism posits that pleasure is the ultimate good (telos), it has been commonly misunderstood since ancient times as a doctrine that advocates the partaking in fleeting pleasures such as sexual excess and decadent food. This is not the case. Epicurus regarded ataraxia (tranquility, freedom from fear) and aponia (absence of pain) as the height of happiness.
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Epicureanism was founded by Epicurus (c. 341 – c. 270 BCE). The goal of his philosophy was to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia, Greek: ἀταραξία) and freedom from fear, as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia, Greek: ἀπονία).
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Epicureanism is both materialist and hedonic. The highest good is pleasure, defined as the absence of physical pain and emotional distress.Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus 131. The Epicurean seeks to gratify his desires with the least expenditure of passion and effort.
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Metrodorus of Chios (; fl. 4th century BC) was a Greek philosopher, belonging to the school of Democritus. He is an important forerunner of Pyrrhonism and Epicureanism. Metrodorus was a pupil of Nessos of Chios, or, as some accounts prefer, of Democritus himself.
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Dē Nātūrā Deōrum (On the Nature of the Gods) is a philosophical dialogue by Roman Academic Skeptic philosopher Cicero written in 45 BC. It is laid out in three books that discuss the theological views of the Hellenistic philosophies of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Academic Skepticism.
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Metrodorus of Lampsacus (, Mētrodōros Lampsakēnos; 331/0–278/7 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the Epicurean school. Although one of the four major proponents of Epicureanism, only fragments of his works remain. A Metrodorus bust was found in Velia, slightly different modeled to depict Parmenides.
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Michel Onfray is developing a post-modern approach to Epicureanism.Michel Onfray, La puissance d'exister: Manifeste hédoniste, Grasset, 2006 In his recent book titled The Swerve, Stephen Greenblatt identified himself as strongly sympathetic to Epicureanism and Lucretius. Humanistic Judaism as a denomination also claims the Epicurean label.
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Of these, momentary pleasures, especially physical ones, are stronger than those of anticipation or memory. They did, however, recognize the value of social obligation and that pleasure could be gained from altruistic behaviour. The school died out within a century and was replaced by the philosophy of Epicureanism.
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He started lecturing in classical philology at the University of Oslo from 1957. Subject for his doctorate studies was the understanding of gods in the school of philosophy called Epicureanism, including the philosophical work De natura deorum by the Roman orator Cicero. His dr.philos. thesis from 1963 was called '.
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Epicurus believed that what he called "pleasure" (ἡδονή) was the greatest good, but that the way to attain such pleasure was to live modestly, to gain knowledge of the workings of the world, and to limit one's desires. This would lead the practitioner of Epicureanism to attain ataraxia (equanimity).
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In his De vita beata, Seneca states that the "sect of Epicurus... has a bad reputation" and compares it to "a man in a dress: your chastity remains, your virility is unimpaired, your body has not submitted sexually, but in your hand is a tympanum." Epicureanism was a notoriously conservative philosophical school; although Epicurus's later followers did expand on his philosophy, they dogmatically retained what he himself had originally taught without modifying it. Epicureans and admirers of Epicureanism revered Epicurus himself as a great teacher of ethics, a savior, and even a god. His image was worn on finger rings, portraits of him were displayed in living rooms, and wealthy followers venerated likenesses of him in marble sculpture.
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To orthodox thinkers, Epicureanism was still regarded as immoral and heretical. For instance, Lucy Hutchinson (1620–1681), the first translator of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things into English, railed against Epicurus as "a lunatic dog" who formulated "ridiculous, impious, execrable doctrines". Epicurus's teachings were made respectable in England by the natural philosopher Walter Charleton (1619–1707), whose first Epicurean work, The Darkness of Atheism Dispelled by the Light of Nature (1652), advanced Epicureanism as a "new" atomism. His next work Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charletoniana, or a Fabrick of Science Natural, upon a Hypothesis of Atoms, Founded by Epicurus, Repaired by Petrus Gassendus, and Augmented by Walter Charleton (1654) emphasized this idea.
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Tsuji was influenced by the philosophy of Epicurus, and many characteristics of Epicureanism show through his lifestyle. For example, Tsuji avoided active engagement in politics and sought after a form of ataraxia, which he was apparently able to experience through vagabond wandering and Egoism.1982\. Tsuji, Jun ed. Nobuaki Tamagawa.
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Seneca views Stoicism and Epicureanism as legitimate to inaction in the proper situations. He defends the Stoic philosophy as leaning toward otium. The main responsibility for the Stoic is to benefit the public in some manner. This could be done by the cultivation of virtue or the research of nature in retirement.
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Rabirius was a 1st-century BC Epicurean associated with Amafinius and Catius as one of the early popularizers of the philosophy in Italy. Their works on Epicureanism were the earliest philosophical treatises written in Latin.Elizabeth Rawson, Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), pp. 23 and 284.
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Epicurus laid great emphasis on developing friendships as the basis of a satisfying life. While the pursuit of pleasure formed the focal point of the philosophy, this was largely directed to the "static pleasures" of minimizing pain, anxiety and suffering. In fact, Epicurus referred to life as a "bitter gift". Epicureanism rejects immortality.
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They did, however, recognize the value of social obligation, and that pleasure could be gained from altruism. Theodorus the Atheist, a disciple of younger Aristippus, was a latter exponent of hedonism,Diogenes Laërtius, ii. 86 while becoming well known for expounding atheism. The school died out within a century, and was replaced by Epicureanism.
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Though popular, Epicurean teachings were controversial from the beginning. Epicureanism reached the height of its popularity during the late years of the Roman Republic. It died out in late antiquity, subject to hostility from early Christianity. Throughout the Middle Ages Epicurus was popularly, though inaccurately, remembered as a patron of drunkards, whoremongers, and gluttons.
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Ian Mueller, Geometry and scepticism, in Jonathan Barnes, (2005), Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice, page 94. Cambridge University Press. Philonides attempted to convert Antiochus IV Epiphanes to Epicureanism, and later instructed his nephew, Demetrius I Soter, in philosophy. Philonides was highly honoured in the court, and he is also known from various stone inscriptions.
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237 and was transformed into a rational soul only at fourteen years of age.Tad Brennan, The Stoic Life (Oxford University Press 2005 ), p. 155 Epicureanism saw the origin of the soul (considered to consist of only a small number of atoms even in adults) as simultaneous with conception.Norman Wentworth DeWitt, Epicurus and His Philosophy (University of Minnesota 1954), p.
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According to poiesis, all the areas and fields already satisfied the condition of poiesis. Therefore, Poetism could be defined as the art of living or modernized epicureanism. Its best results in poetry, prose, painting, the theatre, and architecture were achieved during the movement. In poetism, letterform was often considered as the expression of the mood or form of poem.
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This is a theme strongly explored in this work. This is the most autobiographical of Thomas Mann's works before Tonio Kröger. As in Little Herr Friedemann Ibsen's idea of a life sustaining lie is explored as well. As in Little Herr Friedemann, the Joker learns that a life of aesthetic epicureanism cannot compensate for human isolation.
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Marble sculpture depicting Epicurus enthroned During Epicurus's lifetime, Platonism was the dominant philosophy in higher education. Epicurus's opposition to Platonism formed a large part of his thought. Over half of the forty Principal Doctrines of Epicureanism are flat contradictions of Platonism. In around 311 BC, Epicurus, when he was around thirty years old, began teaching in Mytilene.
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Horace may have intended to designate some gourmand of the court under a recognizably Epicurean nickname; given the poet's own Epicurean leanings, the passage should probably be read as a parody of the kind of false Epicureanism that disguised mere hedonism.Emily Gowers, The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 141 online.
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Following Socrates a variety of schools of thought emerged. In addition to Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Peripatetic school, other schools of thought derived from Socratic philosophy included the Academic Skeptics, the Cynics, the Cyrenaics, the Stoics, and the Neoplatonists. In addition, two non-Socratic schools derived from the teachings of Socrates' contemporary Democritus flourished, Pyrrhonism and Epicureanism.
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With growing dominance of Neoplatonism and Peripateticism, and later, Christianity, Epicureanism declined. By the late third century CE, there was little trace of its existence. The early Christian writer Lactantius criticizes Epicurus at several points throughout his Divine Institutes. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, the Epicureans are depicted as heretics suffering in the sixth circle of hell.
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The Book of Satan challenges the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, and promotes Epicureanism. The Book of Lucifer holds most of the philosophy in The Satanic Bible, with twelve chapters discussing topics such as indulgence, love, hate, and sex. LaVey also uses the book to dispel rumors surrounding the religion. In The Book of Belial, LaVey details rituals and magic.
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Christianity and Hellenistic philosophies experienced complex interactions during the first to the fourth centuries. As Christianity spread throughout the Hellenic world, an increasing number of church leaders were educated in Greek philosophy. The dominant philosophical traditions of the Greco-Roman world then were Stoicism, Platonism, and Epicureanism. Stoicism and, particularly, Platonism were readily incorporated into Christian ethics and Christian theology.
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For his supposed "Epicureanism" (paganism), Frederick II is listed as a representative member of the sixth region of Dante's Inferno, that of the heretics, who are burned in tombs. He deported the Muslim population of Western Sicily to Lucera and he enlisted them in his Christian army and even into his personal bodyguards because, as Muslim soldiers, they had the advantage of immunity from papal excommunication.
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Epicurus argued that as atoms moved through the void, there were occasions when they would "swerve" (clinamen) from their otherwise determined paths, thus initiating new causal chains. Epicurus argued that these swerves would allow us to be more responsible for our actions, something impossible if every action was deterministically caused. For Epicureanism, the occasional interventions of arbitrary gods would be preferable to strict determinism.
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Jacques Élie Henri Ambroise Ner (7 December 1861 – 6 February 1938), also known by the pseudonym Han Ryner, was a French individualist anarchist philosopher and activist and a novelist. He wrote for publications such as L'Art social, L'Humanité nouvelle, L'Ennemi du Peuple, L'Idée Libre de Lorulot; and L'En dehors and L'Unique of fellow anarchist individualist Émile Armand. His thought is mainly influenced by stoicism and epicureanism.
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Although the term was not coined until 1949, several philosophers of the ancient times had viewpoints similar to those who “think like a mountain”. Epicurus was one of the first ancient philosophers to view the role man plays in nature. His philosophy, Epicureanism, is a materialistic viewpoint that sought to explain the universe solely by natural causes. Lucretius was a later philosopher who had Epicurean ideals.
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Self-regulation includes the personal ability to create the conditions for pleasure, well-being, security and inner balance through one's own behaviour in interpersonal relationships. However, the aim of this autonomy training is not egocentric Epicureanism, which ignores fellow human beings, but an attainment of happiness in a socially accepted framework, which respects and supports both the fellow human beings and one's own person.
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Unlike in Pyrrhonism and Epicureanism, in Stoicism ataraxia is not the ultimate goal of life. Instead, a life of virtue according to nature is the goal of life. However, according to the Stoics, living virtuously in accordance with nature would lead to ataraxia as a byproduct. An important distinction to be made is the difference in Stoicism between ataraxia and the Stoic idea of apatheia.
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Monsman, Gerald, Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text (Greensboro, 1995) "Through the imaginary portrait of Gaston and Gaston's historical contemporaries – Ronsard, Montaigne, Bruno, Queen Marguerite, King Henry III – Pater's fantasia confronts and admonishes the Yellow Nineties, Oscar Wilde not least."Monsman, Gerald, Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text (Greensboro, 1995), dustjacket quotation In an 1891 review of The Picture of Dorian Gray in The Bookman, Pater had disapproved of Wilde's distortion of Epicureanism: "A true Epicureanism aims at a complete though harmonious development of man's entire organism. To lose the moral sense therefore, for instance the sense of sin and righteousness, as Mr. Wilde's heroes are bent on doing so speedily, as completely as they can, is ... to become less complex, to pass from a higher to a lower degree of development."Pater, Walter, 'A Novel by Mr Oscar Wilde', The Bookman, 1, Nov.
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Aristotle's teachings would go on to influence many influential groups of thinkers. One such group of thinkers, the Epicureans who practiced Epicureanism, interpreted and placed pathos in much more colloquial means and situations. The group would place pathos in pleasure, and study it in almost every facet in regards to pleasure, analyzing emotional specificity that an individual may feel or may need to undergo to appreciate said pathos.
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Han Ryner Han Ryner was a French individualist anarchist philosopher and activist and a novelist. He wrote for publications such as L'Art social, L'Humanité nouvelle, L'Ennemi du Peuple, L'Idée Libre de Lorulot; and L'En dehors and L'Unique. His thought is mainly influenced by stoicism and epicureanism. He defines individualism as "the moral doctrine which, relying on no dogma, no tradition, no external determination, appeals only to the individual conscience.".
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Epicurus (; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced by Democritus, Aristippus, Pyrrho,Diogenes Laertius, Book IX, Chapter 11, Section 64. and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as "the Garden", in Athens.
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The Epicurean view is that wisdom has as much to contribute to the benefit of the public as does that of contributions of politicians and laborers (i.e. sailors). The rustic otium concept incorporates country living into Epicureanism. The active city public life of negotium and an otium of reserved country life of reflection have been much written about by Cicero and Seneca the Younger. Epicurus's philosophy was contrary to Hellenistic Stoicism.
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Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; 99 – c. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem De rerum natura, a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into English as On the Nature of Things. Lucretius has been credited with originating the concept of the three-age system that was formalised in 1836 by C. J. Thomsen.
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Han Ryner Han Ryner was a French individualist anarchist philosopher and activist and a novelist. He wrote for publications such as L'Art social, L'Humanité nouvelle, L'Ennemi du Peuple, L'Idée Libre de Lorulot; and L'En dehors and L'Unique. His thought is mainly influenced by stoicism and epicureanism. He defines individualism as "the moral doctrine which, relying on no dogma, no tradition, no external determination, appeals only to the individual conscience.".
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Some scholars consider the epic poem De rerum natura (Latin for On the Nature of Things) by Lucretius to present in one unified work the core arguments and theories of Epicureanism. Many of the scrolls unearthed at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum are Epicurean texts. At least some are thought to have belonged to the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus.
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Epicureanism argued that pleasure was the chief good in life. Hence, Epicurus advocated living in such a way as to derive the greatest amount of pleasure possible during one's lifetime, yet doing so moderately in order to avoid the suffering incurred by overindulgence in such pleasure. Emphasis was placed on pleasures of the mind rather than on physical pleasures. Unnecessary and, especially, artificially produced desires were to be suppressed.
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However, Epicureanism is adaptable to circumstance as is the Epicurean approach to politics. The same approaches will not always work in protection from pain and fear. In some situations it will be more beneficial to have a family and in other situations it will be more beneficial to participate in politics. It is ultimately up to the Epicurean to analyse their circumstance and take whatever action befits the situation.
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Stocks served in the British Army with the King's Royal Rifle Corps during the First World War, and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry at Beaucourt. In 1924, he was elected professor of philosophy at the University of Manchester, and in 1936, he was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool. His professional philosophical interests were in Aristotelian studies and Epicureanism. In fact, he was president of the Aristotelian Society.
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In it, Horace addresses the emperor Augustus directly with more confidence and proclaims his power to grant poetic immortality to those he praises. It is the least philosophical collection of his verses, excepting the twelfth ode, addressed to the dead Virgil as if he were living. In that ode, the epic poet and the lyric poet are aligned with Stoicism and Epicureanism respectively, in a mood of bitter-sweet pathos.J. Moles, Philosophy and ethics, p.
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After the time of the younger Aristippus, the school broke up into different factions, represented by Anniceris, Hegesias, and Theodorus, who all developed rival interpretations of Cyrenaic doctrines, many of which were responses to the new system of hedonistic philosophy laid down by Epicurus. By the middle of the 3rd century BC, the Cyrenaic school was obsolete; Epicureanism had successfully beaten its Cyrenaic rivals by offering a system which was more sophisticated.
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The dialogue is on the whole narrated by Cicero himself, though he does not play an active part in the discussion. Gaius Velleius represents the Epicurean school, Quintus Lucilius Balbus argues for the Stoics, and Gaius Cotta speaks for Cicero's own Academic skepticism. The first book of the dialogue contains Cicero's introduction, Velleius' case for the Epicurean theology and Cotta's criticism of Epicureanism. Book II focuses on Balbus' explanation and defense of Stoic theology.
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78–82, pp. 84–86. This mechanical philosophy was based on Epicureanism, and the work of Leucippus and his pupil Democritus and their atomism, in which everything in the universe, including a person's body, mind, soul and even thoughts, was made of atoms; very small particles of moving matter. During the early part of the 17th century, the atomistic portion of mechanical philosophy was largely developed by Gassendi, René Descartes and other atomists.
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Lorenzo Valla had said in 1431 that because humans seek goals and are satisfied when they achieve something, it is natural for them to achieve happiness. Due to a misunderstanding of the text, thinking that it was "a defense of face-value Epicureanism", the Inquisition prosecuted Valla in 1444. Bartolomeo Facio, who had been an opponent of Valla since 1446, wrote De felicitate in 1448, opposing the viewpoint of Valla. Facio's work is what Lucena based his dialogue on.
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Epicureanism is the dominant influence, characterizing about twice as many of these odes as Stoicism. A group of odes combines these two influences in tense relationships, such as Odes 1.7, praising Stoic virility and devotion to public duty while also advocating private pleasures among friends. While generally favouring the Epicurean lifestyle, the lyric poet is as eclectic as the satiric poet, and in Odes 2.10 even proposes Aristotle's golden mean as a remedy for Rome's political troubles.
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The tetrapharmakos as found in the Herculaneum papyrus in the Villa of the Papyri. The Tetrapharmakos () "four-part remedy" is a summary of the first four of the Κύριαι Δόξαι (Kuriai Doxai, the forty Epicurean Principal Doctrines given by Diogenes Laërtius in his Life of Epicurus) in Epicureanism, a recipe for leading the happiest possible life. They are recommendations to avoid anxiety or existential dread."The fundamental obstacle to happiness, says Epicurus, is anxiety," Hutchinson 1994, p. vii.
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Bust of Epicurus leaning against his disciple Metrodorus in the Louvre Museum Epicureanism was extremely popular from the very beginning. Diogenes Laërtius records that the number of Epicureans throughout the world exceeded the populations of entire cities. Nonetheless, Epicurus was not universally admired and, within his own lifetime, he was vilified as an ignorant buffoon and egoistic sybarite. He remained the most simultaneously admired and despised philosopher in the Mediterranean for the next nearly five centuries.
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" Meanwhile, John Locke (1632–1704) adapted Gassendi's modified version of Epicurus's epistemology, which became highly influential on English empiricism. Many thinkers with sympathies towards the Enlightenment endorsed Epicureanism as an admirable moral philosophy. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, declared in 1819, "I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.
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The owner of the house, perhaps Calpurnius Piso, established a library of a mainly philosophical character. It is believed that the library might have been collected and selected by Piso's family friend and client, the Epicurean Philodemus of Gàdara, although this conclusion is not certain.See Erlend D. MacGillivray, "The Popularity of Epicureanism in Late-Republic Roman Society", The Ancient World XLIII (2012) 151–172. Followers of Epicurus studied the teachings of this moral and natural philosopher.
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Epicurus' Letter to Herodotus was written as an introduction to Epicurean philosophy and method of studying nature. It was so important that it was considered the “Little Epitome”, and had to be studied initially by all serious students of Epicureanism. It included the most complete detail of the ancient conversations that led to the development of atomist theory, a doctrine of innumerable worlds, and an explanation of the phenomenon of time that posits an early form of relativism.
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He argued that organisms only know the world by their sensations and that this is a mechanical phenomenon to the effect that there is no design, final cause, supernaturalism or teleology. He subscribed to the materialist views of Epicurus, he commented that "in human affairs, Epicureanism is the only natural ethics which does not demand profound or subtle reasoning." Several of his books were translated by Harold Atkins Larrabee. Mayer advocated progressionist liberalism and opposed Marxism.
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A specialist in connections between literature, philosophy and ethics in the classical age, he is the author of numerous books on Erudite Libertinism and Epicureanism and the forms of fable and satire from an interdisciplinary perspective.Jean-Charles DARMON His editions of La Fontaine and Cyrano de Bergerac, "swordsman scholar and polygraph" seized by a "demon of freedom", are now considered reference works.Pierre Ronzeaud, Revue d’Histoire littéraire de la France, 2002/1, vol. 102, p. 158–159.
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While our knowledge of the ancient era begins with Thales in the 6th century BCE, comparatively little is known about the philosophers who came before Socrates (commonly known as the pre-Socratics). The ancient era was dominated by Greek philosophical schools, which were significantly influenced by Socrates' teachings. Most notable among these were Plato, who founded the Platonic Academy, and his student Aristotle, who founded the Peripatetic school. Other ancient philosophical traditions included Cynicism, Stoicism, Skepticism and Epicureanism.
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In a letter to Cicero, he wrote: Sedley agrees that the conversion of Cassius should be dated to 48, when Cassius stopped resisting Caesar, and finds it unlikely that Epicureanism was a sufficient or primary motivation for his later decision to take violent action against the dictator. Rather, Cassius would have had to reconcile his intention with his philosophical views. Cicero provides evidenceCicero, De republica 1.10. that Epicureans recognized circumstances when direct action was justified in a political crisis.
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Arnaldo Momigliano called Cassius' conversion a "conspicuous date in the history of Roman Epicureanism," a choice made not to enjoy the pleasures of the Garden, but to provide a philosophical justification for assassinating a tyrant.Momigliano, Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), p. 151. Cicero associates Cassius's new Epicureanism with a willingness to seek peace in the aftermath of the civil war between Caesar and Pompeius.Miriam Griffin, "The Intellectual Developments of the Ciceronian Age," in The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 726 online. Miriam Griffin dates his conversion to as early as 48 BC, after he had fought on the side of Pompeius at the Battle of Pharsalus but decided to come home instead of joining the last holdouts of the civil war in Africa.Spe pacis et odio civilis sanguinis ("with a hope of peace and a hatred of shedding blood in civil war"), Cicero, Ad fam. xv.15.1; Miriam Griffin, "Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians at Rome," in Philosophia togata (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). Momigliano placed it in 46 BC, based on a letter by Cicero to Cassius dated January 45.
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After the poem was rediscovered and made its rounds across Europe and beyond, numerous thinkers began to see Lucretius's Epicureanism as a "threat synonymous with atheism." Some Christian apologists viewed De rerum natura as an atheist manifesto and a dangerous foil to be thwarted.Sheppard (2015), p. 31. However, at that time the label was extremely broad and did not necessarily mean a denial of divine entities (for example, some large Christian sects labelled dissenting groups as atheists).Sheppard (2015), pp. 21–23.
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The Ptolemaic kingdom was now the city's main ally, supporting it with troops, monies and material in multiple conflicts. Athens rewarded the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 224/223 BC by naming the 13th phyle Ptolemais and establishing a religious cult called the Ptolemaia. Hellenistic Athens also saw the rise of New Comedy and the Hellenistic schools of philosophy such as Stoicism and Epicureanism. By the turn of the century, the Attalids in Pergamon became patrons and protectors of Athens as the Ptolemaic empire weakened.
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Beginning with ancient philosophy, Epicureanism claims humans live to maximize pleasure.O'Keefe, T. (2005) Epicurus argued the theory of human behavior being motivated by pleasure alone is evidenced from infancy to adulthood. Humanity performs altruistic, honorable, and virtuous acts not for the sake of another or because of a moral code but rather to increase the well being of the self. In modern philosophy, Jeremy Bentham asserted, like Epicurus, that human behavior is governed by a need to increase pleasure and decrease pain.
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59 . Oxford University Press US, One of the non-orthodox schools within Hinduism, the materialist and hedonistic Charvaka School, is atheistic and somewhat similar to Epicureanism. Although the Vedas are broadly concerned with the completion of ritual, there are some elements that can be interpreted as either nontheistic or precursors to the later developments of the nontheistic tradition. The oldest Hindu scripture, the Rig Veda mentions that 'There is only one god though the sages may give it various names' (1.164.46).
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While approving of the Epicurean physics, he rejects the Epicurean negation of God and particular providence. He states the various proofs for the existence of an immaterial, infinite, supreme Being, asserts that this Being is the author of the visible universe, and strongly defends the doctrine of the foreknowledge and particular providence of God. At the same time he holds, in opposition to Epicureanism, the doctrine of an immaterial rational soul, endowed with immortality and capable of free determination. Friedrich Albert LangeGeschichte des Materialismus, 3rd ed.
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Eikas (Greek εἰκάς from εἴκοσῐ eíkosi, “twenty”), EikadenfestFrischer, Bernard (1982), The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece, Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 42 or the "Twentieth" is a holiday celebrated among Epicureans in commemoration of Epicurus and Metrodorus.Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book X, Section 18 It was a monthly celebration taking place on the 20th day of every month. The observance was made during Epicurus' lifetime, and provisions were made in his will to continue the practice.
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For instance, the Pyrrhonian skepticism of Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus held that eudaimonia (flourishing, happiness, or "the good life") could be attained through the application of epoché (suspension of judgment) regarding all non-evident matters. Pyrrhonism was particularly concerned with undermining the epistemological dogmas of Stoicism and Epicureanism. The other major school of Hellenistic skepticism was Academic skepticism, most notably defended by Carneades and Arcesilaus, which predominated in the Platonic Academy for almost two centuries. In ancient India the Ajñana school of ancient Indian philosophy promoted skepticism.
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De finibus bonorum et malorum De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the ends of good and evil'De Finibus) is a philosophical work by the Roman orator, politician and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. It consists of five books, in which Cicero explains the philosophical views of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Platonism. Torquatus was a leading epicurean and was noted by Cicero for his knowledge of Greek literature and his breadth of learning. He was also a friend of Marcus Junius Brutus to whom the book was dedicated.
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He concludes indignantly: "they think there is no art of speechmaking or composition."Academica Posteriora 1.2: nullam denique artem esse nec dicendi nec disserendi; Barbara Price Wallach, Lucretius and the Diatribe against the Fear of Death: De rerum natura III 830–1094 (Brill, 1976), p. 5, note 10 online. Although Cicero in his writings is mostly hostile toward Epicureanism, his dear friend Atticus was an Epicurean, and this remark, occurring within a dialogue, is attributed to the interlocutor Varro, not framed as Cicero's own view.
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He also considered prudence an important virtue and perceived excess and overindulgence to be contrary to the attainment of ataraxia and aponia. Epicurus preferred "the good", and "even wisdom and culture", to the "pleasure of the stomach".Cyril Bailey, Epicurus: The Extant Remains, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926, p.131 While twentieth-century commentary has generally sought to diminish this and related quotations, the consistency of the lower-case epicureanism of meals with Epicurean materialism overall has more recently been explained.Michael Symons, "Epicurus, the foodies’ philosopher", pp.
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For Hegesias, Cyrenaic hedonism was simply the least irrational strategy for dealing with the pains of life. For Theodorus, the goal of life is mental pleasure not bodily pleasure, and he placed greater emphasis on the need for moderation and justice. He was also famous for being an atheist. To some extent these philosophers were all trying to meet the challenge laid down by Epicureanism, and the success of Epicurus was in developing a system of philosophy which would prove to be more comprehensive and sophisticated than its rivals'.
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It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint and the philosophies of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Pyrrhonism. Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele and a syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism in Bactria and Northwest India.
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His admirers revered his sayings as divine oracles, carried around copies of his writings, and cherished copies of his letters like the letters of an apostle. On the twentieth day of every month, admirers of his teachings would perform a solemn ritual to honor his memory. At the same time, opponents of his teachings denounced him with vehemence and persistence. However, in the first and second centuries AD, Epicureanism gradually began to decline as it failed to compete with Stoicism, which had an ethical system more in line with traditional Roman values.
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These works, together with Charleton's Epicurus's Morals (1658), provided the English public with readily available descriptions of Epicurus's philosophy and assured orthodox Christians that Epicureanism was no threat to their beliefs. The Royal Society, chartered in 1662, advanced Epicurean atomism. One of the most prolific defenders of atomism was the chemist Robert Boyle (1627–1691), who argued for it in publications such as The Origins of Forms and Qualities (1666), Experiments, Notes, etc. about the Mechanical Origin and Production of Divers Particular Qualities (1675), and Of the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis (1674).
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During the Early Middle Ages, atomism was mostly forgotten in western Europe.During the 12th century, atomism became known again in western Europe through references to it in the newly-rediscovered writings of Aristotle. In the 14th century, the rediscovery of major works describing atomist teachings, including Lucretius's De rerum natura and Diogenes Laërtius's Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, led to increased scholarly attention on the subject. Nonetheless, because atomism was associated with the philosophy of Epicureanism, which contradicted orthodox Christian teachings, belief in atoms was not considered acceptable by most European philosophers.
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120, note 138. While Lucretius's work espouses Epicureanism (a philosophy that emphasizes materialism and skepticism of superstition and divine intervention), Manilius's work is largely Stoic, and promotes a Greco-Roman understanding of creationism as well as fatalistic determinism.Keith (2013), p. xix. Both Volk and the Lucretian scholar David Butterfield have argued that Manilius is in many ways, an "anti-Lucretius", with the former arguing that "his presentation in the Astronomica of an orderly cosmos ruled by fate is a direct attack on the random universe depicted by his predecessor".
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Until the early modern era, much of the discussion which has survived today concerning nous or intellect, in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, concerned how to correctly interpret Aristotle and Plato. However, at least during the classical period, materialist philosophies, more similar to modern science, such as Epicureanism, were still relatively common also. The Epicureans believed that the bodily senses themselves were not the cause of error, but the interpretations can be. The term prolepsis was used by Epicureans to describe the way the mind forms general concepts from sense perceptions.
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Flavian falls ill during the Festival of Isis and Marius tends him during his long death-agony (end of 'Part the First'). Grown to manhood, Marius now embraces the philosophy of the 'flux' of Heraclitus and the Epicureanism (or Cyrenaicism) of Aristippus. He journeys to Rome (166 AD), encountering by chance on the way a blithesome young knight, Cornelius, who becomes a friend. Marius explores Rome in awe, and, "as a youth of great attainments in Greek letters and philosophy",Pater, Marius the Epicurean, Chapter XIII is appointed amanuensis to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
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In the quotation above, Cassius explicitly rejects the idea that morality is a good to be chosen for its own sake; morality, as a means of achieving pleasure and ataraxia, is not inherently superior to the removal of political anxieties.David Sedley, "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius," Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997), pp. 41 and 46–47. The inconsistencies between traditional Epicureanism and an active approach to securing freedom ultimately could not be resolved, and during the Empire, the philosophy of political opposition tended to be Stoic.
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According to Lledó, the history of philosophy should be understood as a form of "collective memory", embracing mankind's total development, that can be structured through three main elements: # Classical Greek philosophy, with special attention to the Platonic dialogues and Aristotelian ethics as well as Epicureanism. # Attention to language as the principal object of philosophical analysis; which clearly converges in the development of the main currents of post-war European thought. # Elaborating fully a consideration of temporality and writing that will lead to a "philosophy of memory" and a textual anthropology, from hermeneutic roots.
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De rerum natura manuscript, copied by an Augustinian friar for Pope Sixtus IV, c. 1483, after the discovery of an early manuscript in 1417 by the humanist and papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini One of the earliest Roman writers espousing Epicureanism was Amafinius. Other adherents to the teachings of Epicurus included the poet Horace, whose famous statement Carpe Diem ("Seize the Day") illustrates the philosophy, as well as Lucretius, who wrote the poem De rerum natura about the tenets of the philosophy. The poet Virgil was another prominent Epicurean (see Lucretius for further details).
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Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic Roman emperor who created the first endowed chair professorships The earliest endowed chairs were established by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in AD 176. Aurelius created one endowed chair for each of the major schools of philosophy: Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism. Later, similar endowments were set up in some other major cities of the Empire. The earliest universities were founded in Asia and Africa.Encyclopædia Britannica: "University" , 2012, retrieved 26 July 2012)Verger, Jacques: "Patterns", in: Ridder-Symoens, Hilde de (ed.): A History of the University in Europe. Vol.
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There are conflicting accounts as to who introduced epilogism. It has been, for instance, attributed to Menodotus of Nicomedia as well as to Heracleides of Tarentum, who was also a follower of Epicureanism. It is also said that the empiricists were said to have devised epilogism (epilogismos) in order to distinguish their kind of reasoning from the type used by the rationalists, which required an understanding of the underlying nature of things, including the link between consequence and exclusion drawn between states of affairs. It is said that epilogism was the considered the most extreme form of reasoning acceptable to the empiricists.
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De finibus bonorum et malorum De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil") is a philosophical work by the Roman orator, politician and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. It consists of five books, in which Cicero explains the philosophical views of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and the Platonism of Antiochus of Ascalon. The book was developed in the summer of the year 45 BC, and was written over the course of about one and a half months. Together with the Tusculanae Quaestiones written shortly afterwards, De finibus is the most extensive philosophical work of Cicero.
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In the first two books Cicero argues against Epicureanism. This happens in form of a fictitious discussion between two friends of Brutus on Cicero's estate at Cumae. In the first book the interlocutors present the theory of hedonism, with which pleasure in the form of the absence of pain is regarded as the highest good. In the second book Cicero criticizes this view, whereby he attacks the hedonistic definition of pleasure and argues that it is inconsistent to hold pleasure as absence of pain as the final good, since these are not one single good, but rather two distinct goods.
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His writings included The Logic and Prolegomena of Hegel (1873), a translation of Hegel's Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences. It was still regarded as "the most masterly and influential of all English translations of Hegel" when it was republished in 1975. The translation was accomplished in a free and creative style accompanied by extensive explanatory notes on the text, drawing parallels between the philosophy of Hegel and classical figures such as Plato and Aristotle. He published Epicurean Philosophy in 1880, tracing the origins of Epicureanism and highlighting the links between the life of Epicurus and the philosophy that he espoused.
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As a substitute for traditional religion, many people in the Hellenistic world joined mystery cults, such as the Mysteries of Isis, Mithraism, the cult of Cybele, and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Superstition had always been common throughout ancient society, but it was especially prevalent during the second century. Most educated people of Lucian's time adhered to one of the various Hellenistic philosophies, of which the major ones were Stoicism, Platonism, Peripateticism, Pyrrhonism, and Epicureanism. Every major town had its own university and these universities often employed professional travelling lecturers, who were frequently paid high sums of money to lecture about various philosophical teachings.
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Guyau's works primarily analyze and respond to modern philosophy, especially moral philosophy. Largely seen as an Epicurean, he viewed English utilitarianism as a modern version of Epicureanism. Although an enthusiastic admirer of the works of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, he did not spare them a careful scrutiny of their approach to morality. In his Esquisse d'une morale sans obligation ni sanction, probably his most important work on moral theory, he begins from Fouillée, maintaining that utilitarian and positivist schools, despite admitting the presence of an unknowable in moral theory, wrongly expel individual hypotheses directed towards this unknowable.
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Around this time, Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, arrived in Athens, at the age of about twenty-one, but Zeno did not begin teaching what would become Stoicism for another twenty years. Although later texts, such as the writings of the first-century BC Roman orator Cicero, portray Epicureanism and Stoicism as rivals, this rivalry seems to have only emerged after Epicurus's death. Epicurus's teachings caused strife in Mytilene and he was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in 306 BC, where he remained until his death.
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Many Romans in particular took a negative view of Epicureanism, seeing its advocacy of the pursuit of voluptas ("pleasure") as contrary to the Roman ideal of virtus ("manly virtue"). The Romans therefore often stereotyped Epicurus and his followers as weak and effeminate. Prominent critics of his philosophy include prominent authors such as the Roman Stoic Seneca the Younger ( 4 BC – AD 65) and the Greek Middle Platonist Plutarch ( 46 – 120), who both derided it as immoral and disreputable. Gordon characterizes anti- Epicurean rhetoric as so "heavy-handed" and misrepresentative of Epicurus's actual teachings that they sometimes come across as "comical".
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Dante Alighieri meets Epicurus in his Inferno in the Sixth Circle of Hell, where he and his followers are imprisoned in flaming coffins for having believed that the soul dies with the body, shown here in an illustration by Gustave Doré. By the early fifth century AD, Epicureanism was virtually extinct. The Christian Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) declared, "its ashes are so cold that not a single spark can be struck from them." While the ideas of Plato and Aristotle could easily be adapted to suit a Christian worldview, the ideas of Epicurus were not nearly as easily amenable.
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One of the last philosophical writers of antiquity was Boethius, whose writings are the chief source of information as to Greek philosophy during the first centuries of the Middle Ages. While philosophers are usually categorized according to school, some philosophers of the Roman period held eclectic beliefs, taking teachings from more than one school. The Sabinian and Proculean schools of law, the two largest schools of legal thought in the Roman period, derived their understanding of ethics heavily from Stoicism and Epicureanism respectively, again providing a current for philosophical thought to influence life in the Roman period.
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The Epicureans also denied the existence of an afterlife and the need to fear divine punishment after death. One of the most eloquent expressions of Epicurean thought is Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (1st century BCE) in which he held that gods exist but argued that religious fear was one the chief cause of human unhappiness and that the gods did not involve themselves in the world. The Epicureans also denied the existence of an afterlife and hence dismissed the fear of death.Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE), who leaned considerably toward Epicureanism, also rejected the idea of an afterlife, which e.g.
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Some scholars say that Epicureanism believes that the gods exist outside the mind as material objects (the realist position), while others assert that the gods only exist in our minds as ideals (the idealist position). The realist position holds that Epicureans understand the gods as existing as physical and immortal beings made of atoms that reside somewhere in reality. However, the gods are completely separate from the rest of reality; they are uninterested in it, play no role in it, and remain completely undisturbed by it. Instead, the gods live in what is called the metakosmia, or the space between worlds.
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Epicureanism also offered arguments against the existence of the gods in the manner proposed by other belief systems. The Riddle of Epicurus, or Problem of evil, is a famous argument against the existence of an all-powerful and providential God or gods. As recorded by Lactantius: This type of trilemma argument (God is omnipotent, God is good, but Evil exists) was one favoured by the ancient Greek skeptics, and this argument may have been wrongly attributed to Epicurus by Lactantius, who, from his Christian perspective, regarded Epicurus as an atheist.Mark Joseph Larrimore, (2001), The Problem of Evil, pp. xix–xxi.
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Except from these three most significant Greek philosophers other known schools of Greek philosophy from other founders during ancient times were Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism and Neoplatonism. Byzantine philosophy refers to the distinctive philosophical ideas of the philosophers and scholars of the Byzantine Empire, especially between the 8th and 15th centuries. It was characterised by a Christian world-view, but one which could draw ideas directly from the Greek texts of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists. On the eve of the Fall of Constantinople, Gemistus Pletho tried to restore the use of the term "Hellene" and advocated the return to the Olympian Gods of the ancient world.
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It proposes a thoroughly dualistic understanding of the cosmos, in which two parallel realities (Purusha, the spiritual, and Prakriti, the physical) coexist and the aim of life is the gaining of liberating self-knowledge of the Purusha. Here, no God (better stated theos) is present, yet Ultimate Reality in the form of the Purusha exists. Cārvāka (also Charvaka) was a materialist and atheist school of thought in India, which is now known principally from fragments cited by its Astika and Buddhist opponents. The proper aim of a Cārvākan, according to these sources, was to live a prosperous, happy, productive life in this world (cf Epicureanism).
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Robert Louis Wilken dates it to around 170 AD. All that is known about Celsus personally is what comes from the surviving text of his book and from what Origen says about him. Although Origen initially refers to Celsus as an "Epicurean", his arguments reflect ideas of the Platonizing tradition, rather than Epicureanism. Origen attributes this to Celsus's inconsistency, but modern historians see it instead as evidence that Celsus was not an Epicurean at all. Joseph Wilson Trigg states that Origen probably confused Celsus, the author of The True Word, with a different Celsus, who was an Epicurean philosopher and a friend of the Syrian satirist Lucian.
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The Appendix Vergiliana is a collection of poems traditionally ascribed as juvenilia of Virgil, although it is likely that all the pieces are in fact spurious.Régine Chambert "Vergil's Epicureanism in his early poems" in "Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans" 2003: "Vergil's authorship of at least some of the poems in the Appendix is nowadays no longer contested. This is especially true of the Culex ... and also of a collection of short epigrams called the Catalepton." Many were considered works of Virgil in antiquity, but it seems that they comprise a diverse collection of minor poems by various authors from the 1st century AD. A mosaic of Virgil and two Muses.
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He received this moniker through the > ways he behaved- he would be kind and friendly, but the sounds created from > instruments would provoke him. Certain aspects of Russian Orthodoxy, not its > most purely spiritual, but its aesthetic and worldly aspects, found in him > their most complete expression. The essence of Alexei's personality is a > certain spiritual Epicureanism, manifested in an optimistic Christian faith, > in a profound, but unfanatical, attachment to the traditions and ritual of > the Church, in a desire to see everyone round him happy and at peace, and in > a highly developed capacity to extract a quiet and mellow enjoyment from all > things.D.S.Mirsky, A History of Russian Literature.
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Wisdom was a popular genre in the ancient world, where it was cultivated in scribal circles and directed towards young men who would take up careers in high officialdom and royal courts; there is strong evidence that some of these books, or at least sayings and teachings, were translated into Hebrew and influenced the Book of Proverbs, and the author of Ecclesiastes was probably familiar with examples from Egypt and Mesopotamia. He may also have been influenced by Greek philosophy, specifically the schools of Stoicism, which held that all things are fated, and Epicureanism, which held that happiness was best pursued through the quiet cultivation of life's simpler pleasures.
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Even the liberal religious skeptics who might have been expected to take an interest in Epicureanism evidently did not; Étienne Dolet (1509–1546) only mentions Epicurus once in all his writings and François Rabelais (between 1483 and 1494–1553) never mentions him at all. Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) is the exception to this trend, quoting a full 450 lines of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things in his Essays. His interest in Lucretius, however, seems to have been primarily literary and he is ambiguous about his feelings on Lucretius's Epicurean worldview. During the Protestant Reformation, the label "Epicurean" was bandied back and forth as an insult between Protestants and Catholics.
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The alchemical symbol for Sulfur, as it appears in The Satanic Bible above the Nine Satanic Statements. The Nine Satanic Statements are a set of nine assertions made by LaVey in the introductory chapters of The Satanic Bible. They are considered a touchstone of contemporary organized Satanism that constitute, in effect, brief aphorisms that capture Satanic philosophy. The first three statements touch on "indulgence", "vital existence" and "undefiled wisdom" which presents a positive view of the Satanist as a carnal, physical and pragmatic being, where enjoyment of physical existence and an undiluted view of this-worldly truth are promoted as the core values of Satanism, combining elements of Darwinism and Epicureanism.
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Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus (), founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus and Leucippus. His materialism led him to a general stance against superstition or the idea of divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest, sustainable "pleasure" in the form of a state of tranquility and freedom from fear (ataraxia) and absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form.
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The book contains the only instance in Biblical teaching of an explicit recommendation of physicians. This is a direct challenge against the traditional idea that illness and disease was seen as penalty for sin. Eccleciasticus, The Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible, commentary by John G. Snaith, Cambridge University Press (1974) As in Ecclesiastes, two opposing tendencies war in the author: the faith and the morality of olden times, which are stronger than all argument, and an Epicureanism of modern date. Occasionally Sirach digresses to attack theories which he considers dangerous; for example, that man has no freedom of will, and that God is indifferent to the actions of mankind and does not reward virtue.
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The philosophy of the Cyrenaics around the time of Hegesias of Cyrene evolved in a way that had similarities with Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism, and also Buddhism. The rulers of Cyrene around the time Hegesias flourished were Ophellas and then Magas, as governors of the Ptolemaic king of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and from 276 BC Magas as independent king. Both Ptolemy and Magas are claimed to have been recipients of Buddhist missionaries from the Indian king Ashoka according to the latter's Edicts. Ashoka claimed in his rock edicts No13: The philosophy of Hegesias displays striking similarities with the tenets of Buddhism, in particular the Four Noble Truths and the concept of Dukkha or "suffering".
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Hel thinks he is now allowed to enjoy life in a shibui way (mingling discreet epicureanism with fatalism and detachment) and he slowly improves his Japanese garden, enjoys restrictive gastronomy, and practices highly esoteric sex with his concubine. Hel's shibumi existence is interrupted by the arrival of the niece of a man who saved Hel's life many years ago, herself the only survivor of a Jewish commando unit that took up arms to terminate the last of the Black September terrorists, the rest of the small unit having been gunned down in an Italian airport by CIA agents. She begs Hel to help her finish her mission and eliminate the terrorists, and gain revenge on the Mother Company.
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Lactantius also disparages the science of De rerum natura (as well as of Epicureanism in general), calls Lucretius "the most worthless of the poets" (poeta inanissimus), notes that he is unable to read more than a few lines of De rerum natura without laughing, and sarcastically asks, "Who would think that [Lucretius] had a brain when he said these things?"Palmer (2014), p. 125. After Lactantius's time, Lucretius was almost exclusively referenced or alluded to in a negative manner by the Church Fathers. The one major exception to this was Isidore of Seville, who at the start of the 7th century produced a work on astronomy and natural history dedicated to the Visigothic king Sisebut that was entitled De natura rerum.
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Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood. EpicurusIn the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites, verging on asceticism. He argued that when eating, one should not eat too richly, for it could lead to dissatisfaction later, such as the grim realization that one could not afford such delicacies in the future.
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The moral teaching, considered the principal feature of the movement, held a middle position between the severity of Stoicism and the laxity of Epicureanism. Its basic principle was good: good is all that tends to preserve and perfect the man; evil is all that tends to destroy or impair him. It is in light of that axiom and not of the Christian standard - in spite of the phraseology - that we should view the commandments concerning the adoration of God, the love of our neighbor, domestic virtues and patriotism. Theophilanthropist worship was at first very simple and meant chiefly for the home: it consisted in a short invocation of God in the morning and a kind of examination of conscience at the end of the day.
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In a letter dated January 45 BC, Cicero speaks of Catius as having died recently.Cicero, ad Fam. xv.16 = 215 in D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Epistulae ad familiares (Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 60. The letter is addressed to Cassius Longinus, one of the future assassins of Julius Caesar and a recent convert to Epicureanism.See article on Cassius for more on his Epicureanism; also Arnaldo Momigliano, review of Science and Politics in the Ancient World by Benjamin Farrington (London 1939), in Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941) 149–157; Miriam Griffin, “Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians at Rome,” in Philosophia togata: Essays on Philosophy and Roman Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989); David Sedley, “The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius,” ‘’Journal of Roman Studies’’ 87 (1997) 41–53.
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Routledge, , page 269 Western metaphysical naturalism originated in ancient Greek philosophy. The earliest pre-Socratic philosophers, especially the Milesians (Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes) and the atomists (Leucippus and Democritus), were labeled by their peers and successors "the physikoi" (from the Greek φυσικός or physikos, meaning "natural philosopher," borrowing on the word φύσις or physis, meaning "nature") because they investigated natural causes, often excluding any role for gods in the creation or operation of the world. This eventually led to fully developed systems such as Epicureanism, which sought to explain everything that exists as the product of atoms falling and swerving in a void. Aristotle surveyed the thought of his predecessors and conceived of nature in a way that charted a middle course between their excesses.
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Latin reading of De Rerum Natura by Lucretius A manuscript of De Rerum Natura in the Cambridge University Library collection De rerum natura (1570) His poem, De rerum natura (usually translated as "On the Nature of Things" or "On the Nature of the Universe"), transmits the ideas of Epicureanism, which includes atomism and cosmology. Lucretius was the first writer known to introduce Roman readers to Epicurean philosophy. The poem, written in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through richly poetic language and metaphors. Lucretius presents the principles of atomism, the nature of the mind and soul, explanations of sensation and thought, the development of the world and its phenomena, and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena.
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Because of the infinite supply of atoms, there are an infinite amount of worlds, or cosmoi. Some of these worlds could be vastly different than our own, some quite similar, and all of the worlds were separated from each other by vast areas of void (metakosmia). Epicureanism states that atoms are unable to be broken down into any smaller parts, and Epicureans offered multiple arguments to support this position. Epicureans argue that because void is necessary for matter to move, anything which consists of both void and matter can be broken down, while if something contains no void then it has no way to break apart because no part of the substance could be broken down into a smaller subsection of the substance.
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Western and Eastern Roman Empires by 476 Late antiquity saw the rise of Christianity under Constantine I, finally ousting the Roman imperial cult with the Theodosian decrees of 393\. Successive invasions of Germanic tribes finalized the decline of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, while the Eastern Roman Empire persisted throughout the Middle Ages, in a state called the Roman Empire by its citizens, and labeled the Byzantine Empire by later historians. Hellenistic philosophy was succeeded by continued developments in Platonism and Epicureanism, with Neoplatonism in due course influencing the theology of the Church Fathers. Many writers have attempted to put a specific date on the symbolic "end" of antiquity with the most prominent dates being the deposing of the last Western Roman Emperor in 476,Clare, I. S. (1906).
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An alternative to traditional religion was offered by Hellenistic philosophy. One of these philosophies was Stoicism, which taught that life should be lived according to the rational order which the Stoics believed governed the universe; human beings had to accept their fate as according to divine will, and virtuous acts should be performed for their own intrinsic value. Another philosophy was Epicureanism, which taught that the universe was subject to the random movements of atoms, and life should be lived to achieve psychological contentment and the absence of pain. Other philosophies included Pyrrhonism which taught how to attain inner peace via suspension of judgment; Cynicism (philosophy), which expressed contempt for convention and material possessions; the Platonists who followed the teachings of Plato, and the Peripatetics who followed Aristotle.
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This is probably the main reason why Donato Acciaiuoli's commentary on Aristotle's Ethics (first published in 1478) was so successful: it blended the three traditions beautifully. Other movements from ancient philosophy also re-entered the mainstream. This was never really the case for Epicureanism, which was almost always caricatured and considered with suspicion, but Skepticism and Pyrrhonism did make a comeback thanks to writers like Michel de Montaigne, and the movement of Stoicism made an impressive re- appearance in the writings of Justus Lipsius.On the melding of various traditions in moral philosophy see especially Jill Kraye, 'Moral Philosophy', in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy' In all of these cases it is impossible to separate the pagan philosophical doctrines from the Christian filter through which they were approached and made legitimate.
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His work is grounded in reality and he criticises poets, such as Juan Ramón Jiménez, who try to escape from or ignore reality. In the words of Villena, "Cernuda defends liberty, anti- conventionalism, joy, faithfulness to your own destiny, the individual leading the way for other people, a blend of stoicism and epicureanism." He goes on to compare the satirical poems in Cernuda's final collection to those of Persius, Juvenal and Quevedo as they are not merely personal attacks but also defences of a moral code that is different from that held by the person being attacked, a different set of ethics.Villena intro to edition of Las Nubes p 49 Towards the end of his life, Cernuda was gratified to learn that a younger generation of Spanish writers were taking an interest in his work.
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Wub fur, so the story suggests, continues to live after the "death" of the Wub, and as such is highly prized owing to its postmortem production of a luxurious pelt that has numerous, albeit trivial, human applications. One such application is its use as a book cover by a Mars-based publisher who issues a new Latin volume of Lucretius' poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Lucretius's poem represents one of the best preserved ancient sources of the materialist philosophy known as Epicureanism, which espoused an ateleological metaphysical formula of atoms, randomness and determinism, an ethical doctrine promoting hedonism and, most notably for Dick's story, personal annihilation at death. Dick's story begins with the book publisher receiving numerous complaints by purchasers of the Wub covered volume of Lucretius.
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There he founded The Garden (κῆπος), a school named for the garden he owned that served as the school's meeting place, about halfway between the locations of two other schools of philosophy, the Stoa and the Academy. The Garden was more than just a school; it was "a community of like-minded and aspiring practitioners of a particular way of life." The primary members were Hermarchus, the financier Idomeneus, Leonteus and his wife Themista, the satirist Colotes, the mathematician Polyaenus of Lampsacus, and Metrodorus of Lampsacus, the most famous popularizer of Epicureanism. His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as a rule rather than an exception, and the biography of Epicurus by Diogenes Laërtius lists female students such as Leontion and Nikidion.
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The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine described LaVeyan Satanism as having "both elitist and anarchist elements", also citing one occult bookshop owner who referred to the church's approach as "anarchistic hedonism". In their study of Satanism, the religious studies scholars Asbjørn Dyrendal, James R. Lewis, and Jesper Aa. Petersen suggested that LaVey viewed his religion as "an antinomian self-religion for productive misfits, with a cynically carnivalesque take on life, and no supernaturalism". The sociologist of religion James R. Lewis even described LaVeyan Satanism as "a blend of Epicureanism and Ayn Rand's philosophy, flavored with a pinch of ritual magic." The historian of religion Mattias Gardell described LaVey's as "a rational ideology of egoistic hedonism and self-preservation", while Nevill Drury characterised LaVeyan Satanism as "a religion of self-indulgence".
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Examples of this are the tension between Jew and Christian in The Merchant of Venice, between citizen and cosmopolitan man in Othello, and between Stoicism and Epicureanism in Julius Caesar. Bloom also makes philosophical extrapolations from these tensions to such an extent that his evaluations of characters no longer look like the characters themselves. Jaffa's contribution, "The Limits of Politics: King Lear, Act I, scene i," is a thorough reading of the opening scene in which Jaffa argues that Lear's love test was not irrational or vain but rather the result of Lear's sensible and profound reflection on how best to secure stability following his succession, and that the plan necessarily fails to show the audience the limits of politics: namely, the ultimate irreconcilability of truth and justice.Bloom & Jaffa (1981), cf. pp. 135–37.
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Although he did not leave a monograph at the time of his premature death, Fowler is to be reckoned amongst the outstanding Latinists of his generation on account of his intellectual range and originality. He was one of the pioneers in the application of modern literary theory and information technology within classical studies. His special research area in Latin literature was Roman Epicureanism and the works of Lucretius and Virgil, subjects to which he made numerous contributions, as he did to others. A book on Lucretius did not appear, however, nor did the long-awaited book with the provisional title Unrolling the Text: books and readers in classical Latin poetry, which was to cover the history of the book roll in antiquity and its function in ancient poetry.
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From its first editorial, The Burlington Magazine presented itself as synthesising opposing traditions – historicist versus aestheticism and academic versus commercial – by defining itself an exponent of "Austere Epicureanism".Anonymous, ‘Editorial Article’, The Burlington Magazine, 1 (March 1903), pp. 5–7 Against the perceived "sameness" of the contemporary art panorama, The Burlington Magazine was to act as a disinterested guide, directing the public's attention to high-quality art on offer both on the market and on institutional settings and educating its readers on the elevating qualities of ancient art.A. Helmreich, ‘The Death of the Victorian Art Periodical’, Visual Resources, 26, no. 3, (September 2010), pp. 242–253 The Burlington Magazine editors and contributors were part of the institutional sphere of museums and academia and yet, unlike their German counterparts, they participated in the emerging world of the commercial galleries.
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His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following the Cyrenaic philosopher Aristippus, Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest, sustainable pleasure in the form of a state of ataraxia (tranquility and freedom from fear) and aponia (the absence of bodily pain) through knowledge of the workings of the world and limiting desires. Correspondingly, Epicurus and his followers shunned politics because it could lead to frustrations and ambitions which can directly conflict with the Epicurean pursuit for peace of mind and virtues. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism insofar as it declares pleasure to be its sole intrinsic goal, the concept that the absence of pain and fear constitutes the greatest pleasure, and its advocacy of a simple life, make it very different from "hedonism" as colloquially understood.
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The form of composition may have been suggested by some of the satires of Lucilius, which were composed as letters to his personal friends... "From the Epistles... we gather that [Horace] had gradually adopted a more retired and meditative life, and had become fonder of the country and of study, and that while owing allegiance to no school or sect of philosophy, he was framing for himself a scheme of life, was endeavoring to conform to it, and was bent on inculcating it in others." "In both his Satires and Epistles, Horace shows himself a genuine moralist, a subtle observer and true painter of life, and an admirable writer." But in spirit the Epistles are more philosophic, more ethical and meditative. Like the Odes they exhibit the twofold aspects of Horace's philosophy, that of temperate Epicureanism and that of more serious and elevated conviction.
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For the ecclesiastical "impostors" that promulgate false beliefs to gain wealth and power, and rulers interested in dominating the people, according to Vanini, "all religious things are false and fake principles to teach the naive populace that, when reason cannot be reached, at least practice religion". Following Pietro Pomponazzi and Simone Porzio in their interpretation of the Aristotelian texts and the commentary thereon by Alexander of Aphrodisias, Vanini denied the immortality of the soul and attacked the Aristotelian cosmos-view. Like Bruno, he denied the difference between the everyday world and the celestial world, saying that both are composed of the same corruptible material. He disputed, in the physical and biological world, finality and the hylomorphic Aristotelian doctrine, and, reconnecting Epicureanism with Lucretius, prepared a new mechanistic-materialistic description of the universe where bodies are likened to a watch, and conceived a first form of universal transformation of living species.
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The ad fontes principle also had many applications. The re-discovery of ancient manuscripts brought a more profound and accurate knowledge of ancient philosophical schools such as Epicureanism, and Neoplatonism, whose Pagan wisdom the humanists, like the Church fathers of old, tended, at least initially, to consider as deriving from divine revelation and thus adaptable to a life of Christian virtue. "Renaissance humanists rejoiced in the mutual compatibility of much ancient philosophy and Christian truths", M. A. Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (1997), p. 13. The line from a drama of Terence, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (or with nil for nihil), meaning "I am a human being, I think nothing human alien to me",Homo in Latin specifically means "human being", in contrast to vir, "man", and mulier, "woman": Annabel Robinson, The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison (Oxford University Press, 2002), p.
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Poggio's most famous find was the discovery of the only surviving manuscript of Lucretius's De rerum natura ("On the Nature of Things") known at the time, in a German monastery (never named by Poggio, but probably Fulda), in January 1417. Poggio spotted the name, which he remembered as quoted by Cicero. This was a Latin poem of 7,400 lines, divided into six books, giving a full description of the world as viewed by the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (see Epicureanism). The manuscript found by Poggio is not extant, but fortunately, he sent the copy to his friend Niccolò de' Niccoli, who made a transcription in his renowned book hand (as Niccoli was the creator of italic script), which became the model for the more than fifty other copies circulating at the time. Poggio would later complain that Niccoli had not returned his original copy for 14 years.
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Origen attempts to undermine Celsus's credibility first by labelling him an Epicurean, since, by the third century, Epicureanism was almost universally seen as discredited and wrong, because of its teachings of materialism, its denial of divine providence, and its hedonistic teachings on ethics. Nonetheless, Origen stops calling Celsus an Epicurean about halfway throughout the text, possibly because it was becoming increasingly difficult to present him as such in light of Celsus's self-evident sympathies for Plato. Origen also attempts to undermine Celsus's credibility by pointing out his ignorance on particular issues. In two cases, Origen points out problems in the literal interpretations of Biblical passages that Celsus himself had overlooked: the contradictory genealogies of Jesus given in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the impossibility that Noah's Ark, if built according to the supposed measurements given in the Book of Genesis, could have held all the animals it is supposed to have held.
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Applying this principle to the art of poetry, and analysing, line by line and even word by word, the works of great poets, he deduced the law that the beauty of poetry consists in the accuracy, beauty and harmony of individual expression. His Histoire des causes premières was among the first attempts at a history of philosophy, and in his work on Epicurus, following on Gassendi, he defended Epicureanism against the general attacks made against it. Strictly in Aesthetics terms Batteux sets the single principle for fine arts in imitation of nature, and this in terms of ideal of perfection to make an harmonious whole: "let's choose the most beautiful parts of nature, to make an exquisite whole, more perfect then nature, but never ending to be natural".Book I, part I: "à faire un choix des plus belles parties de la nature pour en former en tout exquis, qui fùt plus parfait que la nature elle- méme, sans cependant cesser d'étre naturel".
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Wiley-Blackwell According to Reinhold F. Glei, it is settled that the argument of theodicy is from an academical source which is not only not Epicurean, but even anti-Epicurean. The earliest extant version of this trilemma appears in the writings of the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus.Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, 175: "those who firmly maintain that god exists will be forced into impiety; for if they say that he [god] takes care of everything, they will be saying that god is the cause of evils, while if they say that he takes care of some things only or even nothing, they will be forced to say that he is either malevolent or weak" Parallels may be drawn to Jainism and Buddhism, which similarly emphasize a lack of divine interference and aspects of its atomism. Epicureanism also resembles Buddhism in its temperateness, including the belief that great excess leads to great dissatisfaction.
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Pendant with Serapis, Egypt, 2nd century BC In the Hellenistic period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece (146 BC) Greek religion developed in various ways, including expanding over at least some of Alexander's conquests. The new dynasties of diadochi, kings and tyrants often spent lavishly on temples, often following Alexander in trying to insinuate themselves into religious cult; this was much easier for the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, where the traditional ancient Egyptian religion had long had deified monarchs. The enormous raised Pergamon Altar (now in Berlin) and the Altar of Hieron in Sicily are examples of unprecedentedly large constructions of the period. New cults of imported deities such as Isis from Egypt, Atargatis from Syria, and Cybele from Anatolia became increasingly important, as well as several philosophical movements such as Platonism, stoicism, and Epicureanism; both tended to detract from the traditional religion, although many Greeks were able to hold beliefs from more than one of these groups.
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