EPICUREAN philosophy, the doctrine or system of philosophy maintained Epicurus and his followers.
Epicurus, the Athenian, one of the greatest philosophers of his age, was obliged to Democritus for almost his whole system, notwithstanding he piqued himself upon deriving every thing from his own fund. Ile wrote a great number of books, which are made to amount to above 300. Though none of them are come down to us, no ancient philoso pher's sy stem is better known than his, for which we are mostly indebted to the poet Lucretius, D ogenes, Laertius, and His philosophy consisted of three parts, canonical, physical, and ethereal. The first was about the canons, or rules of judging. The censure which Tully passes upon him, fbr his despising logic, will hold true only with regard to the logic of the Stoics, which he could not approve of, it being too full of nicety and quirk. Epicurus was not acquainted with the analytical method of division and ar gumentation, nor was he so curious in modes and formation, the Stoics. Soundness and simplicity of sense, assist ed with some natural reflections, was all his art. His search after truth proceed ed only by the senses, to the evidence of which he gave so great a certainty, that he considered them as an infallible rule of truth, and termed them the first natural light of mankind.
In the second part of his philosophy he laid down atoms, space, and gravity, as the first principles of all things. He did not deny the existence of a God, but thought it beneath his majesty to concern himself with liumm affairs. He held him a blessed immortal being, having no af fairs of his own to take care of and above meddling with those of others. See ATo mc Panosornr.
As to his ethics, he made the supreme good of man to consist in pleasure, and, consequently, supreme evil in pain. Na ture itself, says he, teaches us this truth, and prompts us from our birth to procure what ever gives us pleasure, and avoid what gives us pain. To this end lie pro poses a remedy against the sharpness of pain : this was to divert the mind from it, by turning our whole attention upon the pleasures we have formerly enjoyed. He held that the wise man must be happy, as long as he is wise ; that pain, not depriv ing him of his wisdom, cannot deprive him of his happiness.