EPICUREANISM. The philosophy of Epicurus of Samos (342-270 B.C.) owed much to the speculations of earlier Schools, for instance of the Cyrenaic School (see CYRENAICS) and of the Atomic philosophers (see ATOMS). In 306 B.C. he opened a school at Athens in a country-house and garden. Here be was held in the highest esteem by his pupils. And later every disciple was ardently devoted to the Master. " He even exalted him to the place of deity in his veneration. This comes out again and again in Lucretius, whose language in extolling Epicurus is that of the enthusiastic wor shipper, disclosing whole-hearted and unbounded ad miration " (Davidson). Epicurus wrote many works, but only extracts and summaries have been preserved. " We are fortunate, however, in possessing the philo sophical masterpiece of a great Roman poet, who was, first and foremost, a follower of Epicurus—the famous didactic poem of Lucretius (95-52 B.C.), entitled De Rerum Naturd (` On the Nature of Things '), in which the cosmology and general system of the Epicureans are worked out with considerable fulness and with great enthusiasm, and in which the strength of personal conviction aids the poetic imagination and adds force to the felicitous diction, so that the picture becomes at once vivid, fascinating, and impressive." According to the Epicureans the whole material universe was con structed, on fixed immutable laws, out of atoms in motion and the void. The laws are so fixed that no supersensible being can interfere with or alter them. The gods are located by Epicurus in the intermundia or spaces between the worlds (Gk. diakosmoi). Here, re mote from the troubles and trials of earth, they have nothing to do with the affairs of mortal men. In their elaboration of the atomic doctrine, Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius, it is claimed (by Davidson and others), were the undoubted precursors of Tyndall, Huxley.
Buechner, and Haeckel. The Epicurean doctrine of atoms and the void is used, however, to explain even Life and Mind. " In this view, Life is simply the result of particular collocations of particular atoms; and human consciousness, sensation, perception, reflect ion—the soul, with all its properties and functions—are the product of the elementary material particles, variously combining and reacting: life and consciousness alike are but modes of motion ' " (Davidson). The soul itself is composed of very minute, smooth, round atoms. Pleasure and pain are explained on the same principle. " To the Epicurean, pleasure means simply the harmonious, and orderly movement of the atoms; while pain is the feeling that ensues when there are jarring and discord among them." Epicurus differed from Democritus (b. about 460 B.C.) in his application of the atomic theory, for he claimed that Free Will is the great fact on which ethics is based, and that it is a fact of our experience. C. J. Deter points out that Epicurus ennobled as much as possible the ancient con ception of pleasure. Yet to him virtue was not an aim in itself, but was to be aimed at merely for its useful ness as a means to another end, a happy and pleasant life. To him personally his philosophy meant a virtuous and joyful life, spiritual and intellectual rather than sensual pleasure. But as in course of time it came to be interpreted by his disciples, it degenerated into a mere search for sensual pleasure. The stigma which attaches now to Epicureanism is of course due not to the original but to the degenerate form of the system.
See William L. Davidson, The Stoic Creed, 1907; C. J. Deter; Max B. Weinstein, Welt and Leben-ansohauungen, 1910.