The Essential Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Fragments

Epicurus lived in the Athens of Plato. He attracted a host of followers to his preferred teaching place, a garden. There he taught them the ultimately anti-Platonic truths: this life is the only one, it is good, and the best way to live it is by maximizing stable pleasures.Few philosophers have been more maligned and underappreciated. The Platonists and their ilk (the later Christians) found Epicurus' teachings too much focused on this world and not enough on the other. They thought he taught unalloyed hedonism and accused the Epicureans of wild orgies. Today, an Epicurean is thought of as an effete, wine-sipping decadent. All of these conceptions are completely wrong.Starting with the truth that everything is made from the material of atoms (after Democritus), Epicurus determined that our consciousness must necessarily die with the death of our bodies. Since this is the only life it should be the sole focus of our efforts. In this mortal life we must maximize our pleasure and minimize our pain. Pleasure is defined as the avoidance of pain and the stabilization of comfort. The most reliable comforts are certainly not sex, drugs, rock and roll-all such things are unstable pleasures that lead to greater appetites. The best pleasures are those that can be controlled without much effort such as good friendship, good cheer, and an appreciation for the simple things. By avoiding epicurean dishes (our misreading) and satisfying our appetites with the most basic, most easily attainable foods, we sate our hunger. The full belly wants neither caviar nor black bread. Taking this principle to all other pleasures, Epicurus finds them easily satisfied.Much of our turmoil is due to immaterial concerns, the attainment of more power, money, love, and the evasion of death. Epicurus shows, point-by-point, how these concerns can be wrestled into submission. Once the basic pleasures are met and one's anxieties are minimized life becomes simple and good. Before Christianity put non-Chrisitians under the sword, Epicureanism had become immensely popular and was constantly growing. It is time it resumed its natural course.O'Connor's translations personify the philosopher himself-they are clear and elegant. This is an insightful, exciting, and pleasant read.

This book does not rely on a god or a saviour to lead a smart and fulfilling life. It relies soley on reason and what an effective use of it by epicurus! Most of epicurus works are either lost or destroyed, but this book contains his essential teachings. Epicurus did not deny the existance of the gods. This would make sense. If the universe is infinite as he says, then all possible things already exist in one way or another. According to epicurus one should live out his natural life, this would be prudent. This life is the only one you get. He writes that by being prudent ie; looking at both sides of an issue to find truth and getting only what you need, you can live a smart and happy life. After life is over one goes to eternal oblivion, free of all suffering forever. The ironic thing about epicurus is that he admits there are gods. If one reads what he writes carefully, one finds that one doesnt need to go to heaven or even to exist. Since it is not needed, one loses nothing. The same thing can be said for the wild goose chase, most people are engaged in for happiness. They want bigger houses, more expensive cars, more cash, etc. and instead of gaining happiness gain more misery. Why? Because the truth is you gain happiness by getting only what you need. Epicurus writes that those who are not satisfied with a little, will never be satisfied even with a lot or even infinity. The more you have above need, the more worry, headache and problems. This in no way is conducive to happiness. These writings are some of the most brilliant in the entire realm of philosophy. This book gets two thumbs up!

Perhaps the person of Epicurus may have been more obscured than one might have wished. What has remained of his opus though is merely principles of honest, happy, congenial, and useful ways of living. This is a better practical guide than all the treatises on psychology written nowadays. Immortal formulations; as pertinent today as ever.

Let me say at the outset that Epicurus is hard to understand because we have only fragments of his work. Epicurus is important to people living in the third millenium because he realized, as most of us do, that traditional religion is not very believable. In his time the Hellenistic and Roman world was about to fall into a morass of Eastern religions, spiritualism, and superstition familiar to third millenium people living amid Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, Wicca, and New Age. Epicurus has two huge virtues that make him worth reading even now. He is ferociously smart for one. Some of his insights about physical phenomena millenia before the invention of real scientific instruments are astonishing. The other is that he is unrelentingly honest and rigorous. His premise is that we only know what we can find out from our senses and our reason. This is immensely liberating from all the causistry, tradition, authority, and sentiment of both culture and counter-culture. To the ultimate rationalization for religion, "Well, it is a comfort for the simple." he responds, "Truth and honesty are better than comfort." He dismissed death as nothing, and proved his point by showing legendary courage in facing his own.

Epicureanism was the chief competitor of christianity until the fourth century. It attracted large numbers of the middle and upper classes with its emphasis on rational hedonism, friendship, and pleasure. Most of the literature of epicureanism was burned by christian missionaries but enough remains for modern readers to see what its great appeal was. This book contains all of the important fragments and a few epistles of Epicurus. Well worth reading. Epicurus provided arguments which were designed to overcome the fear of death and mental slavery to superstition. He also thought very highly of friendship and simple, tranquil living. Epicureanism was designed to help people live happily in this life and it seems to have had a profound affect on many ancients as it became the first and only philosophy developed in ancient Greece which became a missionary philosophy and spread throughout a great deal of the Western world. Anyone interested in a gentle, humane and non-superstitious philosophy of life will find the writings of Epicurus of great interest.