Encyclopedia of Philosophy: EpicuREANisM ?

Epicurus, born into a family of Athenian expatriates in Samos, set up house in Athens about 306 Bc, and lived there until his death in 271. His followers in the Garden, who included women and slaves, lived on simple fare and kept away from public life. Epicurus wrote three hundred books, but except for a few letters almost all that he wrote has been lost. Fragments from his treatise On Nature were buried in volcanic ash at Herculaneum when Vesuvius erupted in Al) 79; in modern times they have been painstakingly unrolled and deciphered. To this day, however, we depend for our knowledge of Epicurus’ teachings principally on a long Latin poem written in the first century Bc by his follower Lucretius, entitled On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) – see Plate 6.  The aim of Epicurus’ philosophy is to make happiness possible by removing the fear of death which is its greatest obstacle. Because men are afraid of death, they struggle for wealth and power in the hope of postponing it, and throw themselves into frenzied activity so that they can forget its inevitability. The fear of death is instilled in us by religion, which holds out the prospect of suffering and punish¬ment after death. But this prospect is illusory. The point is eloquently made by Lucretius (in Dryden’s translation): there is no need to fear either death, or survival, or reincarnation.