Welcome to the EpicureanFriends Handbook

This Handbook Is A Work In Progress!

We are still in the early stages of making this handbook a useful tool. As we progress, please expect to find pages missing or incomplete. If you fail to find what you are looking for here, please let us know at EpicureanFriends.com

Epicurus' Paradigm-Changing Views of Virtue, Pleasure, Death, and Gods

There is nothing more important at the very beginning of the study of Epicurus than to come to grips with the fact that Epicurus uses important philosophical terms in non-standard ways. Epicurus' innovative use of words like "pleasure" was controversial even in his own time,  and understanding his reasons for reexamining these key terms is essential to understanding his philosophy as a whole.

Of course Epicurus did not invent an entirely different language. Epicurus held that certain things in ordinary language are clear without need of elaborate definitions. It is sufficient, for example, to point to fire to understand that it is hot; to snow to understand that it is white, and to honey to understand that it is sweet.

Abstractions, however, like "Virtue," "Death," and "Gods," require explanation.  Even "Pleasure," which is not an abstraction when referring to ice cream, requires explanation when the term is used to describe a goal of life.  The difference between those things that require no explanation and abstractions that do require explanation was expressed by an Epicurean spokesman as follows:

Cicero's Torqatus in On Ends:

[30] Every creature, as soon as it is born, seeks after pleasure and delights therein as in its supreme good, while it recoils from pain as its supreme evil, and banishes that, so far as it can, from its own presence, and this it does while still uncorrupted, and while nature herself prompts unbiased and unaffected decisions. So he says we need no reasoning or debate to shew why pleasure is matter for desire, pain for aversion. These facts he thinks are simply perceived, just as the fact that fire is hot, snow is white, and honey sweet, no one of which facts are we bound to support by elaborate arguments; it is enough merely to draw attention to the fact; and there is a difference between proof and formal argument on the one hand and a slight hint and direction of the attention on the other; the one process reveals to us mysteries and things under a veil, so to speak; the other enables us to pronounce upon patent and evident facts.

Epicurus is well known for rejecting conventional views of the nature of "things" by holding that the world is composed neither of "four elements" nor of "supernatural fire." Instead, Epicurus held that everything in the universe is composed of innumerable particles and void.

What is not so well known is that Epicurus also rejected conventional views of the nature of key philosophic terms such as Pleasure, Gods, Virtue, and Death. Just as Epicurus held that false presumptions underlay commonly-held but erroneous ideas in physics, Epicurus held that false presumptions also underlay conventional but erroneus ideas in ethics. Epicurus did not simply reject conventional assessments of pleasure, virtue, gods, and death, he rejected the conventional view of what those words even mean when rightly understood.

In the ancient world, prevailing philosophic schools refused to accept Epicurus' unconventional viewpoints. As a result, the leading schools pilloried Epicurus as at best a muddled thinker and at worst an immoral reprobate. Those attitudes prevail even today, but Epicurus' enemies are not alone in misinterpreting his views. The errors made by Epicurus' foes are matched those who believe themselves to be Epicurus' friends, but who ignore Epicurus' rejection of conventional ideas about key aspects of human life.

The truly revolutionary nature of Epicurean philosophy cannot be understood without seeing that Epicurus' doubled down on his rejection of conventional paradigms in natural science with rejection of conventional paradigms in ethics. Just as the rejection of elemental "earth, air, wind, and fire" leads to a revolution in physical science, the rejection of conventional views of the best way to live, the meaning of death, and the nature of gods leads to the Epicurean revolution in ethics. Pursuing such a revolution required Epicurus to explain what his enemies disparaged as an entirely new vocabulary of key terms, with the result that attempts to understand Epicurus without understanding his use of terms has exasperated both foes and well-meaning but misinformed friends alike for two thousand years.

Virtue

Given that the universe is composed of particles moving through void, Epicurus saw that there can be no such thing as absolute and universal ethical laws, written for all time and places and people. What would be the source or authority of such law if there is no center to the universe, no single perspective that can be deemed eternally correct?

In such a universe there is no possibility of a supernatural god establishing absolute rules of conduct. As a result, Virtue in Epicurean terms is necessarily contextual, and seen as a set of tools to be employed in life which will vary in nature and use along with individual needs, desires, and other circumstances.

Virtue cannot therefore be an end in itself, or its own reward. Virtue in Epicurean terms is an important tool, but it is a tool invented by human beings for the sake of something else. In a totally natural universe in which there are no supernatural gods and no absolute virtue, what can that "something else" be?

Pleasure

The "something else" for which virtue is but a tool is in Epicurean terms none other than the feeling of "Pleasure." Pleasure, however, has a sweeping but very specific meaning in Epicurean terminology. Epicurus held that there are only two categories of feelings, and all evaluations of what is desirable and what is undesirable in life are ultimately within one of the two. These two very broad categories of feelings are "Pleasure" and "Pain." The second of these, with which our current definitions are most consistent, is "pain." Pain is any mental or physical feeling which we find to be undesirable in itself - in a word - painful. When Epicurus speaks of pain, we have no problem applying our standard perspectives and understanding what he means.

Pleasure, on the other hand, is in Epicurean terms a much more sweeping concept than which most of us appreciate. If some feelings are clearly painful and undesirable in themselves, and if there are only two categories of feelings, then what type of feelings are left to fall under the category of Pleasure? Simply put, all feelings of life, whether mental, physical, emotional, or whatever qualifying words you wish to employ, which are not in themselves painful are Pleasurable.

This view of Pleasure means that all attempts to separate out some pleasures so as to assign them special worthiness or unworthiness are ultimately misleading. Those who praise "simple pleasures" as more worthy or desirable than "luxurious pleasures" are equally wrong in Epicurean terms. All choices in life are to be evaluated by asking what will be the full consequences of choosing one course or the other. The wise person will evaluate all the consequences - mental, physical, long-term, short-term, and of whatsoever kind - and make choices based on their best estimate of whether in that person's experience Pleasure or Pain will predominate as a result.

Does this mean that a person considers only the person's own pleasure and pain? Of course not: Epicurus held that our most important avenue for happy living is our friends, and so the full consequences of our actions take into account how the people around us will respond to our choices, which is a reality that we ourselves must - for very practical reasons - take into account in our calculations.

Death

Epicurus' atomist views also demanded a more clear view of death. Rather than hopeful equivocation that perhaps the souls of at least great men might survive after death, Epicurus boldly held that because the soul (like everything else) is material (composed of particles and void) then the end of life leads to nothing. In Epicurus' famous words, death is nothing to us, but not because the fact of death is insignificant.

The fact that human beings die and their consciousnesses come to an end is of critical importance to our estimation of the value of life. Only the living can experience pleasure, and this realization places the importance of living wisely and in good mental and physical health at the center of Epicurus' worldview. Such is the importance of seeing that death is nothing, and that there is no reward or punishment after death, that the proper view of death as absence of sensation ranks as the second most important in Epicurus' own list of his key teachings.

Gods

While the fact of death is the second most important of Epicurus' doctrines, there is one doctrine of even greater importance: Epicurus' claim to hold a valid conception of what it means to be a god. Nothing is more fundamental to the Epicurean worldview that that nothing supernatural - including supernatural gods - can exist. From the very beginning of the philosophy - harking back to the very first step of concluding that "nothing can be created from nothing," it is foundational to see that the universe as a whole has existed for eternity, and that there is nothing in the complexity that indicates intelligent design or that the universe was created or is supervised by supernatural gods.

But unlike what we know as "atheism" today, Epicurus was emphatic that the Earth is not the only place in the universe where life exists. Epicurus held that there are an infinite number of worlds, some like ours, and some not like ours, on which beings of many types exist.

Epicurus held that there are no supernatural gods directing our lives or rewarding or punishing us after death. Epicurus held that our "spirit" (our mind and intelligence) cannot survive after our death, because our body and all that is within it returns to the particles from which it came. But consistent with his views of the infinite universe, Epicurus held also that if beings outside of earth can find ways to continuously resist the deterioration of their bodies, then they can effectively live on without end.

As part of his total rejection of supernatural religion, Epicurus held that a proper and natural use of the term "god" would be to use that word to designate any and all living beings who are deathless and who succeed in living totally pain-free lives.

Epicurus rejected all aspects of supernatural gods, supernatural souls, and supernatural reward or punishment after death. But Epicurus held that it is not sufficient just to say "no" when people suggest that such gods can and do exist. Epicurus held that the term "gods" should be given real meaning, and that real meaning serves to provide for us a paradigm of how the best life might exist, as totally happy and totally without fear of death.

Epicurus spoke of living "as gods among men," and Epicurus' poet Lucretius praised Epicurus as someone who should be considered to have been a "god," if anyone deserved that title. This terminology shocks both militant atheists and militant religionists today, as it did in Epicurus' own time, but Epicurus was never afraid to shock to the sensibilities of the narrow-minded. The Epicureans insisted that they were not nihilistic atheists, and instead insisted their this view of the nature of gods is the only one worthy of being considered truly divine.

In regard to we humans who cannot duplicate the imperishability of gods, but who wish to do our best to emulate their experience, the Epicureans left to us this formulation, preserved to us by Cicero in his work "On Ends"

The Epicurean Torquatus in Cicero's On Ends:

That pleasure is the boundary of all good things may be easily seen from this consideration: Let us imagine a person enjoying pleasures great, numerous, and perpetual, both of mind and body, with no pain either interrupting him at present or impending over him; what condition can we call superior to or more desirable than this? For it is inevitable that there must be in a man who is in this condition a firmness of mind which fears neither death nor pain, because death is void of all sensation; and pain, if it is of long duration, is a trifle, while if severe it is usually of brief duration; so that its brevity is a consolation if it is violent, and its trifling nature if it is enduring. And when there is added to these circumstances that such a man has no fear of the deity of the gods, and does not suffer past pleasures to be entirely lost, but delights himself with the continued recollection of them, what can be added to this which will be any improvement to it?

The Sections Of This Handbook

This Handbook is divided into the following topics:

The Major Doctrines of Epicurus - Here you will find a collection of the core doctrines of Epicurus, selected to give you the fasted start toward reading the full set of Principal Doctrines and Vatican Sayings.

A Revolutionary Paradigm of Pleasure - Here you will find a description with many citations of how Epicurus uses the term "pleasure" far more broadly than his opponents acknowledge.

Classical Epicurean Philosophy - Here you will find a further breakdown of the core aspects of Epicurean philosophy.

Physics - Here you will find an outline of the major aspects of Epicurean Physics, which details how the universe is totally natural.

Canonics - Here you will find the major positions of Epicurus on how to think reasonably and logically based on the evidence of the senses, anticipations, and feelings, and how to avoid the pitfalls of Platonic abstractions.

Ethics - Here you will find discussion of the major applications of Epicurean ethics.

Library - Here you will find a curated collection of key Epicurean texts.

Outlines - Here you will find several outlines of Epicurean thought, including a "Foundations" outlined prepared using paraphrased selections from the ancient texts.

Wiki - Our EpicureanFriends Wiki brings together in wiki form many of the points made in greater detail throughout this website.

Lucretius Today Podcast - This section of the handbook provides an index to topics discussed in the EpicureanFriends podcast.

Next Steps - Places you can go for further information on Classical Epicurean Philosophy

Tags - An index of tags used in this website.