EPICUREANISM

in a strict sense, the philosophy taught by Epicurus (341270 BC). In a broad sense, it is a system of ethics embracing every conception or form of life that can be traced to the principles of his philosophy. In ancient polemics, as often since, the term was employed with an even more generic (and clearly erroneous) meaning as the equivalent of hedonism, the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the chief good. In popular parlance, Epicureanism thus means devotion to pleasure, comfort, and high living, with a certain nicety of style. in a strict sense, the philosophy of the ancient Greek Epicurus (341270 Bc ); and in a broad sense, a system of ethics embracing every conception or form of life traceable to the principles of his philosophy. Epicureanism espouses, in physics, Atomism and a largely mechanical conception of causality, with the gods remaining extraneous; and, in ethics, the identification of good with pleasure and the absence of pain, utility and the limitation of desire, and a withdrawn and quiet life enriched by the company of friends. After having taught in a number of cities in Asia Minor, Epicurus established his permanent home in Athens and founded a school of philosophy, teaching his pupils in his garden, which he bequeathed to the school under his will. As the society that he gathered round him included women as well as men, it frequently met with public scandal and even persecution. Nonetheless communities modelled on the original garden were founded throughout the Mediterranean world. In modern philosophy, the most significant revival of Epicureanism was the Christian interpretation developed by Pierre Gassendi in the 17th century. Additional reading The first complete collection of the extant works and fragments of Epicurus is H. Usener (ed.), Epicurea (1887, reprinted 1966). A smaller selection, with Eng. trans. and commentary, is Cyril Bailey (ed.), Epicurus: The Extant Remains (1926), a very useful book that includes the Vatican Fragments. All of the ethical fragments (and several other items) are published in Carlo Diano (ed.), Epicuri Ethica (1946), with extensive Latin commentaries. Carlo Diano (ed. and trans.), Lettere di Epicuro e dei suoi (1946), contains 14 letters of Epicurus and his friends taken from Pap. Herc. 1418. G. Arrighetti (ed.), Epicuro, Opere, 2nd ed. (1967), contains all of the works and fragments (including the Peri Physeos), with notes and an index verborum; to be used with caution. Lucretius can be read in the three volumes prepared, with introduction, translations, and comments, by Cyril Bailey, Lucreti, De Rerum Natura (1947).English translations of Epicurus and Lucretius include Whitney J. Oates (ed.), The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers (1940), which contains translations by Cyril Bailey and by H.A.J. Munro. See also The Philosophy of Epicurus: Letters, Doctrines, and Parallel Passages from Lucretius, trans. by George K. Strodach (1963); Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, bk. 10 on Epicurus, trans. by R.D. Hicks (1925); and Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, trans. by R.E. Latham (1964).Valuable for its breadth and richness of detail, Cyril Bailey, The Greek Atomists and Epicurus (1928; new ed., 1964), is a fundamental work. For Epicurus' psychology and his relation to Aristotle, see Carlo Diano, La psicologia d'Epicuro e la teoria delle passioni, in Giornale critico della filosofia italiana (193942). A book that stresses Epicurus' anti-Platonism is N.W. De Witt, Epicurus and His Philosophy (1954). Also important for its perceptive study of Epicurus' religiosity and ethics is A.J. Festugiere, picure et ses dieux (1946; Eng. trans., Epicurus and His Gods, 1956). See also the article Epikur, by W. Schmid in the Reallexikon fr Antike und Christentum, 5:681819 (1961); L.L. Whyte, Essay on Atomism: From Democritus to 1960 (1961); and Benjamin Farrington, The Faith of Epicurus (1967). G.D. Hadzsits, Lucretius and His Influence (1935), traces the influence of Epicurean ideas, especially since Roman times, in a broad perspective. For further bibliography, see Phillip De Lacy, Some Recent Publications on Epicurus and Epicureanism (19371954), in Classical Weekly, 48:169177 (1955). Bernard Frischer, The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece (1982), provides a discussion of the school's success.