Download or read book Epicurus and His Philosophy written by Norman Wentworth De Witt and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1954-01-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epicurus and His Philosophy was first published in 1954. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In this volume, the first comprehensive book in English about Epicurus, existing data on the life of the ancient philosopher is related to the development of his doctrine. The result is a fascinating account that challenges traditional theories and interpretations of Epicurean philosophy. Professor DeWitt demonstrates the fallacy of centuries of abuse of Epicurus and the resulting distortion of most discussions of Epicureanism that appear in standard philosophical works. Of major significance to students of philosophy and theology are the findings that show the importance of Epicureanism as a source of numerous Christian beliefs.
Download or read book Epicurus And The Pleasant Life written by Haris Dimitriadis and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-02-02 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea that happiness is a choice accessible to all is far from new; the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus developed the Natural Philosophy of life over two thousand years ago, providing practical, contemporary guidelines to finding meaning and happiness. Unlike Plato, who valued the divine logic above all, Epicurus argued that the pursuit of ideals produced by logic alone leads to inner conflict, cognitive dissonance, dissatisfaction, and even depression. He suggested that by first embracing our natural desires, then using logic to determine which choices will increase pleasure over time, and using our will to take action, we could learn and change, and achieve happiness. Join the author Haris Dimitriadis on a journey through the history of philosophical thought, as well as an in-depth look at the modern neuroscience, psychology, and astrophysics, and discover why the ancient Epicurean Philosophy of Nature matters as much today as it did two thousand and three hundred years ago!
Download or read book Epicurus written by Dane R. Gordon and published by RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The philosophy of Epicurus (c. 341-271 B. C. E.), has been a quietly pervasive influence for more than two millennia. At present, when many long revered ideologies are proven empty, Epicureanism is powerfully and refreshingly relevant, offering a straightforward way of dealing with the issues of life and death. The chapters in this book provide a kaleidoscope of contemporary opinions about Epicurus' teachings. They tell us also about the archeological discoveries that promise to augment the scant remains we have of Epicurus's own writing. the breadth of this new work will be welcomed by those who value Epicurean philosophy as a scholarly and personal resource for contemporary life. "Epicurus: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance," is the title of a 2002 conference on Epicurus held at Rochester Institute of Technology, when many of the ideas here were first presented.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Epicurus written by Epicurus and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2019-11-13 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How to Be an Epicurean written by Catherine Wilson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading philosopher shows that if the pursuit of happiness is the question, Epicureanism is the answer Epicureanism has a reputation problem, bringing to mind gluttons with gout or an admonition to eat, drink, and be merry. In How to Be an Epicurean, philosopher Catherine Wilson shows that Epicureanism isn't an excuse for having a good time: it's a means to live a good life. Although modern conveniences and scientific progress have significantly improved our quality of life, many of the problems faced by ancient Greeks -- love, money, family, politics -- remain with us in new forms. To overcome these obstacles, the Epicureans adopted a philosophy that promoted reason, respect for the natural world, and reverence for our fellow humans. By applying this ancient wisdom to a range of modern problems, from self-care routines and romantic entanglements to issues of public policy and social justice, Wilson shows us how we can all fill our lives with purpose and pleasure.
Download or read book Tending the Epicurean Garden written by Hiram Crespo and published by Humanist Press. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be Smart About Being Happy Gods may exist, but they’re too far removed to care about humans. So our best purpose in life is not to please gods, but to be happy. Which is not as easy as it sounds, since short-term pleasures and selfishness create longer-term misery. Thus taught Epicurus, 2,300 years ago. Hiram Crespo brings the Epicurean passion for maximum happiness into the modern age with this practical guidebook. Step one in what Crespo calls the “hedonic calculus” is to rein in desires, so they become easier to satisfy – just the opposite of the luxurious indulgence so often incorrectly associated with Epicureanism. From there, he offers a blizzard of ideas, from healthy recipes that stimulate natural “feel-good” chemicals in the brain to the journaling of positive events, even on a bad day. The highest attainable happiness, though, is communing with friends – it just doesn’t get any better than that. Being smart about being happy means using the best knowledge and tools available. Tending the Epicurean Garden is an excellent place to start.
Download or read book Epicurus and His Philosophy written by De Witt, Norman Wentworth De Witt and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1954 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism written by Phillip Mitsis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BCE), though often despised for his materialism, hedonism, and denial of the immortality of the soul during many periods of history, has at the same time been a source of inspiration to figures as diverse as Vergil, Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, and Bentham. This volume offers authoritative discussions of all aspects of Epicurus's philosophy and then traces out some of its most important subsequent influences throughout the Western intellectual tradition. Such a detailed and comprehensive study of Epicureanism is especially timely given the tremendous current revival of interest in Epicurus and his rivals, the Stoics. The thirty-one contributions in this volume offer an unmatched resource for all those wishing to deepen their knowledge of Epicurus' powerful arguments about happiness, death, and the nature of the material world and our place in it. At the same time, his arguments are carefully placed in the context of ancient and subsequent disputes, thus offering readers the opportunity of measuring Epicurean arguments against a wide range of opponents--from Platonists, Aristotelians and Stoics, to Hegel and Nietzsche, and finally on to such important contemporary philosophers as Thomas Nagel and Bernard Williams. The volume offers separate and detailed discussions of two fascinating and ongoing sources of Epicurean arguments, the Herculaneum papyri and the inscription of Diogenes of Oenoanda. Our understanding of Epicureanism is continually being enriched by these new sources of evidence and the contributors to this volume have been able to make use of them in presenting the most current understanding of Epicurus's own views. By the same token, the second half of the volume is devoted to the extraordinary influence of Epicurean doctrines, often either neglected or misunderstood, in literature, political thinking, scientific innovation, personal conceptions of freedom and happiness, and in philosophy generally. Taken together, the contributions in this volume offer the most comprehensive and detailed account of Epicurus and Epicureanism available in English.
Download or read book Epicureanism written by Tim O'Keefe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Epicurean school of philosophy was one of the dominant philosophies of the Hellenistic period. Founded by Epicurus of Samos (century 341-270 BCE) it was characterized by an empiricist epistemology and a hedonistic ethics. This new introduction to Epicurus offers readers clear exposition of the central tenets of Epicurus' philosophy, with particular stress placed on those features that have enduring philosophical interest and where parallels can be drawn with debates in contemporary analytic philosophy. Part 1 of the book examines the fundamentals of Epicurus' metaphysics, including atoms and the void, emergent and sensible properties, cosmology, mechanistic biology, the nature and functioning of the mind, death, and freedom of action. Part 2 explores Epicurus' epistemology, including his arguments against scepticism and his ideas on sensations, preconceptions and feelings. The final part deals with Epicurus' ethics, exploring his arguments for hedonism, his distinctive conceptions of types of pleasure and desire, his belief in virtue, his notions of justice, friendship and his theology. O'Keefe provides extended exegesis of the arguments supporting Epicurus' positions, indicating their strengths and weaknesses, while showing the connections between the various parts of his philosophy and how Epicureanism hangs together as a whole.
Download or read book Epicurus Ethical Theory written by Phillip Mitsis and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By means of a comprehensive and penetrating examination of the main elements of Epicurean ethics, Phillip Mitsis forces us to reevaluate this widely misunderstood figure in the history of philosophy.
Download or read book Epicurus and the Singularity of Death written by David B. Suits and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his Letter to Menoeceus, the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus states that 'death is nothing to us'. Few philosophers then or since have agreed with his controversial argument, upholding instead that death constitutes a deprivation and is therefore to be feared. Diverging from the current trend and sparking fresh debate, this book provides an imaginative defense of the Epicurean view of death. Drawing on Epicurus's Principal Doctrines, Lucretius's De Rerum Natura and Philodemus's De Morte, David Suits argues that the usual concepts of harm, loss and suffering no longer apply in death, thus showing how the deprivation view is flawed. He also applies Epicurean reasoning to key issues in applied ethics in order to dispute the claim that there can be a right to life, to defend egoistic friendship, and to consider how Epicureanism might handle wills and life insurance. By championing the Epicurean perspective, this book makes a valuable contribution to the contemporary philosophical debate about death.
Download or read book Epicureanism at the Origins of Modernity written by Catherine Wilson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-06-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark study examines the role played by the rediscovery of the writings of the ancient atomists, Epicurus and Lucretius, in the articulation of the major philosophical systems of the seventeenth century, and, more broadly, their influence on the evolution of natural science and moral and political philosophy. The target of sustained and trenchant philosophical criticism by Cicero, and of opprobrium by the Christian Fathers of the early Church, for its unflinching commitment to the absence of divine supervision and the finitude of life, the Epicurean philosophy surfaced again in the period of the Scientific Revolution, when it displaced scholastic Aristotelianism. Both modern social contract theory and utilitarianism in ethics were grounded in its tenets. Catherine Wilson shows how the distinctive Epicurean image of the natural and social worlds took hold in philosophy, and how it is an acknowledged, and often unacknowledged presence in the writings of Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, Boyle, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley. With chapters devoted to Epicurean physics and cosmology, the corpuscularian or "mechanical" philosophy, the question of the mortality of the soul, the grounds of political authority, the contested nature of the experimental philosophy, sensuality, curiosity, and the role of pleasure and utility in ethics, the author makes a persuasive case for the significance of materialism in seventeenth-century philosophy without underestimating the depth and significance of the opposition to it, and for its continued importance in the contemporary world. Lucretius's great poem, On the Nature of Things, supplies the frame of reference for this deeply-researched inquiry into the origins of modern philosophy. .
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism written by James Warren and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Companion presents both an introduction to the history of the ancient philosophical school of Epicureanism and also a critical account of the major areas of its philosophical interest. Chapters span the school's history from the early Hellenistic Garden to the Roman Empire and its later reception in the Early Modern period, introducing the reader to the Epicureans' contributions in physics, metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, ethics and politics. The international team of contributors includes scholars who have produced innovative and original research in various areas of Epicurean thought and they have produced essays which are accessible and of interest to philosophers, classicists, and anyone concerned with the diversity and preoccupations of Epicurean philosophy and the state of academic research in this field. The volume emphasises the interrelation of the different areas of the Epicureans' philosophical interests while also drawing attention to points of interpretative difficulty and controversy.
Download or read book Epicurus on Freedom written by Tim O'Keefe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-28 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this 2005 book, Tim O'Keefe reconstructs the theory of freedom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–271/0 BCE). Epicurus' theory has attracted much interest, but our attempts to understand it have been hampered by reading it anachronistically as the discovery of the modern problem of free will and determinism. O'Keefe argues that the sort of freedom which Epicurus wanted to preserve is significantly different from the 'free will' which philosophers debate today, and that in its emphasis on rational action it has much closer affinities with Aristotle's thought than with current preoccupations. His original and provocative book will be of interest to a wide range of readers in Hellenistic philosophy.
Download or read book The Art of Happiness written by Epicurus and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-24 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brilliant writings of a highly influential Greek philosopher, with a foreword by Daniel Klein, author of Travels with Epicurus The teachings of Epicurus—about life and death, religion and science, physical sensation, happiness, morality, and friendship—attracted legions of adherents throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and deeply influenced later European thought. Though Epicurus faced hostile opposition for centuries after his death, he counts among his many admirers Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx, and Isaac Newton. This volume includes all of his extant writings—his letters, doctrines, and Vatican sayings—alongside parallel passages from the greatest exponent of his philosophy, Lucretius, extracts from Diogenes Laertius' Life of Epicurus, a lucid introductory essay about Epicurean philosophy, and a foreword by Daniel Klein, author of Travels with Epicurus and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book Epicurus on the Self written by Attila Németh and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-08-16 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epicurus on the Self reconstructs a part of Epicurean ethics which only survives on the fragmentary papyrus rolls excavated from an ancient library in Herculaneum, On Nature XXV. The aim of this book is to contribute to a deeper understanding of Epicurus’ moral psychology, ethics and of its robust epistemological framework. The book also explores how the notion of the self emerges in Epicurus’ struggle to express the individual perspective of oneself in the process of one’s holistic self-reflection as an individual psychophysical being.
Download or read book Facing Death written by James Warren and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2004-06-17 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient philosophical school of Epicureanism tried to argue that death is 'nothing to us'. Were they right? James Warren provides a comprehensive study and articulation of the interlocking arguments against the fear of death found not only in the writings of Epicurus himself, but also in Lucretius' poem De rerum natura and in Philodemus' work De morte. These arguments are central to the Epicurean project of providing ataraxia (freedom from anxiety) and therefore central to an understanding of Epicureanism as a whole. They also offer significant resources for modern discussions of the value of death - one which stands at the intersection of metaphysics and ethics. If death is the end of the subject, and the subject can not be benefited nor harmed after death, is it reasonable nevertheless to fear the ceasing-to-be? If the Epicureans are not right to claim that the dead can neither be benefited nor harmed, what alternative models might be offered for understanding the harm done by death and do these alternatives suffer from any further difficulties? The discussion involves consideration of both ethical and metaphysical topics since it requires analysis not only of the nature of a good life but also the nature of personal identity and time. A number of modern philosophers have offered criticisms or defences of the Epicureans' views. Warren explores and evaluates these in the light of a systematic and detailed study of the precise form and intention of the Epicureans' original arguments. Warren argues that the Epicureans also were interested in showing that mortality is not to be regretted and that premature death is not to be feared. Their arguments for these conclusions are to be found in their positive conception of the nature of a good and complete life, which divorce the completeness of a life as far as possible from considerations of its duration. Later chapters investigate the nature of a life lived without the fear of death and pose serious problems for the Epicureans being able to allow any concern for the post mortem future and being able to offer a positive reason for prolonging a life which is already complete in their terms.
