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Epicurus

4th–3rd century BCE · Fourth to third century BCE

START WITH THE PUZZLE

Does treating pleasure as good mean pursuing more of every pleasure?

Evidence-backed moments
8
Timeline events
3
Verified places
1

This is a guided intellectual story assembled from verified claims, works, and events in which this thinker actually appears. It avoids filling gaps with a generic encyclopedia biography.

Why this thinker is worth following

Story 1What makes a life go well?

Epicurus — Desire, sufficiency, and friendship

The question that opens it

Does treating pleasure as good mean pursuing more of every pleasure?

Follow the argument, not just the name
  1. 1

    Book X of Diogenes Laertius preserves three letters of Epicurus and the Principal Doctrines, while the Letter to Menoeceus offers a concise ethical outline.

    Check the evidence

    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Epicurus

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: Section 1

      Open source

    • Letter to Menoeceus

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Sections 122–135

      Open source

    • Principal Doctrines

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Collection structure

      Open source
  2. 2

    Letter to Menoeceus 127–128 distinguishes groundless, natural, and necessary desires in deciding what to pursue.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Letter to Menoeceus

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Sections 127–128

      Open source

    • Epicurus

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: Section 4

      Open source
  3. 3

    Section 129 explains that one should not choose every pleasure or avoid every pain, but consider their longer consequences.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Letter to Menoeceus

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Section 129

      Open source

    • Principal Doctrines

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Doctrines 8–10

      Open source
  4. 4

    The end of living well is connected with reducing bodily pain and mental disturbance, not with accumulating unlimited consumption or intense stimulation.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Letter to Menoeceus

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Sections 128–131

      Open source

    • Principal Doctrines

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Doctrines 3, 15, and 18–20

      Open source
  5. 5

    A pleasant life and a prudent, honorable, and just life are presented as inseparable.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Letter to Menoeceus

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Section 132

      Open source

    • Principal Doctrines

      Epicurus · Robert Drew Hicks historical English translation; MIT Internet Classics Archive

      Locator: Doctrines 5 and 17

      Open source
  6. 6

    Epicurus valued friendship and developed the school known as the Garden in Athens in 307/306 BCE, but this is not recast as a perfected modern community model.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Epicurus

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: Sections 2 and 6

      Open source

    • The Athenian Garden

      Diskin Clay · The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, chapter 1

      Locator: Athens, 307/306 BCE

      Open source
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Story 2How should we face suffering and death?

Epicurus — Death is nothing to us

The question that opens it

If death is absent while we exist and we are absent when death arrives, what reason remains to fear it in advance?

Follow the argument, not just the name
  1. 1

    Epicurus argues that good and bad depend on sensation and death is the deprivation of sensation, so death is nothing to us.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Epicurus

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: §4.1 Fear of Death; Letter to Menoeceus 124–127

      Open source
  2. 2

    Whether the argument addresses the pain of dying, survivors’ loss, and future possibilities deprived by death remains open to separate objections.

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    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Epicurus

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: §4.1–§4.2, death, pleasure, and later objections

      Open source
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Decisive moments in time

  1. Around 307/306 BCE

    Epicurus develops the school known as the Garden in Athens.

    Athens · Activity

    PerspectiveOpen in question

  2. Around 300 BCE

    The Letter to Menoeceus dismantles fear of death through an argument about sensation and time.

    PerspectiveOpen in question

  3. Later preservation around the 3rd century CE

    Book X of Diogenes Laertius preserves the Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines; the preservation context is not turned into Epicurus’s composition place.

    PerspectiveOpen in question

Open the places behind the story

Continue through questions and works