Epicurus
Hellenistic · Europe · 341 to 270 BCE
Greek teacher who said the good life is calm and modest, free from fear and pain. He founded a community called the Garden.
What it is
Epicurus (341 to about 270 BCE) was a Greek philosopher who taught that the aim of life is pleasure, understood as freedom from pain and from mental disturbance, and that it is reached by limiting one's desires and by getting rid of the fear of the gods and of death. He built this on a picture of the world as made of atoms moving through empty space, and he is counted among the major philosophers of ancient Greece.
He grew up on the island of Samos and later settled in Athens, where he founded a community and school known as the Garden. His followers, the Epicureans, kept his teaching alive for centuries after his death. Much of what we know of it comes from the Roman poet Lucretius and from the ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius, along with a few letters and short sayings of Epicurus himself.
The main ideas
- Pleasure as calm. The point of all one's actions is pleasure, but he meant tranquility more than indulgence: no physical pain and no mental disturbance. He held that this is reached by limiting one's desires, not by chasing more of them.
- Death is nothing to us. While we exist, our death is not here, and when it comes we no longer exist to be harmed by it. For him, fear of death is among the main causes of anxiety, and anxiety drives irrational desires.
- The gods do not interfere. He held that the gods have no influence on our lives, so there is nothing to fear from them.
- Atoms and void. The basic constituents of the world are atoms, bits of matter too small to be cut, moving through empty space. He tried to explain all natural events in these terms.
- The swerve. He held that atoms sometimes swerve a little from their paths. This random motion was meant to leave room for human freedom.
- Knowledge from the senses. He rejected scepticism and held that we can know the world by relying on the senses. He also rejected Plato's separate Forms and the idea of a soul that is not made of matter.
- Friendship. A good life, for the Epicureans, was lived among friends, and the Garden was a community as well as a school.
What it looks like in practice
Picture someone lying awake at night over a promotion they might miss and a diagnosis they fear. An Epicurean would not tell them to try harder. He would ask which of these worries rests on a belief that can be examined: that the lost promotion would ruin them, that death would be a harm to them. Then, with a few good friends and simple pleasures, the demands of the day can shrink to what is needed. This is an illustration of the approach, not a record of anything Epicurus said.
Books and moments
- The Letter to Herodotus sets out his physics and view of the world.
- The Letter to Menoeceus is a short summary of his ethics.
- The Principal Doctrines collect his main teachings in brief sayings.
- De rerum natura, by the Roman poet Lucretius, presents Epicurean ideas at length in verse.
Questions and criticism
- What sort of pleasure? Epicurus is said to have separated 'static' from 'kinetic' pleasure, calm from active enjoyment, but scholars still dispute exactly what the distinction means.
- Does the swerve explain freedom? It is unclear how a random motion could account for free will, and unclear whether his idea of the will was like ours.
- Is the argument about death enough? Many readers accept that we cannot be harmed when we no longer exist, but find that this does not remove the sadness of dying. It is fair to ask whether a good argument is the same as a calm mind.
Close neighbours
The page on Epicureanism describes the school that grew from his teaching. Lucretius is the best way to read the ideas at length.
Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.
Where to start reading
Books by Epicurus or about them, from the easiest way in to the harder ones.
- The Epicurus Reader Epicurus
Covers belong to their publishers and are shown so you can recognise the book.
Philosophies they belong to or are close to
Who they connect to
Influenced by
- Aristippus of Cyrene · Epicurus also made pleasure the aim of life, though he valued calm above the pleasure of the moment.
- Democritus · Epicurus adopted the atomic theory and added a small swerve to leave room for freedom.
Reacted against by
- Cicero · Cicero criticised Epicurean ethics at length in his book on the ends of good and evil.
Other Hellenistic thinkers
- Antisthenes · 445 to 365 BCE
- Diogenes of Sinope · 412 to 323 BCE
- Crates of Thebes · 365 to 285 BCE
- Pyrrho of Elis · 360 to 270 BCE
- Zeno of Citium · 334 to 262 BCE
- Cleanthes · 331 to 232 BCE
- Chrysippus · 279 to 206 BCE
- Carneades · 214 to 129 BCE
- Cicero · 106 to 43 BCE
- Lucretius · 99 to 55 BCE