Epicurus main thoughts summary. Philosophy of the Epicureans. General characteristics of the concept

Epicurus was born in 341 BC. on the island of Samos. He began studying philosophy at the age of 14. In 311 BC. he moved to the island of Lesvos, and there he founded his first philosophical school. Another 5 years later, Epicurus moved to Athens, where he founded a school in the garden, where there was an inscription on the gate: “Guest, you will be happy here; here pleasure is the highest good.” This is where the very name of the school “Garden of Epicurus” and the nickname of the Epicureans—philosophers “from the gardens”—later arose. He led this school until his death in 271 BC. It is generally accepted that Epicurus considered bodily pleasure the only meaning of life. In reality, Epicurus' views on pleasure are not so simple. By pleasure he understood primarily the absence of displeasure, and emphasized the need to take into account the consequences of pleasure and pain:

“Since pleasure is the first and innate good for us, therefore we do not choose every pleasure, but sometimes we bypass many pleasures when they are followed by great trouble for us. We also consider many sufferings better than pleasure when greater pleasure comes for us, after how we endure suffering over a long period of time. Thus, all pleasure is good, but not all pleasure is to be chosen, just as all pain is evil, but not all pain is to be avoided."

Therefore, according to the teachings of Epicurus, bodily pleasures must be controlled by the mind: “It is impossible to live pleasantly without living wisely and justly, and it is also impossible to live wisely and justly without living pleasantly.” And living wisely, according to Epicurus, means not striving for wealth and power as an end in itself, being satisfied with the minimum necessary in order to be satisfied with life: “The voice of the flesh is not to starve, not to thirst, not to be cold. Whoever has this, and who hopes to have it in the future, can argue with Zeus himself about happiness... The wealth required by nature is limited and easily obtained, but the wealth required empty opinions, extends to infinity."

Epicurus divided human needs into 3 classes: 1) natural and necessary - food, clothing, shelter; 2) natural, but not necessary - sexual satisfaction; 3) unnatural - power, wealth, entertainment, etc. The easiest way is to satisfy needs (1), somewhat more difficult - (2), and needs (3) cannot be completely satisfied, but, according to Epicurus, it is not necessary. Epicurus believed that “pleasure is achievable only when the fears of the mind are dispelled”, and expressed the main idea of his philosophy with the following phrase: “The gods inspire no fear, death inspires no fear, pleasure is easily attained, suffering is easily endured.” Contrary to the accusations leveled against him during his lifetime, Epicurus was not an atheist. He recognized the existence of the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon, but had his own opinion about them, which differed from the views that prevailed in the ancient Greek society of his time.

According to Epicurus, there are many inhabited planets similar to Earth. The gods live in the space between them, where they live their own lives and do not interfere in the lives of people. Epicurus proved this as follows: "Let us assume that the suffering of the world is of interest to the gods. The gods may or may not, want or do not want to destroy suffering in the world. If they cannot, then they are not gods. If they can, but do not want, then they are imperfect, which is also not befitting of gods And if they can and want to, then why haven’t they done it yet?”

Another famous saying of Epicurus on this topic: “If the gods listened to the prayers of people, then soon all people would die, constantly praying a lot of evil to each other.” At the same time, Epicurus criticized atheism, believing that gods are necessary to be a model of perfection for humans.

But in Greek mythology The gods are far from perfect: human character traits and human weaknesses are attributed to them. This is why Epicurus was opposed to traditional ancient Greek religion: “It is not the wicked who rejects the gods of the crowd, but the one who applies the ideas of the crowd to the gods.”

Epicurus denied any divine creation of the world. In his opinion, many worlds are constantly born as a result of the attraction of atoms to each other, and worlds that have existed for a certain period also disintegrate into atoms. This is quite consistent with ancient cosmogony, which asserts the origin of the world from Chaos. But, according to Epicurus, this process occurs spontaneously and without the intervention of any higher powers.

Epicurus developed the teachings of Democritus about the structure of the world from atoms, at the same time put forward assumptions that were confirmed by science only many centuries later. Thus, he stated that different atoms differ in mass, and, therefore, in properties. Unlike Democritus, who believed that atoms move along strictly defined trajectories, and therefore everything in the world is predetermined in advance, Epicurus believed that the movement of atoms is largely random, and therefore always possible. various options developments of events. Based on the randomness of the movement of atoms, Epicurus rejected the idea of fate and predestination. “There is no purpose in what is happening, because a lot of things are not happening the way they should have happened.” But, if the gods are not interested in the affairs of people, and there is no predetermined fate, then, according to Epicurus, there is no need to be afraid of both. One who does not know fear cannot instill fear. The gods know no fear because they are perfect. Epicurus was the first in history to say that people's fear of the gods is caused by the fear of natural phenomena that are attributed to the gods. Therefore, he considered it important to study nature and find out the real causes of natural phenomena - in order to free man from the false fear of the gods. All this is consistent with the position about pleasure as the main thing in life: fear is suffering, pleasure is the absence of suffering, knowledge allows you to get rid of fear, therefore without knowledge there can be no pleasure- one of the key conclusions of the philosophy of Epicurus. During the time of Epicurus, one of the main topics for discussion among philosophers was death and the fate of the soul after death. Epicurus considered debates on this topic pointless: “Death has nothing to do with us, because while we exist, death is absent, but when death comes, we no longer exist.” According to Epicurus, people are afraid not so much of death itself as of the death throes: “We are afraid to suffer from illness, to be struck by a sword, torn by the teeth of animals, reduced to dust by fire - not because all this causes death, but because it brings suffering. Of all evils, the greatest is suffering, not death.” He believed that the human soul is material and dies with the body. Epicurus can be called the most consistent materialist of all philosophers. In his opinion, everything in the world is material, and spirit as some kind of entity separate from matter does not exist at all. Epicurus considers direct sensations, and not judgments of the mind, to be the basis of knowledge. In his opinion, everything we experience is true; sensations never deceive us. Misconceptions and errors arise only when we add something to our perceptions, i.e. the source of error is the mind. Perceptions arise as a result of the penetration of images of things into us. These images are separated from the surface of things and move with the speed of thought. If they enter the sense organs, they give real sensory perception, but if they penetrate the pores of the body, they give fantastic perception, including illusions and hallucinations. In general, Epicurus was against abstract theorizing that was not related to facts. In his opinion, philosophy should have a direct practical use- help a person avoid suffering and life mistakes: “Just as medicine is of no use if it does not banish the suffering of the body, so philosophy is of no use if it does not banish the suffering of the soul.” The most important part of Epicurus' philosophy is his ethics. However, Epicurus’s teaching about the best way of life for a person can hardly be called ethics in the modern sense of the word. The question of adjusting the individual to social attitudes, as well as all other interests of society and the state, occupied Epicurus least of all. His philosophy is individualistic and aimed at enjoying life regardless of political and social conditions. Epicurus denied the existence of universal morality and universal concepts of goodness and justice, given to humanity from somewhere above. He taught that all these concepts are created by people themselves: “Justice is not something in itself, it is some agreement between people not to harm and not to suffer harm.”. Epicurus gave a big role in relationships between people to friendship, contrasting it political relations as something that brings pleasure in itself. Politics is the satisfaction of the need for power, which, according to Epicurus, can never be fully satisfied, and therefore cannot bring true pleasure. Epicurus argued with the followers of Plato, who put friendship at the service of politics, considering it as a means of building an ideal society. In general, Epicurus does not set any great goals or ideals for man. We can say that the goal of life, according to Epicurus, is life itself in all its manifestations, and knowledge and philosophy are the path to obtaining the greatest pleasure from life. Humanity has always been prone to extremes. While some people greedily strive for pleasure as an end in itself and cannot get enough of it all the time, others torment themselves with asceticism, hoping to gain some kind of mystical knowledge and enlightenment. Epicurus proved that both were wrong, that enjoying life and learning about life are interconnected.

The philosophy and biography of Epicurus is an example of a harmonious approach to life in all its manifestations. However, Epicurus himself said it best: “Always have a new book in your library, a full bottle of wine in your cellar, a fresh flower in your garden.”

EPICUREANISM- one of the most influential schools of Hellenistic philosophy. The main ideological content and theoretical justification for the practiced way of life of the supporters of this school is the philosophical system of its founder Epicurus (c.

341–270 BC).

As a philosophical doctrine, Epicureanism is characterized by a mechanistic view of the world, materialistic atomism, denial of teleology and the immortality of the soul, ethical individualism and eudaimonism; has a pronounced practical orientation. According to the Epicureans, the mission of philosophy is akin to healing: its goal is to heal the soul from fears and suffering caused by false opinions and absurd desires, and to teach a person a blissful life, the beginning and end of which they consider pleasure.

In Athens, Epicureans gathered in a garden that belonged to Epicurus. This is where the second name of the school came from - “Garden”, or “Garden of Epicurus”, and its inhabitants were called philosophers “from the gardens”. The school was a community of like-minded friends living in accordance with the principles of the philosophical teachings of Epicurus. There was an inscription on the school gate: “Guest, you will feel good here; here pleasure is the highest good,” and at the entrance stood a jug of water and a loaf of bread. Women and slaves were allowed into the school, which was quite unusual at that time. Life within the Epicurean community was modest and unpretentious; Unlike the Pythagorean alliance, the Epicureans did not believe that property should be shared, since this could become a source of mistrust between them.

Shouldn't be afraid of the gods

should not be afraid of death,

good is easily achievable

evil is easily tolerated.

The personality of Epicurus played a primary role in the school, acting as the embodiment of wisdom and a role model. He himself established the principle for his students: “Do everything as if Epicurus was looking at you” (Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, XXV, 5). Apparently, this is why his images could be found everywhere at school: on clay and wooden tablets, and even on rings. Although, it is worth noting that, unlike Pythagoras, he was never deified by his followers.

The school of Epicurus existed for almost 600 years (until the beginning of the 4th century AD), without any discord and maintaining the continuity of students who, according to Diogenes Laertius, were chained to his teaching like the songs of the Sirens (Diogenes Laertius, X, 9 ). The most prominent of them was Metrodorus of Lampsacus, who died seven years before his teacher. In a polemically pointed form, he emphasized that the source of all benefits is sensual pleasures. In his will, Epicurus asks his schoolmates to gather every month in memory of him and Metrodorus, and also to take care of Metrodorus's children. Epicurus's successor in leadership of the school was Hermarch of Mytilene, and then Polystratus.

Epicureanism penetrated Roman soil quite early. In the 2nd century. BC. Gaius Anafinius expounds the teachings of Epicurus in Latin. And in the 1st century BC. In the vicinity of Naples, the Epicurean school of Siron and Philodemus arose, which became the main center of culture and education in Italy during the decline of the republican institutions of Rome. The elite of educated Roman society, including the famous Roman poets Virgil and Horace, gather at Philodemus's estate.

Epicureanism gained a lot of supporters and followers among the Romans. Among them, the most prominent and famous is Titus Lucretius Carus, whose poem About the nature of things played a huge role in the spread of Epicureanism. In conditions civil wars and social upheavals, Lucretius Carus seeks in the philosophy of Epicurus a way to achieve serenity and equanimity of spirit. According to Lucretius, the main enemies of human happiness are fear of the underworld, fear of afterlife retribution and fear of the intervention of the gods in people's lives, generated by ignorance of the true nature of man and his place in the world. In overcoming them, Lucretius sees the main task of his poem, which has become a kind of encyclopedia of Epicureanism.

At the end of the 2nd century. AD By order of the Epicurean Diogenes, giant inscriptions were carved in the city of Enoanda in Asia Minor in order to familiarize fellow citizens with the teachings of Epicurus.

Epicureanism became widespread during the Renaissance. Its influence can be traced in the works of Lorenzo Valla, F. Rabelais, C. Raimondi and others. In modern times, teachings close to Epicureanism are put forward by such thinkers as F. Bacon, P. Gassendi, J. La Mettrie, P. Holbach, B. Fontenelle and others .

Polina Gadzhikurbanova

Literature:

Lucretius. About the nature of things, vol. 1–2. M. – L., 1947
Materialists of ancient Greece. Collection of texts by Heraclitus, Democritus and Epicurus. M., 1955
Losev A.F. History of ancient aesthetics. Early Hellenism. M., 1979

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Introduction

Ancient philosophy is a consistently developing philosophical thought and covers a period of over a thousand years - from the end of the 7th century BC. up to the 6th century AD. Despite all the diversity of views of thinkers of this period, ancient philosophy at the same time, there is something unified, uniquely original and extremely instructive. It did not develop in isolation - it drew on the wisdom of the Ancient East, whose culture goes back to deeper antiquity, where the formation of civilization took place, writing was formed, the beginnings of the science of nature and philosophical views themselves developed.

The ethics of antiquity is addressed to man. The most important feature of the ethical position of the ancient sages was the understanding of morality, the virtue of behavior as reasonableness. Reason “rules the world” of ancient ethics; its paramount importance (in any specific moral choice and in choosing the right path in life) is not in doubt. Another characteristic of the ancient worldview is the desire for harmony (harmony within the human soul and its harmony with the world), which took various forms of embodiment depending on certain sociocultural circumstances.

Thus, Greek philosophy in the 7th-6th centuries BC. was the first attempt at rational comprehension of the surrounding world. The purpose of this work is to consider the main philosophical and ethical schools Ancient Greece such as Epicureanism, Hedonism, Stoicism and Cynicism.

In accordance with the goal, the following tasks can be distinguished:

identify common and special features of the schools of Epicurus and Aristippus;

compare the ideas and traditions of the Stoic and Cynic schools.

1.Basic ideas and principles of the schools of Epicureanism and hedonism

Hellenism, covering the period from the conquest of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Roman Empire, also determines the nature of the development of philosophical ethics in that period. Having preserved much of the ancient classics, Hellenism essentially completed it. The initial principles laid down by the great Greeks were systematized, certain aspects of the achievements of the previous period were developed, and attention was concentrated on the problem of man and society. Philosophy focused on the subjective world of man.

Those that emerged at the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries enjoyed predominant success in the Hellenistic world. BC e. the teachings of the Stoics and Epicurus, which absorbed the main features of the worldview of the new era.

One of the most influential philosophical movements of the Hellenistic-Roman era was Epicureanism. Epicurus is characteristic of an era when philosophy begins to be interested not so much in the world as in the fate of man in it, not so much in the mysteries of the cosmos, but in an attempt to indicate how, in the contradictions and storms of life, a person can find the calm, serenity, and equanimity that he so needs and so desires. and fearlessness. To know not for the sake of knowledge itself, but exactly as much as is necessary to preserve the bright serenity of the spirit - this is the goal and task of philosophy, according to Epicurus.

Epicureanism is a type of atomistic philosophy, one of the most influential schools of Hellenistic philosophy. As a philosophical doctrine, Epicureanism is characterized by a mechanistic view of the world, materialistic atomism, denial of teleology and the immortality of the soul, ethical individualism and eudaimonism; has a pronounced practical orientation. According to the Epicureans, the mission of philosophy is akin to healing: its goal is to heal the soul from fears and suffering caused by false opinions and absurd desires, and to teach a person a blissful life, the beginning and end of which they consider pleasure.

The school of Epicureanism owes its name to its founder Epicurus, whose philosophical system underlies the ideological content and theoretical justification of the teaching. Epicurus (341–270 BC) was born on the island of Samos and was an Athenian by birth. In 306 BC. e. he came to Athens and founded a school called the “Garden of Epicurus,” hence the name of the Epicureans: “philosophers of the Garden.” The school was a community of like-minded friends living in accordance with the principles of the philosophical teachings of Epicurus. There was an inscription on the school gate: “Guest, you will feel good here; here pleasure is the highest good,” and at the entrance stood a jug of water and a loaf of bread.

Women and slaves were allowed into the school, which was quite unusual at that time. Epicurus was in poor health. He only verbally called for pleasure, but in reality he ate mainly bread and water, and considered cheese and wine to be a rarely accessible luxury. Epicurus urged a person to measure the pleasure he receives with possible consequences. “Death has nothing to do with us; when we are alive, death is not yet there; when it comes, we are no longer there,” the philosopher asserted. The philosopher died of a kidney stone. He died in the following way: he lay down in a copper bath with hot water, asked for undiluted wine, drank it, wished his friends not to forget his ideas, and then died.

He even managed to die blissfully in accordance with his principles.

The basis of the Epicurean Union was loyalty to the teachings of Epicurus and reverence for his personality. At school, a number of philosophical exercises were practiced, which were an integral part of the Epicurean way of life: conversations, analysis of one’s actions, reading treatises of Epicurus, memorizing the main provisions of the doctrine, for example, the “fourfold medicine”:

Shouldn't be afraid of the gods

should not be afraid of death,

good is easily achievable

evil is easily tolerated.

The personality of Epicurus played a primary role in the school, acting as the embodiment of wisdom and a role model. He himself established the principle for his students: “Do everything as if Epicurus was looking at you.” Apparently, this is why his images could be found everywhere at school: on clay and wooden tablets, and even on rings. Although, it is worth noting that unlike Pythagoras, he was never deified by his followers.

Epicurus divided philosophy into physics (the doctrine of nature), canon (the doctrine of knowledge, in which he adhered to sensationalism) and ethics . In physics he followed the atomism of Democritus; he managed to improve Democritus’s teaching about atoms, developing it in two directions. First of all, Epicurus discovered the following problem: according to Democritus, atoms, moving in emptiness and not experiencing any of its resistance, must move at the same speed. But Epicurus, in turn, notes that if the atoms were of equal speed, then they would fly down in a straight line and, therefore, could not collide with each other. Consequently, no bodies could be formed. According to Epicurus, it is necessary that the atoms in their fall can, at least slightly and from time to time, deviate from the straight line. Only then will atoms be able to interact with each other and, as a result, different bodies will be formed. In addition, according to Epicurus, this deviation must be arbitrary and unpredictable. If Democritus was a supporter of fatalism and associated the inevitability and necessity of everything that happens in the world with the unchanging laws of atomic movement, then Epicurus, based on the partially arbitrary movement of atoms, denied such predetermination. The absence of absolute predetermination is important for the justification of ethics, which was the goal of Epicurus. After all, if the whole world is strictly determined, then a person is actually deprived of free will and any choice. All human life appears in the form of the actions of some automaton, and human freedom, choice and moral responsibility can be nothing more than illusions. With his doctrine of the arbitrary deflection of atoms, Epicurus not only anticipated the probabilistic picture of the world modern science, but also outlined the possibilities of combining natural determinism with human freedom.

Recognizing the atomistic theory of the plurality of worlds, Epicurus actually abandoned the idea of gods as the ancestors of the universe. In his opinion, the gods live in interworldly space, without in any way influencing the destinies of people. The main place in the teachings of Epicurus was occupied by ethical teaching. Affirming the material principle in essence human personality, Epicurus created a peculiar the doctrine of pleasure as the goal of life. Pleasure consists of preserving mental peace, satisfying natural and necessary needs and leads first to the achievement of peace of mind (“ataraxia”), and then to happiness (“eudaimonia”). True pleasure, according to Epicurus, is “the absence of bodily pain.” Epicurus insisted on satisfying natural and precisely necessary needs, that is, those associated with the preservation of life.

A person who has comprehended the truth learns to separate necessary needs from unnecessary ones and voluntarily abandon them. A person’s ability to achieve complete happiness is hampered by the fears that dominate him and which must be overcome. Epicurus identified three types of fear:

- Fear of celestial phenomena. This fear is overcome by the knowledge of atomic physics, cosmology and astronomy, which provide a completely logical explanation for all natural phenomena.

- Fear of the gods. Overcoming this fear consisted of recognizing the fact that the gods themselves are in constant bliss and do not intend to interfere in any way in the lives of people.

- Fear of death. Being a supporter of materialistic philosophy, Epicurus argued the meaninglessness of this fear, because there is no afterlife, the human soul itself, being material, is mortal just like the body, which means there is no point in tormenting oneself with thoughts of what will happen after death.

A sage should have a friendly but reserved attitude towards the state and religion. Epicurus highly valued the joys of private life and friendship; he called for a conscious renunciation of public life. The motto of the Epicureans became the words: “Live unnoticed!”

After the closure of the Garden of Epicurus in the 1st century BC. in Athens, Epicurean circles continued to exist in Italy.

Epicureanism penetrated Roman soil quite early. In the 2nd century BC. Gaius Anafinius expounds the teachings of Epicurus in Latin. And in the 1st century BC. In the vicinity of Naples, the Epicurean school of Siron and Philodemus arose, which became the main center of culture and education in Italy during the decline of the republican institutions of Rome. The elite of educated Roman society, including the famous Roman poets Virgil and Horace, gather at Philodemus's estate.

Epicureanism gained a lot of supporters and followers among the Romans. Among them, the most prominent and famous is Titus Lucretius Carus, whose poem “On the Nature of Things” played a huge role in the spread of Epicureanism. In conditions of civil wars and social upheavals, Lucretius Carus seeks in the philosophy of Epicurus a way to achieve serenity and equanimity of spirit. According to Lucretius, the main enemies of human happiness are fear of the underworld, fear of afterlife retribution and fear of the intervention of the gods in people's lives, generated by ignorance of the true nature of man and his place in the world. In overcoming them, Lucretius sees the main task of his poem, which has become a kind of encyclopedia of Epicureanism.

At the end of the 2nd century AD. By order of the Epicurean Diogenes, giant inscriptions were carved in the city of Enoanda in Asia Minor in order to familiarize fellow citizens with the teachings of Epicurus.

At the same time, in imperial Rome, Epicureanism quickly degenerated into primitive hedonism, justifying and praising the pursuit of any sensual pleasures.

HedonAndzm(from the Greek hedone - pleasure), an ethical position that affirms pleasure as the highest good and criterion of human behavior and reduces the whole variety of moral requirements to it. The desire for pleasure in hedonism is considered as the main driving force of a person, inherent in him by nature and predetermining all his actions. In Ancient Greece, one of the first representatives of hedonism in ethics was the founder of the Cyrene school, Aristippus, who saw the highest good in achieving sensual pleasure. Aristippus (435-355 BC) was from the city of Cyrene, a Greek city on the African coast in Libya. He knew how to adapt to any person, playing his role in accordance with the situation. Aristippus considered sensual pleasure the goal of life and sought all the pleasures available to him. Although a reservation was made that pleasures should be reasonable and that one should not be a slave to pleasure, the Cyrenaics were still both slaves of pleasure and slaves of those on whom these pleasures depended.

Philosophy of Epicurus

The main question for them is what constitutes human bliss? The hedonism they preach deciphers the concept of good, the content of which is pleasure, regardless of the occasion. Aristippus identifies virtue with the ability to enjoy. The value of science lies in preparing a person for true pleasure.

Ultimate happiness is achieved only through judicious self-control. The Cyrenaics sought to isolate the individual from the general dynamics of the world and sought this isolation in domination over pleasure.

Everything that gives pleasure is good, but everything that deprives it, and even more so brings suffering, is bad. Hedonism is vulnerable in the sense that it easily turns from preaching the joy of life into preaching death.

Thus, the philosophy of Epicurus can be considered ascetic, because he insisted on the maximum limitation of the list of necessary needs, the satisfaction of which allows one to achieve bliss, while in hedonism the desire for pleasure is considered as the main driving principle of a person, inherent in him by nature and predetermining all of his actions.

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Outstanding representatives of Epicureanism are Epicurus (341-270 BC) and Lucretius Carus (c. 99-55 BC). This philosophical direction belongs to the border between the old and new eras. The Epicureans were interested in questions of structure and personal comfort in the complex historical context of that time.

Epicurus developed ideas of atomism. According to Epicurus, only bodies located in space exist in the Universe. They are directly perceived by the senses, and the presence of empty space between bodies follows from the fact that otherwise movement would be impossible. Epicurus put forward an idea that differed sharply from Democritus's interpretation of atoms. This is the idea of the “bending” of atoms, where the atoms move in a “coherent flow.” According to Democritus, the world is formed as a result of the mutual “impact” and “rebounding” of atoms. But the sheer weight of atoms contradicts the concept of Epicurus and does not allow us to explain the independence of each atom: in this case, according to Lucretius, the atoms would fall, like raindrops, into an empty abyss. If we follow Democritus, the undivided dominance of necessity in the world of atoms, being consistently extended to the atoms of the soul, will make it impossible to admit human free will. Epicurus solves the question this way: he endows atoms with the ability of spontaneous deflection, which he considers by analogy with the internal volitional act of man. It turns out that atoms are characterized by “free will,” which determines “inevitable deviation.” Therefore, atoms are able to describe different curves, begin to touch and touch each other, intertwine and unravel, as a result of which the world arises. This idea made it possible for Epicurus to avoid the idea of fatalism. Cicero is right in asserting that Epicurus could not have avoided Fate any other way than with the help of the theory of atomic spontaneity. Plutarch notes that the spontaneity of atomic deflection is what happens. From this Epicurus draws the following conclusion: “There is no need for necessity!” Thus, Epicurus for the first time in history philosophical thought put forward the idea of the objectivity of chance.

According to Epicurus, life and death are equally not terrible for the sage: “As long as we exist, there is no death; when death is there, we are no more.” Life is the greatest pleasure. Such as it is, with a beginning and an end.

Characterizing the spiritual world of man, Epicurus recognized the presence of a soul. He characterized it this way: there is nothing subtler or more reliable than this essence (soul), and it consists of the smallest and smoothest elements. The soul was thought by Epicurus as the principle of the integrity of individual elements of the spiritual world of the individual: feelings, sensations, thoughts and will, as the principle of eternal and indestructible existence.

Knowledge, according to Epicurus, begins with sensory experience, but the science of knowledge begins primarily with the analysis of words and the establishment of precise terminology, i.e. The sensory experience acquired by a person must be comprehended and processed in the form of certain terminologically fixed semantic structures. In itself, a sensory sensation, not raised to the level of thought, is not yet genuine knowledge. Without this, only sensory impressions will flash before us in a continuous stream, and this is simply continuous fluidity.

Main principle of ethics Epicureans is pleasure - the principle of hedonism. At the same time, the pleasures preached by the Epicurean are characterized by an extremely noble, calm, balanced and often contemplative character. The pursuit of pleasure is the original principle of choice or avoidance. According to Epicurus, if a person’s feelings are taken away, there will be nothing left.

The philosophy of Epicurus - briefly.

Unlike those who preached the principle of “enjoying the moment”, and “what will be, will be!”, Epicurus wants constant, even and undecaying bliss. The sage’s pleasure “splashes in his soul like a calm sea on the solid shores” of reliability. The limit of pleasure and bliss is to get rid of suffering! According to Epicurus, one cannot live pleasantly without living rationally, morally and justly, and, conversely, one cannot live rationally, morally and fairly without living pleasantly!

Epicurus preached piety and worship of God: “a wise man must kneel before the gods.” He wrote: “God is an immortal and blissful being, as the general idea of God was outlined (in the mind of man), and does not ascribe to him anything alien to his immortality or inconsistent with his bliss; but imagines everything about God that can preserve his bliss, combined with immortality. Yes, gods exist: knowing them is an obvious fact. But they are not what the crowd imagines them to be, because the crowd does not constantly retain its idea of them.”

Lucretius Carus, the Roman poet, philosopher and educator, one of the outstanding Epicureans, like Epicurus, does not deny the existence of gods consisting of the finest atoms and residing in the interworld spaces in blissful peace. In his poem “On the Nature of Things,” Lucretius elegantly, in poetic form, depicts a light and subtle, always moving picture of the influence that atoms have on our consciousness through the outflow of special “eidoles,” as a result of which sensations and all states of consciousness arise. It is very interesting that atoms in Lucretius are not exactly the same as in Epicurus: they are not the limit of divisibility, but a kind of creative principles from which a specific thing is created with its entire structure, i.e. atoms are the material for nature, which presupposes some kind of creative principle located outside them. There are no hints of spontaneous activity of matter in the poem. Lucretius sees this creative principle either in the progenitor Venus, or in the skilled Earth, or in the creative nature - nature. A.F. Losev writes: “If we are talking about the natural philosophical mythology of Lucretius and call it a kind of religion, then let the reader not be confused here in three pines: the natural philosophical mythology of Lucretius ... has absolutely nothing in common with the traditional mythology that Lucretius refutes.”

According to Losev, the independence of Lucretius as a philosopher is deeply revealed in an episode of the history of human culture, which constitutes the main content of the 5th book of the poem. Adapted from the Epicurean tradition negative rating those improvements in the material conditions of life, which, without ultimately increasing the amount of pleasure people receive, serve as a new object of acquisition, Lucretius ends the 5th book not with the Epicurean morality of self-restraint, but with praise to the human mind, mastering the heights of knowledge and art.

In conclusion, it should be said that we are accustomed to interpret Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius and others only as materialists and atheists. Following the brilliant expert on ancient philosophy and my close friend A.F. Losev, I adhere to the point of view according to which ancient philosophy did not know materialism in the European sense of the word at all. It is enough to point out that both Epicurus and Lucretius most unequivocally recognize the existence of gods.

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In Athens, Epicureans gathered in a garden that belonged to Epicurus. This is where the second name of the school came from – “Garden”, or “Garden of Epicurus”, and its inhabitants were called philosophers “from the gardens”. The school was a community of like-minded friends living in accordance with the principles of the philosophical teachings of Epicurus. There was an inscription on the school gate: “Guest, you will feel good here; here pleasure is the highest good,” and at the entrance stood a jug of water and a loaf of bread. Women and slaves were allowed into the school, which was quite unusual at that time. Life within the Epicurean community was modest and unpretentious; Unlike the Pythagorean alliance, the Epicureans did not believe that property should be shared, since this could become a source of mistrust between them.

Shouldn't be afraid of the gods

should not be afraid of death,

good is easily achievable

evil is easily tolerated.

The personality of Epicurus played a primary role in the school, acting as the embodiment of wisdom and a role model. He himself established the principle for his students: “Do everything as if Epicurus was looking at you” (Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, XXV, 5). Apparently, this is why his images could be found everywhere at school: on clay and wooden tablets, and even on rings. Although, it is worth noting that, unlike Pythagoras, he was never deified by his followers.

In a polemically pointed form, he emphasized that the source of all benefits is sensual pleasures. In his will, Epicurus asks his schoolmates to gather every month in memory of him and Metrodorus, and also to take care of Metrodorus's children. Epicurus's successor in leadership of the school was Hermarch of Mytilene, and then Polystratus.

The elite of educated Roman society, including the famous Roman poets Virgil and Horace, gather at Philodemus's estate.

Epicureanism gained a lot of supporters and followers among the Romans. Among them, the most prominent and famous is Titus Lucretius Carus, whose poem On the Nature of Things played a huge role in the spread of Epicureanism. In conditions of civil wars and social upheavals, Lucretius Carus seeks in the philosophy of Epicurus a way to achieve serenity and equanimity of spirit. According to Lucretius, the main enemies of human happiness are fear of the underworld, fear of afterlife retribution and fear of the intervention of the gods in people's lives, generated by ignorance of the true nature of man and his place in the world. In overcoming them, Lucretius sees the main task of his poem, which has become a kind of encyclopedia of Epicureanism.

At the end of the 2nd century. AD by order of the Epicurean Diogenes in the city of Enoanda in

Giant inscriptions were carved in Asia Minor in order to familiarize their fellow citizens with the teachings of Epicurus.

Bibliography

1. Wundt V. Introduction to philosophy. – M: Dobrosvet LLP, 2001

2. Kanke V.A. Philosophy: Academic. – M: Logos, 2001

3. Spirkin A.G. Philosophy: Academic. – M: Gardariki, 2004

4. Philosophers / Ed. Tobachkova E.V. – M: RIPOL CLASSIC, 2002

Epicurus

Epicurus(Greek Επίκουρος; 342/341 BC, Samos - 271/270 BC, Athens) - ancient Greek philosopher, founder of Epicurialism in Athens (“Garden of Epicurus”), in which he developed the Aristippan ethics of pleasures in combination with Democritus' doctrine of atoms.

Biography

According to Diogenes Laertius, the Athenian Epicurus grew up on the island of Samosi at the age of 14 (according to other sources, from the age of 12) and began to be interested in philosophy. At the age of 18 he came to Athens. When Perdiccas (regent of Macedonia in 323-321 BC) after the death of Alexander the Great expelled the Athenians from Samos, Epicurus went to his father in Colophon (a city in Ionia, Asia Minor), where he lived for some time and gathered disciples around him. At the age of 32, he founded his own philosophical school, which was initially located in Mytilene (on the island of Lesvos) and Lampsaka (on the Asian shore of the Dardanelles), and from 306 BC. e. - in Athens. In this city, Epicurus and his students settled in the garden he bought (hence the name of the Epicureans: “philosophers of the Garden”). Above the entrance there hung a saying: “Guest, you will feel good here. Here pleasure is the highest good.” The philosopher died (“from a kidney stone,” as Diogenes Laertius writes) in 271 or 270 BC. e.

The teachings of Epicurus

Epicurus was a proponent of atomistic materialism, recognizing that everything in the world is made of atoms. Characterizing atoms, Epicurus introduced a new concept that neither Leucippus nor Democritus had - he believed that atoms have weight. It is the weight of the atoms that determines their movement after the initial push - the atoms, under the influence of their gravity, begin to fall down into infinite space. Let us recall that Leucippus and Democritus defined the movement of atoms after the initial shock as uniform in all directions.

Recognizing the atomistic theory of the plurality of worlds, Epicurus actually abandoned the idea of gods as the ancestors of the universe. In his opinion, the gods live in interworldly space and are in eternal bliss, without in any way influencing the destinies of people. Subsequently, for these words, Epicurus was repeatedly accused of atheism, and after Christianity became the main religion in Europe, Epicurus’s works were prohibited from publication for a long time.

Just like previous atomists and rejecting the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, Epicurus considered the soul to be a material object consisting of a certain kind of atoms distributed throughout the body. The most important part of the soul is the mind, located in the heart.

Epicurus called his theory of knowledge “canon”, since it was based on the doctrine of the criteria or canons of truth. He considered the primary criterion to be the sensations in which life is given to us. And, unlike Plato and Aristotle, Epicurus considered reason to be completely dependent on sensations as the main source of human knowledge about the world. Epicurus did not distinguish between false and true sensations.

In the canon of Epicurus, secondary criteria of truth are also distinguished, such as “anticipation” (prolepsis), “endurance” (pathe) and “figurative throw of thought.” “Anticipation” is “an imprint - a remembrance of what has often appeared to us from the outside,” that is, assumptions and associations based on already experienced sensations and their synthesis. Hence, concepts are the essence of “deep impressions”, formed by layering in the perception of sensations from similar objects and serving as guidelines for “anticipations”. “Enduring” -pathe is rather a criterion of attitude towards life and sensations, a basis for moral assessments in accordance with ethical principles. It is quite difficult to explain unambiguously what Epicurus himself meant by “throws of thought”, since his authorship of the use of this term is known only in a letter to Herodotus. “Only that which is caught by observation or a flash of thought is true,” “the main sign of perfect and complete knowledge is the ability to quickly use flashes of thought” (eniballs).

Epicurus gave primary importance to ethics and human education. Epicurus sought to provide practical guidance for life (ethics); This was served by physics (natural philosophy), and the latter by logic. Epicurus's doctrine of nature is, in essence, a democratic doctrine: there is an infinite number and variety of spontaneously developing worlds, which are the result of the collision and separation of atoms, besides which nothing exists except empty space. In the space between these worlds (in the “interworlds”), immortal and happy, the gods live, not caring about the world and people. In the same way, living beings arise and disappear, as well as the soul, which consists of the finest, lightest, most round and mobile atoms.

Knowledge of nature is not an end in itself; it frees a person from the fear of superstition and religion in general, as well as from the fear of death. This liberation is necessary for the happiness and bliss of man, the essence of which is pleasure, but this is not a simple sensual pleasure, but a spiritual one, although in general all kinds of pleasures in themselves are not bad. However, spiritual pleasure is more stable, because it does not depend on external interference. Thanks to reason, the gift of the gods, for which they do not require any gratitude, aspirations must be brought into agreement (symmetry), which presupposes pleasure, and at the same time, calmness and equanimity (ataraxia) not disturbed by unpleasant experiences are achieved, in which true piety lies. Epicurus urged a person to weigh the pleasure he receives with the possible consequences. “Death has nothing to do with us; when we are alive, death is not yet there; when it comes, we are no longer there,” the philosopher asserted.

A sage should treat the public (especially the state and cult) in a friendly but reserved manner. Epicurus's motto: “Live in solitude!” In general, Epicurus apparently viewed society as something like a union of atomic units - human individuals, based on a kind of “social contract”, meaning mutual benefit and non-harm. This corresponds to Epicurus's concept that the main desire of people is to be happy, that is, not to suffer. The philosopher believed that people tend to forget these foundations of society.

Epicurus also, judging by the available information, considered speech as a product of agreement between people. But unlike Democritus, Epicurus also pointed out the physiological connection between the development of speech and the conditions of the living environment. In particular, he believed that different climates have different effects on human lungs and on the nature of the sounds made by people. He believed this to be one of the reasons for the differences between languages.

Some ancient authors reproached Epicurus for plagiarism. For example, Ariston in the “Biography of Epicurus” claims that Epicurus copied his “Canon” from the “Tripod” of Nausiphanes, and the Stoics stated that Epicurus appropriated the teaching of Democritus about atoms and the teaching of Aristippus the Cyrenaic about pleasure as the highest good. Epicurus himself, according to some evidence, spoke of these and other philosophers rather dismissively, and even contemptuously.

However, the main place in the teachings of Epicurus was still occupied by ethical teaching. For example, emphasizing the subordination of physics in relation to the knowledge of ethics, he said: “If you do not worry about celestial phenomena and do not know the fear of death, its close breath, do not look for the boundaries of pleasure and suffering, then the science of nature would hardly be needed.”

Affirming the material principle in the essence of the human personality, Epicurus created a unique doctrine of pleasure as the goal of life. Pleasure consists of satisfying natural and necessary needs and leads first to the achievement of peace of mind ("ataraxia"), and then to happiness ("eudaimonia").

Subsequently, in everyday opinion, the philosophy of Epicurus received a greatly simplified interpretation - an Epicurean is one who strives to experience all the joys of life, stopping at nothing to obtain bodily pleasure. However, such an understanding of Epicureanism has nothing to do with the truth.

Real pleasure, true pleasure, according to Epicurus, is “the absence of bodily suffering.” He wrote: “When we say that good is pleasure, this is not an indication of gluttons and lazy people, flighty people and scoundrels who ignore or do not understand our teaching. We are talking and pointing to the absence of bodily suffering and anxiety. These are not continuous celebrations, not the languor of young virgins, not everything with which the bountiful table tempts us, but a sober discussion, seeking the final reasons for every act of choice or refusal, which exposes all the false opinions from which all spiritual unrest comes.”

Epicurus insisted on satisfying natural and precisely necessary needs, i.e. those related to the preservation of life. A person who has comprehended the truth in the Epicurean understanding learns to separate necessary needs from unnecessary ones and voluntarily abandon the latter. By and large, the philosophy of Epicurus can be considered ascetic, because he insisted on maximally limiting the list of necessary needs, the satisfaction of which allows one to achieve bliss.

A person is prevented from acquiring complete happiness by the fears that dominate him and which must be overcome. Epicurus identified three types of fear:

1. Fear of celestial phenomena.

This fear is overcome by the knowledge of atomic physics, cosmology and astronomy, which provide a completely logical explanation for all natural phenomena.

2. Fear of the gods.

Overcoming fear of the gods, according to Epicurus, consisted of recognizing the fact that the gods themselves are in constant bliss and are not going to interfere in any way with people's lives.

3. Fear of death.

Being a supporter of materialistic philosophy, Epicurus argued the meaninglessness of this fear, because there is no afterlife, the human soul itself, being material, is mortal just like the body, which means there is no point in tormenting oneself with thoughts of what will happen after death. Epicurus’ aphorism became famous, in which the philosopher affirms the idea that life and death never meet: “While we are alive, there is no death, when we are dead, there is no life.”

It is interesting that Epicurus considered political and social activities to be fundamentally unnatural needs. It is characterized by an exaltation of private life and a conscious rejection of public life. The motto of the Garden of Epicurus was: “Live unnoticed!”

The doctrine of man and his nature

◦ A person owes his birth to himself and his parents.

◦ Man is the result of biological evolution.

◦ There may be gods, but they cannot in any way interfere in the lives of people and earthly affairs.

◦ The fate of a person depends on himself, and not on the gods.

◦ The human soul dies along with the body.

◦ The ability to live well and die well is one and the same science.

Glossary

*Epicureanism- a philosophical doctrine based on the ideas of Epicurus and his followers.

* Natural philosophy(from Latin natura - nature) - a historical term that denoted (approximately until the 18th century) the philosophy of nature, understood as an integral system of the most general laws of natural science

* Anticipation - assumptions and associations based on already experienced sensations and their synthesis

* First push - atoms, under the influence of their gravity, begin to fall down into infinite space

* Enduring - pathe - is a criterion for attitude towards life and sensations, the basis for moral assessments in accordance with ethical principles

* Logic is the science of the forms, methods and laws of intellectual cognitive activity, formalized using logical language.

* True- reflection of an object by a cognizing subject, its reproduction as it supposedly exists on its own, as if outside and independently of the cognizing subject and his consciousness.

Cynicism

Cynics(ancient Greek κῠνικοί, from κύων (dog) and/or Κῠνόσαργες (Kinosargus, a hill in Athens); lat. Cynici), Cynicism is one of the most significant Socratic philosophical schools

Origin

At the beginning of the 4th century. BC e. Philosophical schools were founded by some of Socrates' students. One of these schools was Cynicism. The founder of the school, Antisthenes of Athens, developing the principles of the teacher, began to argue that the best life lies not simply in naturalness, but in getting rid of conventions and artificialities, in freedom from possessing unnecessary and useless things. Antisthenes began to argue that in order to achieve the good one should live “like dog”, that is, combining:

Simplicity of life, following one’s own nature, contempt for conventions;

The ability to firmly defend your way of life, stand up for yourself;

Loyalty, courage, gratitude.

Thus, he sought to live on his own and called himself aplokion (ἁπλοκύων, true dog). From this word comes the name of the school, Cynicism. (According to another version, the name of the school comes from the name of the place where the gymnasium was located, in which Antisthenes held conversations with students - Kinosargus, Κῠνόσαργες, “Vigilant Dog”.) This program of Antisthenes served as the basis for the program of the entire school, and on the grave of Diogenes of Sinope a monument of Parian marble with a sculpture of a dog.

Concept

In carrying out its program, cynicism started from generally accepted views and developed new ones, directly opposite to existing ones, using the method of “negative filiation of ideas” (παραχᾰράττειν τό νόμισμα, “re-minting of coins”). Certain elements characteristic of Cynic ethics were “in the air” and were found, in addition to Socrates, for example. in the philosophy of the Sophists, in Euripides. But specifically these ideas were formalized as a system precisely by the school of cynicism:

Askesis;

Apedeusia;

Autarky.

The founder of the school, Antisthenes, opposed the division of the world, traditional since the time of the Eleatic school, into intelligible (“according to truth”) and sensory (“according to opinion”) existence, etc. against Plato’s teaching about incorporeal “species” or “ideas” comprehended by the mind (which anticipated Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s ideas).

The principle of wisdom as practical knowledge of the good. Wisdom does not consist in theoretical knowledge inaccessible to humans. Only practical reason integrated with worldly wisdom is recognized; “correct” science is considered one of the most harmful phenomena. True good can only be the property of each individual person, but not common to many; and the goal of a virtuous life may accordingly not be wealth, which can be disunited, but health (calmness, tranquility, etc.). The absence of general “species” posits goodness as detachment from everything that makes a person dependent on the [illusory] general; from property, from pleasures, from artificial and conventional concepts.

The main task of philosophy, Antisthenes argued, is to study the inner world of man, to understand what is true good for man. Therefore, cynicism does not create abstract theories, in abstraction from the abstract it strives for the limit and, as a system, represents a complex of practical ideals.

Cynic ethics proceeds from a fundamental frontal denial and rejection of the moral code of the average individual. Such ethics, first of all, are negative, “crosses out” generally accepted values and requires “unlearning from evil,” that is, a break with established moral norms. The concept of cynic virtue boils down to this. to four points:

Naturalism;

Subjectivism;

Individualism;

Eudaimonism.

At the center of Cynic philosophy is man with his natural concerns. The cynic seeks the norm in the nature of man as a species and an individual, and does not wait for divine instructions to decide his own life.

Glossary.

Askesis(ἄσκησις), the ability to self-denial and endure difficulties. The askesis of the Cynics is an extreme simplification; limiting one's needs; detachment from what is not absolutely necessary for the function of man as a living being; "strength of spirit, character."

Apedeusia(ἀπαιδευσία), the ability to free oneself from the dogmas of religion and culture. Apedeusia of Cynics - detachment from culture and society. Cynics believe that culture (in particular writing) makes knowledge dead, etc. lack of education, bad manners and illiteracy are considered [cynic] virtues.

Autarky(αὐτάρκεια), the ability for independent existence and self-restraint. Cynic autarchy - independence and self-sufficiency, renunciation of family, renunciation of the state.

Naturalism, based on the priority of nature; not from the maximum nature, but from the minimum nature, which presupposes the lowest level of needs and only the economically necessary rate of consumption.

Subjectivism, based on "free will"; on the strength of spirit, character, ability for independent existence, self-restraint, self-denial, enduring difficulties, liberation from the shackles of religion, state, family, etc.

Individualism, orienting a person’s behavior towards achieving independence from society, which imposes on him responsibilities alien to him and hostile, inducing properties alien to him.

Eudaimonism, presupposing salvation and happiness in poverty, moderation, detachment, which are natural for a reasonable, virtuous person who understands the true price of things..

Antisthenes (Kapisov)

EPICURUS (Epikuros)

342 or 341 – 271 or 270 BC e.

The ancient Greek materialist philosopher Epicurus was born on the island of Samos, in the family of the school teacher Neocles, a native of Athens. At the age of 32, he founded his own philosophical school, which was initially located in Mytilene (on the island of Lesbos) and Lampsacus (on the Asian shore of the Dardanelles), and from 306 BC. e. - in Athens. Here Epicurus and his students settled in the garden he bought (his school was therefore later called the “Garden of Epicurus”, and its inhabitants - the philosophers “of gardens”). Above the entrance to the garden hung a saying: “Guest, you will feel good here. Here pleasure is the highest good.” From the large legacy of Epicurus (about 300 works), several letters, aphorisms and a testament have survived.

The philosophy of Epicurus is divided into ethics, physics and canon (the doctrine of knowledge). In ethics, based on the ideas of Democritus and the Cyrene school, Epicurus declared the true nature of man to be the ability to sense (and not reason, like the Stoics), therefore the meaning and final goal human life - in achieving pleasure. Pleasure, according to Epicurus, is the absence of pain. The cause of suffering lies in man himself - these are passions and fears, from which philosophy is designed to cure people.

Epicurus' ethics is based on the position that "pleasure is the beginning and the end of a blessed life." Man, like all living beings, by nature strives for pleasure and avoids suffering, and in this sense, pleasure is a measure of good. However, a blissful life does not consist at all in receiving more and more pleasures, but in achieving the limit of pleasure - freedom from bodily suffering and mental anxieties (“ataraxia”).

To achieve this state of self-sufficient mental peace, a person must overcome the suffering that arises as a result of unsatisfied desires. According to Epicurus, desires are: 1) natural and necessary (hunger, thirst and other basic needs of life); 2) natural, but not necessary (for example, gourmet dishes); 3) absurd desires that are neither natural nor necessary (thirst for fame, wealth, immortality). Most people are unhappy because they are tormented by excessive and empty desires. Epicurus urged a person to weigh the pleasure he receives against the possible consequences. True pleasure is available only to those who know how to be content with an easily achievable minimum of natural and necessary needs.

In physics, Epicurus, following the atomistic teaching of Democritus, introduced, however, significant changes into it: the vortex motion of atoms is replaced by falling in Epicurus, and the concept of “weight” of atoms is introduced. Particularly noteworthy is the teaching of Epicurus about the arbitrary deviation of atoms from falling in a straight line, which substantiated the emergence of worlds (the number of which is infinite) and the freedom of the individual (i.e., the atom and man).

In his struggle with the traditional concept of fate in ancient natural philosophy, Epicurus went to the extent of an unprecedented denial of the exact laws of celestial phenomena.

Epicurus recognized sensations and concepts that are born from the repetition of sensations (prolepsis) or their anticipation as the source of knowledge. The criterion of truth is correspondence to sensations, the origin of which was explained by the Democritus theory of outflows.

Rejecting popular mythology's ideas about the gods as unholy, Epicurus believed that the gods lead a blissful and serene existence in the spaces between worlds (“metacosmia” or “intermundium”) and do not interfere in the life of the worlds, thereby providing the sage with a role model.

Man, according to Epicurus, should not fear the gods, since they, contrary to the opinions of the crowd, do not have any influence on either the world or people. One should not be afraid of death, since the soul, consisting of atoms, dissipates after death, like the body. “Death has nothing to do with us: when we exist, then death is not yet, and when death comes, then we are no longer.” Freeing the soul from the fears that oppress it opens the way to a blissful life.

The philosophy of Epicurus was a new stage of ancient atomism and had a significant influence on late antique and modern European philosophy.

EPICURUS

(341-270 BC)

Epicurus is an ancient Greek philosopher, the most outstanding thinker of the Hellenistic period in the development of philosophy. Born and raised on o. Most. At the age of eighteen he moved to Athens (temporarily); and at the age of 35 he finally founded a school there in the garden, on the gate of which was inscribed the following inscription: “Guest, you will feel good here, here pleasure is the highest good.” This school later received the name "Garden of Epicurus". Epicurus wrote a large number of works, about 300, of which only a few have reached us. Much material is contained in the writings of opponents of Epicureanism. First of all, Epicurus's understanding of philosophy and its purpose is of interest. Epicurus believes that philosophy is an activity that leads a person through reflection to a happy life, free from suffering. “The words of those who do not cure any human suffering are empty. Just as medicine is of no use if it does not expel illnesses from the body, so is philosophy if it does not expel illnesses of the soul” [Lucretius. About the nature of things. T.P.S. 487]. In development of this thought, he writes in a letter to Meneceus: “Let no one put off studying philosophy in his youth, and let no one in his old age tire of studying philosophy... Whoever says that the time has not yet come to study philosophy is like the one who says, that there is either not yet time for happiness, or there is no longer time.” Thus, the goal of philosophy is to educate people, and not to pure theory. Epicurus divides his philosophy into three parts: canon - the doctrine of knowledge, physics, ethics. The latter appears in Epicurus; the main part, but the first two parts are the rationale for ethics. According to Epicurus, all knowledge arises from sensations through the perception of natural objects, to which he also included images of fantasy. Perceptions arise in us as a result of the penetration into us of “images” (“videos”) of things. They are similar in appearance to solid bodies, but are significantly superior to them in “subtlety”. These images are aimed at the surface of things and move with the speed of thought. If they enter the sense organs, they give a real sensory experience, but if they penetrate the pores of the body, they give a fantastic experience. Concepts, or general ideas, are formed on the basis of individual ideas. Both perception and the general image always correctly reflect the world around us. Therefore, they act as criteria of knowledge. Misconceptions and errors arise only when we add something to our perceptions, attribute our idea to the wrong reality, i.e. the source of error is the mind. To substantiate his ethics, Epicurus draws on the atomism of Democritus. He proceeds from three premises formulated by him: 1) nothing arises from a non-existent and does not pass into it; 2) the universe has always been exactly as it is now and will always be so; 3) the universe consists of bodies and emptiness. These premises were also accepted by previous philosophers, including Democritus and Leucippus. Following them, Epicurus recognizes that bodies consist of atoms, which are indivisible and differ in shape, size and weight. Epicurus's emphasis on the difference between atoms by weight is a very significant feature of his concept. The difference between the physics of Epicurus and the physics of Democritus also lies in the understanding of the movement of atoms. Democritus argued that the movement of atoms in the void is determined by external mechanical necessity. Epicurus believed that atoms freely deviate from rectilinear movement . When moving, atoms spontaneously deviate from rectilinear motion and transform into curvilinear motion. This is the original contribution of Epicurus to the development of atomism. The self-deflection of atoms is necessary for Epicurus in order to explain their collision with each other. By this he explains the freedom that is inherent in atoms: under the influence of gravity, atoms move either in a straight line or randomly, and at the same time random deviations and collisions occur. The concept of the deflection of atoms, according to Epicurus, should be the basis for the concept of human freedom. The doctrine of knowledge and physics developed by Epicurus are not self-sufficient areas of knowledge for him, since philosophy, in his opinion, should not explore nature, but show man the path to happiness. Therefore, he places ethics at the center of his philosophical views as the only area worthy of serious consideration. Epicurus's views on ethical problems are formalized into a holistic system, which is often called Epicurean ethics. For Epicurus, happiness is pleasure. At the same time, he pointed out that pleasure should be understood as the absence of suffering. This ethical principle of pleasure as the basis of happiness, according to Epicurus, has nothing to do with hedonism. “When we say,” he wrote to Menoeceus, “that pleasure is the ultimate goal, we do not mean the pleasure of libertines and not the pleasure that lies in sensual pleasure, as some think who do not know or disagree or misunderstand, but we mean freedom from bodily suffering and mental anxieties" [Lucretius. About the nature of things. T. II. P. 131]. Considering that pleasure is the criterion of good, Epicurus did not at all take the position that a person should indulge in any pleasures indiscriminately. No, when choosing pleasures a person must be guided by the principle of prudence; only in this case will he receive true pleasure. “All other virtues originate from prudence: it teaches that one cannot live pleasantly without living rationally, morally and justly, and, conversely, one cannot live rationally, morally and justly without living pleasantly” [Lucretius. About the nature of things. T. II. P. 132]. At the same time, Epicurus provided a theoretical basis for behavior, according to which we should choose some pleasures and avoid others. “Since pleasure is the first and innate good for us, therefore we do not choose every pleasure, but sometimes we bypass many pleasures when they are followed by great trouble for us: we also consider many pains better than pleasure when greater pleasure comes for us, after how we will endure suffering over time. Thus, every pleasure, by natural affinity with us, is good, but not every pleasure should be chosen, just as every pain is evil, but not every pain should be avoided" [Lucretius. On the nature of things. Vol. II. P. 129] Thus, the ethical views of Epicurus represent a type of utilitarian interpretation of morality. This corresponds to his understanding of justice, which, in his opinion, is closely related to the contract: “Justice is not something in itself, but in the relations of people with each other in any place it is always some kind of agreement not to harm and not to suffer harm" [Lucretius. On the nature of things. T. Ts. S. XXXIII]. Epicurus to some extent anticipates the theory of the social contract developed in subsequent history of philosophy. The ethical and philosophical views of Epicurus were the basis of his atheistic views. At the same time, he assumed the existence of gods in “interworld” spaces, they are indifferent to the world and do not interfere in human life. He opposed divine providence, believing that it was an invention of the crowd. Fear of the gods and fear of death are, according to Epicurus, the main obstacles to achieving a happy state for a person. The ethics of Epicurus recommends avoiding public activities and focusing more on private life. This revealed the individualistic orientation of Epicurus’s ethical views, characteristic of the entire Hellenistic period. “Live unnoticed” is his rule.

Epicurus(b. 341 BC - d. 271/270 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher, founder of the Epicurean school, one of the four main schools of ancient philosophy of the Hellenistic period 13. Epicurus was born in the Athenian colony on the island. Samos in the Mediterranean Sea. In his youth he studied Platonic philosophy, then became acquainted with the teachings of Democritus and became his supporter. In 306 BC. e. founded his own philosophical school in Athens, called the “Garden”, since it was located in the garden that belonged to Epicurus. Epicurus died in Athens at the age of 70 or 71 from a kidney stone. Epicurus was the author of about 300 works, of which only a small part has survived. The main ones are considered Letter to Herodotus, Letter to Pythocles And Letter to Menoeceus, which are given in the work of Diogenes Laertius “On the life, teachings and sayings of famous philosophers” 14. The philosophy of Epicurus can be divided into three parts: theory of knowledge, which Epicurus himself called “canon”, since he considered the main subject here to be the doctrine of the criterion (canon) of truth; physics, which meant the doctrine of the structure of reality; And ethics, the doctrine of the purpose of human life and ways to achieve it. The main provisions of Epicurean teaching:

The criterion of truth is sensations, “anticipations” and feelings of pain and pleasure (empiricism);

All things consist of atoms that move in the void, sometimes connecting with each other, sometimes breaking these connections (materialism and atomism);

There are many material worlds, in the spaces between which live absolutely happy immortal beings, gods;

The gods do not rule the world, do not punish or persecute anyone, because otherwise they would not be absolutely happy;

The goal of human life is to achieve happiness (eudaimonism), which means serenity (ataraxia).

The only good is pleasure (hedonism), which consists in the absence of pain;

A person has three main fears that must be eliminated in order to be happy: fear of the punishments of the gods, fear of death and fear of the future.

The philosophy of Epicurus offers ways to get rid of these three main enemies of human happiness. They are discussed in the famous letter of Epicurus to his friend Menoeceus. Other important topics of the letter are: the need for constant study of philosophy, a correct understanding of the nature of the gods, getting rid of the fear of death, a correct understanding of the nature of desires and other issues of Epicurean ethics.

Letter to Menoeceus 15

Let no one in his youth put off studying philosophy, and in his old age let no one tire of studying philosophy: after all, for the sake of mental health, no one can be either immature or overripe. Whoever says that it is too early or too late to engage in philosophy is like someone who says that it is too early or too late to be happy. Therefore, both young and old should study philosophy: the first, so that in old age he remains young with the blessings of the good memory of the past, the second, so that he is both young and old, without fear of the future. Therefore, we need to think about what constitutes our happiness - after all, when we have it, then we have everything, and when we don’t have it, then we go to great lengths to get it.

So, both in your deeds and in your thoughts, follow my constant advice, believing in them the most basic principles of a good life.

First of all, believe that God is an immortal and blessed being, for this is the universal outline of the concept of God; and therefore do not attribute to him anything that is alien to immortality and uncharacteristic of bliss, but imagine about him only that by which his immortality and his bliss are supported. Yes, gods exist, for knowledge about them is obvious; but they are not what the crowd believes them to be, for the crowd does not preserve them as they are supposed to be. The wicked is not the one who rejects the gods of the crowd, but the one who accepts the opinions of the crowd about the gods - for the statements of the crowd about the gods are not anticipations, but conjectures, and false ones at that. It is in them that it is stated that the gods send great harm to bad people, and benefit to good people: after all, people are accustomed to their own merits and treat their own kind well, and consider everything that is not so alien.

Get used to thinking that death is nothing for us: after all, everything, good and bad, lies in sensation, and death is the deprivation of sensations. Therefore, if we adhere to the correct knowledge that death is nothing for us, then the mortality of life will become joyful for us: not because the infinity of time will be added to it, but because the thirst for immortality will be taken away from it. Therefore, there is nothing terrible in life for someone who has truly understood that there is nothing terrible in non-life. Therefore, he is stupid who says that he is afraid of death, not because it will cause suffering when it comes, but because it will cause suffering when it comes; that it doesn’t bother you with its presence, it’s completely in vain to grieve about it in advance. Therefore, the most terrible of evils, death, has nothing to do with us; when we exist, then death is not yet there, and when death comes, then we are no longer there. Thus, death does not exist either for the living or for the dead, since for some it itself does not exist, while others do not themselves exist for it.

Most people either flee death as the greatest of evils, or crave it as a rest from the evils of life. But the sage does not shy away from life and is not afraid of non-life, because life does not bother him, and non-life does not seem evil. Just as he chooses not the most abundant food, but the most pleasant, so he enjoys not the longest, but the most pleasant time. Whoever advises a young man to live well and an old man to end his life well is unreasonable, not only because life is sweet to him, but also because the ability to live well and die well is one and the same science. But even worse is the one who said: it’s good not to be born.

If you were born - Descend quickly to the abode of Hades.

If he says this out of conviction, then why does he die? After all, if he has firmly decided on this, then it is in his power. If he says this in mockery, then this is stupid, because the subject is not at all suitable for this.

We must remember that the future is not entirely ours and not entirely not ours, so as not to expect that it will certainly come, and not to despair that it will not come at all.

In the same way, among our desires, some should be considered natural, others idle; and among the natural, some are necessary, others are only natural; and among the necessary, some are necessary for happiness, others are necessary for the peace of the body, and others are simply necessary for life. If one does not make mistakes in such consideration, then every preference and every avoidance will lead to bodily health and mental serenity, and this is the ultimate goal of a blissful life. After all, everything we do, we do so as not to have any pain or anxiety; and when this is finally achieved, then every storm of the soul dissipates, since a living being no longer needs to go to something, as if to something missing, and to look for something, as if for the fullness of mental and physical blessings. Indeed, we feel the need for pleasure only when we suffer from its absence; and when we don’t suffer, we don’t feel any need. That is why we say that pleasure is both the beginning and the end of a blessed life; We have come to know it as the first good that is akin to us; from it we begin all preference and avoidance, and to it we return, using endurance as the measure of all good.

Since pleasure is the first and akin to our good, therefore we do not give preference to every pleasure, but sometimes we bypass many of them if they are followed by more significant troubles; and vice versa, we often prefer pain to pleasure if, having endured long pain, we expect greater pleasure after it. Therefore, every pleasure, being naturally related to us, is good, but not every one deserves preference; in the same way, all pain is evil, but not all pain should be avoided; but we must judge everything, considering and balancing what is useful and what is not useful - after all, sometimes we look at good as evil and, on the contrary, at evil as good.

Therefore, when we say that pleasure is the ultimate goal, we do not mean the pleasures of debauchery or sensuality, as those who do not know, do not share or poorly understand our teaching believe - no, we mean freedom from the suffering of the body and from the turmoil of the soul . For it is not endless drinking bouts and holidays, not the enjoyment of boys and women or the fish table and other joys of a luxurious feast that make our life sweet, but only sober reasoning, examining the reasons for all our preferences and avoidances and expelling opinions that place great anxiety in the soul.

Ponder these and similar advice day and night, with yourself and with those who are like you, and confusion will not befall you, either in reality or in a dream, but you will live like a god among people. For whoever lives among immortal blessings himself is in no way similar to a mortal.

Questions and tasks

Read the text carefully.

What properties, according to Epicurus, should be attributed to the gods and which should not?

Why does Epicurus believe that we should not be afraid of death?

Find in the text and formulate in your own words Epicurus's arguments against the fear of death.

Why shouldn't you be afraid of the future? How do you understand the words of Epicurus, “that the future is not entirely ours and not entirely not ours”?

What types of desires does Epicurus identify in his Letter to Menoeceus?

How does Epicurus understand pleasure?

Do you agree that pleasure is the main goal of human life? Justify your answer.

The idea was to teach a person a happy life, because everything else is unimportant.

Epicurus' Theory of Knowledge - Briefly

IN theories of knowledge Epicurus called for trusting sensory perceptions, since we still have no other criterion of truth. He believed that the criticism of sensationalism by skeptics has a purely theoretical interest, but in practice it is completely fruitless. The main conclusion to which Epicurus leads the listener with these arguments is: there is nothing supersensible. Even if it existed, we would not be able to perceive it, since we are given nothing but feelings. This conclusion is very important for the theory of Epicurus: it is from here that its materialism and atheism follow.

Physics of Epicurus, his atomism - briefly

In physics, Epicurus is an ardent supporter of Democritus's idea of atoms. In his opinion, it is entirely confirmed by sensory experience, for the mixing of different media that constantly occurs before our eyes cannot be explained without the assumption that they consist of the smallest particles. At the same time, atoms cannot be divisible indefinitely (Democritus’s term “atom” literally means “indivisible”), because then matter would dissipate in emptiness, and there would be no bodies at all.

Roman follower of Epicurus Titus Lucretius Carus

The popularity of Epicurus was unusually great in Rome. A majestic exposition of his philosophy was given by Titus Lucretius Carus in his poem “On the Nature of Things.” During the period of the decline of the empire, the societies of the followers of Epicurus seemed to be quiet refuges from political storms. Under Hadrian, during the Antonine dynasty, the number of Epicureans increased. But from the middle of the 4th century AD, the influence of Epicurus’ philosophy declined: it died along with the entire ancient world, without surviving the triumph of Christianity.