Of the billions
of people who have lived, perhaps one million have written books or left behind
some record of their teachings or beliefs.
Of those one million fortunate enough to be remembered by name, probably
no one person alive knows more than a few hundred or few thousand of these
writings. Scholars make it their
business to know a lot. But most of humanity settles for a relatively few of
these contributors to our civilizations.
The farther back we go the fewer will be remembered or end up in course
notes, text books, or referred to in popular literature. There are many good
reasons why this is so. We prefer to
dwell on the issues of our generation, not the issues of those who lived 2300
years ago. We feel the more modern
writers have more to say because they have been exposed to so many more
findings and interpretations of the universe, life, and the things that matter.
I am sure many people live relatively happy lives without ever having heard of
Epicurus.
I
was exposed to his ideas when learning about Western Civilization from my blind
high school teacher, Morris Cohen. I liked what I heard and I looked at a book
I had at home, Lucretius’s On the Nature
of Things. It described the ideas of
Epicurus. It gave me a picture of how
the ancient world saw the universe. I
learned more about the philosophy of Epicurus from a book I bought recommended
by Mr. Cohen. It was Walter Pater’s
novel, Marius the Epicurean. Epicurus (341-270 BCE) was a Greek
philosopher who never married and who earned his living by teaching. He taught from the garden of his home and his
academy was called “the Garden.” He was
the first philosopher to accept both female and male students. He believed the
universe was not fully determinate as Democritus had taught, but was largely
indeterminate because it was more complex than Democritus believed. Instead of atoms moving like billiard balls
in straight lines, he believed atoms occasionally swerved and this created
indeterminacy and free will. He rejected taking anything on faith and claimed
we should only accept as real what we see, what we can deduce logically, and
what we can experience by hands-on activity.
He said happiness comes from avoiding pain and fear. He believed that death extinguishes both a
body and its soul. He claimed gods do
not punish or reward humans. Our object in life should be avoiding power,
sexual excess, and glory. Instead we
should live in moderation, savoring the simple pleasures of life, especially
the companionship of others, the satisfaction of the good things the world
offers us, and avoiding harm to others or to ourselves.
Over
time Epicureanism got a bad reputation and it was misinterpreted as a selfish
pursuit of pleasure involving over-indulgence in food, sex, drugs, or bad
company. Others saw it as a shallow
philosophy of life in which seeking pleasure deflected us from piety,
patriotism, or other civic virtues. I
consider myself an Epicurean in my philosophy.
I don’t think I could live as fully committed as Epicurus did. The world does matter to me. I may have shunned much of the pursuit of
pleasure but I have abided to most of Epicurus’s outlook. I reject the supernatural. I accept the
finality of death. I find life worth
living. I try hard not to harm
anyone. I do not abuse my body with such
habits as tobacco usage, alcoholism, or overconsumption of chemicals in my
foods and drinks that are known carcinogens or mutagens. My own life is more than Epicurean. Like Walt Whitman, “I contain
multitudes.” The voices of the past are
well represented in my being.
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