Cierra Coan

 Founded the philosophy Epicureanism  He led a life of sobriety and simplicity  Grounded in the atomic theory of Democritus  All things are made of atoms that are indivisible  Not interested in science but in finding out about the in good life

 Founded his school- The Garden- in Athens in the art of reason  Showed no interest in politics and the community  Garden is like a present day commune  “Live in seclusion!”

 Pleasure is the end to life  Epicurus’ definition of pleasure is negative  His belief was the absences of pain in life  No act should be undertaken except for when pleasure is the result  No act should be rejected except for the pain that it could produce  Epicurus put great stress on friendship because one’s own pleasure is dependent on others as well  Emphasized that pleasurable actions must be weighted with side effects

 Take all your money and buy all the chocolate you want  Eat all the chocolate in one sitting

 Wait a half and hour and see how you feel This is weighing pleasure with its side effects

 Also emphasized weighing short term pleasure to possible greater, more lasting, or more intense pleasure in the long run  Instead of buying chocolate save more money for something better

 Like a ticket to Chocolate good but Lady Gaga better

Natural desiresVain desires  Necessary – food and sleep  Unnecessary- sex  Decorative clothing or exotic food

 Necessary MUST be satisfied and usually easy to satisfy  The desire for sex is natural but usually can be overcome  When it can it should be overcome because the satisfaction of sexual drive gives intense pleasure And all the intense emotional states are dangerous  Also desire for sex puts people in relationships that end with more pain than pleasure

 Do not need to be satisfied and usually not easy to satisfy  Since there is no natural limit to them they tend to become obsessive and lead to very painful consequences

 Trouble with the teaching that pleasure is the absence of pain. It can be taken to the logical extremity  Absence of life is better than any life at all  This deduction is ironic because Epicurus claimed philosophy dispelled fear of death  Believe death was merely the absence of sensation and consciousness of death  “So long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist”  Believe in the theory of “soul atoms”  Didn’t believe in life after death because when we die, the “soul atoms” disperse in all directions

 Fear of gods brought many people to the garden  Atom theory of Democritus was useful in curing religious superstitions  Epicurus had little patience with religion, which he considered a form of ignorance  eager to help people loose their fear of the gods  He did say that the gods existed, although they lived far away in space somewhere and had little or nothing to do with people on earth  Atheism was still illegal in Athens

1. The gods are not to be feared 2. Death is nothing to worry about 3. Good is easy to attain 4. The fearful is easy to endure

 Though it didn’t become a major philosophy it was around for many centuries  Famous follower was Lucretius  Wrote long poem – On the Nature of Things- expounding the philosophy of Epicurus

 Epicureanism is considered by many to be for gluttonous and lazy people  This is all because of the Roman followers took his philosophy to the extreme  Because of this Epicureanism is associated with sensualistic hedonism Excessive devotion to sensual pleasure  Epicurean is used in the negative sense nowadays to describe someone who lives only for pleasure