Epicurus wrote in one of his extant letters:
"...When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice, or willful misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of revelry, not sexual lust, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul. Of all this the beginning and the greatest good is wisdom. Therefore wisdom is a more precious thing even than philosophy ; from it spring all the other virtues, for it teaches that we cannot live pleasantly without living wisely, honorably, and justly; nor live wisely, honorably, and justly without living pleasantly. For the virtues have grown into one with a pleasant life, and a pleasant life is inseparable from them..."
- Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus)
I think that Epicureanism is a beautiful philosophy. It would lead an adherent to practise a life that is pleasant but not excessive, wise, free from mental anxiety or disturbance, calm, living attentively in the present, without any superstitious ideas and with the conviction of neither harming others nor being harmed oneself.
He furthermore believed that there was no afterlife, as a result of his attachment to atomist theories which posited that the "soul" was made up of mortal atoms that broke apart with the body. Yet he explained very clearly, indeed wonderfully, not to fear death because in his own words, "
when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer" (
Letter to Menoeceus).
I can well understand why the late Christopher Hitchens said that he was a follower of Epicurus (even though Epicurus believed in the "gods" in a deistic way, in that they existed but did not intervene in the world or in human affairs).
If I were a materialist (believing in no soul or afterlife), deist or atheist that would probably be the kind of ethical framework I would adopt as my own. I would be Epicurean.
Indeed it reminds me much of the philosophy underpinning the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible:
"...What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him...I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is impermanent. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?...As they [human beings] came from their mother's womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came...This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot..."
- Book of Ecclesiastes
Koheleth, the anonymous author of Ecclesiastes, also seems to intimate that when a person dies there is no existence afterwards (or at least he is agnostic on the topic of an afterlife as above) —"
a living dog is better than a dead lion … the dead know nothing… their loves, their hates, their jealousies have long since perished." Koheleth's answer for this perennial grief of certain mortality is simply to seize the day and live in the now. He tells us, "
Whatever it is in your power to do, do with all your might" and again, "
enjoy happiness with the woman you love."
This seems very Epicurean to me: Make the most of your short time on earth, live wisely, justly, honourably and pleasantly.
