Epicurus
E61893
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a school of thought that taught that the highest good is the pursuit of modest pleasures, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
Aliases (1)
Statements (58)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Hellenistic philosopher
→
ancient Greek philosopher → founder of a philosophical school → |
| birthDate |
341 BC
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|
| birthPlace |
Samos
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|
| citizenship |
Athens
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|
| deathDate |
270 BC
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|
| deathPlace |
Athens
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|
| era |
Hellenistic philosophy
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|
| ethnicity |
Greek
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|
| founded |
Epicureanism
→
Epicurus' Garden in Athens → The Garden → |
| influenced |
Horace
→
Karl Marx → Lucretius → Philodemus → Pierre Gassendi → Thomas Jefferson → |
| influencedBy |
Aristippus of Cyrene
→
Democritus → Pyrrho → Socrates → |
| mainInterest |
epistemology
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ethics → metaphysics → philosophy of nature → |
| name |
Epicurus
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|
| notableIdea |
absence of pain as the greatest pleasure
→
aponia → ataraxia → atomism → classification of desires into natural and necessary, natural but not necessary, and vain → death is nothing to us → gods are indifferent to human affairs → hedonism as pursuit of modest pleasures → materialism → pleasure as the highest good → the swerve of atoms (clinamen) → the tetrapharmakos (fourfold remedy) → |
| philosophicalSchoolLocation |
Garden of Epicurus in Athens
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|
| residence |
Athens
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|
| schoolOrTradition |
Epicureanism
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|
| taught |
avoidance of political life
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friendship as a key to happiness → knowledge based on sense perception → philosophy as a way of life → the goal of life is tranquility and freedom from fear → the universe is infinite and eternal → there is no afterlife of personal consciousness → |
| viewOnFear |
philosophy should free humans from fear of gods and death
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| viewOnGods |
gods exist but do not intervene in the world
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| wrote |
Letter to Herodotus
→
Letter to Menoeceus → Letter to Pythocles → On Nature → Principal Doctrines → Vatican Sayings → |