Marx's doctoral thesis concerned the atomism of Epicurus and Democritus, which ( along with stoicism ) is considered the foundation of materialist philosophy.

The opinion of the crowd is, Epicurus claims, that the gods " send great evils to the wicked and great blessings to the righteous who model themselves after the gods ," whereas Epicurus believes the gods, in reality, do not concern themselves at all with human beings.

Epicurus ' philosophy is based on the theory that all good and bad derive from the sensations of pleasure and pain.

Therefore, as Epicurus famously said, " death is nothing to us.

Epicurus emphasized the senses in his epistemology, and his Principle of Multiple Explanations (" if several theories are consistent with the observed data, retain them all ") is an early contribution to the philosophy of science.

Epicurus agreed, and said it is to these last things that praise and blame naturally attach.

Epicurus the Sage is a two-part comic book by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth portraying Epicurus as " the only sane philosopher " by anachronistically bringing him together with many other well-known Greek philosophers.

In Rabbinic literature the term Epikoros is used, without a specific reference to the Greek philosopher Epicurus, yet it seems apparent that the term was derived from his name.

Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus ( c. 341 – c.

Following Aristippus — about whom very little is known — Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear ( ataraxia ) as well as absence of bodily pain ( aponia ) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires.

As much as Epicurus or Socrates was content to possess is best, or-in the Roman manner-a fortune equal to the equestrian order.

With many propagators including Democritus, Epicurus, Aristotle and their followers, this theory seems to have some contact with modern theories of what vision really is, but it remained only speculation lacking any experimental foundation.

For Epicurus the sovereign good was pleasure, and Descartes says that in fact this is not in contradiction with Zeno's teaching, because virtue produces a spiritual pleasure, that is better than bodily pleasure.

The originator of the problem of evil is often cited as the Greek philosopher Epicurus, and his argument may be schematized as follows:

Epicurus is generally credited with first expounding the problem of evil, and it is sometimes called " the Epicurean paradox " or " the riddle of Epicurus ":

Forms of hedonism were put forward by Aristippus and Epicurus ; Aristotle argued that eudaimonia is the highest human good and Augustine wrote that " all men agree in desiring the last end, which is happiness.

Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BCE.

He has been claimed as an influence on Eleatic philosophy, although that is disputed, and a precursor to Epicurus, a representative of a total break between science and religion.

In this he argued that there was clear lack of logic in the materialistic view of the world and concluded: " When I bring all this together it is impossible for me to understand on what scientific grounds is founded this resurrection of the old materialistic view of the world that had its first great expression from Epicurus and Lucretius.

All the above mentioned criteria of knowledge form the basic principles of the method, that Epicurus followed in order to find the truth.

Epicurus explicitly warned against overindulgence because it often leads to pain.

460 – 370 BC ) and Epicurus ( 341 – 270 BC ); from which academic speculation proposes is the derivation of the logical architecture of Capital: Critique of Political Economy, because exchange value, the " syllogisms " ( C-M-C ' and M-C-M ') for simple commodity circulation, and the circulation of value as capital, derive from the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle.

He is remembered chiefly because it was to him that Lucretius addressed the De rerum natura, perhaps with the idea of making him a convert to the doctrines of Epicurus.

Epicurus rejected any possibility of an afterlife, while still contending that one need not fear death: " Death is nothing to us ; for that which is dissolved, is without sensation, and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us.

Epicurus participated in the activities of traditional Greek religion, but taught that one should avoid holding false opinions about the gods.

Many hedonists, in accordance with Epicurus and contrarily to popular perception of his doctrine, advocate that we should first seek to avoid suffering and that the greatest pleasure lies in a robust state of profound tranquility ( ataraxia ) that is free from the worrisome pursuit or the unwelcome consequences of ephemeral pleasures.

Epicurus would often deny this influence, denounce other philosophers as confused, and claim to be " self-taught ".

In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume uses Epicurus as a character for explaining the impossibility of our knowing God to be any greater or better than his creation proves him to be.

The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are three letters, which are to be found in book X of Diogenes Laertius ' Lives of Eminent Philosophers, and two groups of quotes: the Principal Doctrines, reported as well in Diogenes ' book X, and the Vatican Sayings, preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library.

In ancient Greece, this can be found in the writings of Herodotus, Thucidides, Hippocrates, Epicurus, Protagoras, Polus, Plato and Aristotle.

A further principle of conservation was stated by Epicurus ( 341 – 270 BCE ) who, describing the nature of the universe, wrote that " the totality of things was always such as it is now, and always will be ".

Epicurus ' doctrine can be considered eudaimonist since Epicurus argues that a life of pleasure will coincide with a life of virtue.

Epicurus ’ basic doctrine is that a life of virtue is the life which generates the most amount of pleasure, and it is for this reason that we ought to be virtuous.

In The Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes such as unpopularity, feelings of inadequacy, financial worries, broken hearts, and the general problem of suffering.

To some extent these philosophers were all trying to meet the challenge laid down by Epicureanism, and the success of Epicurus was in developing a system of philosophy which would prove to be more comprehensive and sophisticated than its rivals.

Epicurus maintained that the unhappiness and degradation of humankind arose largely from the dread which they entertained of the power of the gods, from terror of their wrath, which was supposed to be displayed by the misfortunes inflicted in this life, and by the everlasting tortures which were the lot of the guilty in a future state, or where these feelings were not strongly developed, from a vague dread of gloom and misery after death.

Epicurus argued that these swerves would allow us to be more responsible for our actions, something impossible if every action was deterministically caused.

For Epicurus, the occasional interventions of arbitrary gods would be preferable to strict determinism.

Although traditionally ascribed to Epicurus, it has been suggested that it may actually be the work of an early skeptic writer, possibly Carneades.

" As for Otanes, he wished neither to rule nor to be ruled — the exact opposite of Aristotle's notion of true civic liberty ... ideal remains isolated and, until Epicurus, undeveloped ... the notion had not explicitly emerged ".

He left behind him a son named Epicurus, and a daughter, whom Epicurus, in his will, entrusted to the guardianship of Amynomachus and Timocrates of Potamus, to be brought up under the joint care of themselves and Hermarchus, and provided for out of the property which he left behind him.

He was of the opinion of Epicurus, that the soul dies with the body, and maintained that human happiness consisted in temporal pleasures ; but he did not follow these in the way that Epicurus did, that is by making long fasts to have afterwards pleasure in eating dry bread ; but was fond of good and delicate viands, and ate them without waiting to be hungry ; and for this sin he is damned as a Heretic in this place.