Epicurus ' cheerful demeanor, as he continued to work despite dying from a painful stone blockage of his urinary tract lasting a fortnight, according to his successor Hermarchus and reported by his biographer Diogenes Laertius, further enhanced his status among his followers.

* Apollodorus the Epicurean, author of the Life of Epicurus, a work famous in ancient Greece but no longer extant

Here for the first time in the Renaissance the ideas of Epicurus found deliberate and positive expression in a work of scholarly and philosophical value.

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

His Histoire des causes premières was among the first attempts at a history of philosophy, and in his work on Epicurus, following on Gassendi, he defended Epicureanism against the general attacks made against it.

In refutation of it Plutarch wrote two works, a dialogue, to prove, That it is impossible even to live pleasantly according to Epicurus, and a work entitled Against Colotes.

In his " On the Nature of Things ," Lucretius appears to suggest this in the best-known passage on Epicurus ' position.

On this matter, gives evidence that Machiavelli may have seen himself as having learned something from Democritus, Epicurus and classical materialism, which was however not associated with political realism, or even any interest in politics.

In De Voluptate ( On Pleasure ), he contrasted the principles of the Stoics with the tenets of Epicurus, openly proclaiming his sympathy with those who claimed the right of free indulgence for man's natural appetites.

On the other hand, Costanzo Preve ( 1990 ) has assigned four " masters " to Marx: Epicurus ( to whom he dedicated his thesis, Difference of natural philosophy between Democritus and Epicurus, 1841 ) for his materialism and theory of clinamen which opened up a realm of liberty ; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from which come his idea of egalitarian democracy ; Adam Smith, from whom came the idea that the grounds of property is labour ; and finally Hegel.

* On Epicurus ( PHerc.

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.

Epicurus says that there are two kinds of motion: the straight motion and the curved motion, and its motion traverse as fast as the speed of thought.

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

According to Seneca, Epicurus placed Metrodorus among those who acquire assistance in working their way towards truth.

The gods are immortal and blessed and men who ascribe any additional qualities that are alien to immortality and blessedness are, according to Epicurus, impious.

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.

The atomic poems ( such as ' All Things are Governed by Atoms ') and natural philosophy of Margaret Cavendish were influenced by Epicurus.

This triad, as well as the egalitarianism of Epicurus, was carried forward into the American freedom movement and Declaration of Independence, by the American founding father, Thomas Jefferson, as " all men are created equal " and endowed with certain " inalienable rights ," such as " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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 Canto X Circle 6 (" Where the heretics lie ") of Dante's Inferno, Epicurus and his followers are criticized for supporting a materialistic ideal when they are mentioned to have been condemned to the Circle of Heresy.

Several of these Herculaneum papyri which are unrolled and deciphered were found to contain a large number of works by Philodemus, a late Hellenistic Epicurean, and Epicurus himself, attesting to the school's enduring popularity.

According to Epicurus, the basic means for our understanding of things are the ' sensations ' ( aestheses ), ' concepts ' ( prolepsis ), ' emotions ' ( pathe ) and the ' focusing of thought into an impression ' ( phantastikes epiboles tes dianoias ).

Following the lead of Aristotle, Epicurus also refers to impressions in the form of mental images which are projected on the mind.

Plethon derides Aristotle for discussing unimportant matters such as shellfish and embryos while failing to credit God with creating the universe, for believing the heavens are composed of a fifth element, and for his view that contemplation was the greatest pleasure ; the latter aligned him with Epicurus, Plethon argued, and he attributed this same pleasure-seeking to monks, whom he accused of laziness.

Besides Polemon, the statesman Phocion, Chaeron ( tyrant of Pellene ), the academic Crantor, the Stoic Zeno and Epicurus are said to have frequented his lectures.

Similar principles are stated by Zeno the Stoic, by Epicurus ( see Diogenes Laertius vii.

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.

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.

The brunt of this chapter allegedly narrates the opinions, not of Hume, but of one of Hume's anonymous friends, who again presents them in an imagined speech by the philosopher Epicurus.

Entering the University of Leiden he took his degree in philosophy in 1689, with a dissertation De distinctione mentis a corpore ( on the difference of the mind from the body ), in which he attacked the doctrines of Epicurus, Thomas Hobbes and Spinoza.

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

To Epicurus the summum bonum, or greatest good, was prudence, exercised through moderation and caution.

Epicurus reasoned if there was an afterlife and immortality, the fear of death was irrational.

Epicurus (, " ally, comrade "; 341 BC – 270 BC ) was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia — peace and freedom from fear — and aponia — the absence of pain — and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends.

The playwright Menander served in the same age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus.

After the completion of his military service, Epicurus joined his family there.

In 311 / 310 BC Epicurus taught in Mytilene but caused strife and was forced to leave.

Epicurus never married and had no known children.

Epicurus ' school, which was based in the garden of his house and thus called " The Garden ", had a small but devoted following in his lifetime.

Epicurus emphasized friendship as an important ingredient of happiness, and the school resembled in many ways a community of friends living together.

Epicurus is a key figure in the development of science and the scientific method because of his insistence that nothing should be believed, except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction.

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

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.

Pleasure and pain were ultimately, for Epicurus, the basis for the moral distinction between good and evil.

Although Epicurus has been commonly misunderstood to advocate the rampant pursuit of pleasure, he was actually after the absence of pain ( both physical and mental, i. e., suffering )-a state of satiation and tranquility that was free of the fear of death and the retribution of the gods.

Epicurus ' teachings were introduced into medical philosophy and practice by the Epicurean doctor Asclepiades of Bithynia, who was the first physician who introduced Greek medicine in Rome.

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

For instance, Epicurus warned against pursuing love too ardently.