Democritus ' atomist philosophy was later adopted by Epicurus ( 341 – 270 BCE ).

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.

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

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 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.

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.

This argument was a type favoured by the ancient Greek skeptics, and may have been wrongly attributed to Epicurus by Lactantius, who, from his Christian perspective, regarded Epicurus as an atheist.

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.

Epicurus was first to assert human freedom as coming from a fundamental indeterminism in the motion of atoms.

This has led some philosophers to think that for Epicurus free will was caused directly by chance.

Nietzsche was attracted to, among other things, Epicurus ' ability to maintain a cheerful philosophical outlook in the face of painful physical ailments.

However, he thought that Epicurus ' conception of happiness as freedom from anxiety was too passive and negative.

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.

Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus and Leucippus.

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.

After the death of Epicurus, his school was headed by Hermarchus ; later many Epicurean societies flourished in the Late Hellenistic era and during the Roman era ( such as those in Antiochia, Alexandria, Rhodes and Ercolano ).

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

Epicurus also calls them " the meanings that underlie the words " ( hypotetagmena tois phthongois: semantic substance of the words ) in his letter to Herodotus.

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

Epicurus seems to have had a strong sense of social contract, with justice and law being rooted in mutual agreement and advantage, as evidenced by these lines, among others, from his Principal Doctrines ( see also Epicurean ethics );

Quoting classical Greek thinkers like Epicurus on the good of pursuing happiness, Hunter also cites ornithologist, naturalist, and philosopher Alexander Skutch in his book Moral Foundations:

According to Cicero ( or rather his character Torquatus ) Epicurus also believed that pleasure was the chief good and pain the chief evil.

Epicurus also had a garden where he walked and taught, and bequeathed it to Hermarchus of Mytilene.

He was writing just a few years after the discovery of quantum mechanics and indeterminacy, and also makes passing mention of the ancient " swerve " of the atoms espoused by Epicurus:

In a letter also which he wrote upon his death-bed, Epicurus commended the children to the care of Idomeneus, who had married Batis, the sister of Metrodorus.

Polyaenus of Lampsacus (; ; c. 340 BCE – c. 285 BCE ), also spelled Polyenus, was an ancient Greek mathematician and a friend of Epicurus.

A group of Lampsacenes were in the circle of Epicurus ; they included Polyaenus of Lampsacus ( c. 340 – 278 BC ) a mathematician, the philosophers Idomeneus of Lampsacus, Colotes the satirist and Leonteus of Lampsacus ; Batis of Lampsacus the wife of Idomeneus, was the sister of Metrodorus of Lampsacus ( the younger ), whose elder brother, also a friend of Epicurus, was Timocrates of Lampsacus.

In late 2003, the imprint was also used to publish Epicurus the Sage and The Maxx trade paperbacks with material that was previously published by Image Comics, before it was finally merged with Homage Comics in 2004 to form the Wildstorm Signature Series.

It is also related by Plutarch, that Colotes, after hearing Epicurus discourse on the nature of things, fell on his knees before him, and besought him to give him instruction.

The Ghibelline commander Farinata degli Uberti is also consigned to Dante's hell, not for his conduct in the battle, but for his alleged heretical adherence to the philosophy of Epicurus.

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.

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

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.

For Epicurus, the chance " swerve " ( or clinamen ) of the atoms simply defeated determinism to leave room for autonomous agency.

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.

The word for a heretic in the Talmudic literature is " Apiqoros " ( אפיקורוס ), and Epicurus is titled in Modern Greek idiom as the " Dark Philosopher ".

The philosophy originated by Epicurus flourished for seven centuries.

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.

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 ).

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.

Lucian admired the works of Epicurus, for he breaks off a witty satire against Alexander of Abonoteichus, who burned a book of Epicurus, to exclaim:

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.

One important difference between Epicurus ’ eudaimonism and that of Plato and Aristotle is that for the latter virtue is a constituent of eudaimonia, whereas Epicurus makes virtue a means to happiness.

So whereas Aristotle would not say that one ought to aim for virtue in order to attain pleasure, Epicurus would endorse this claim.

His labors on Epicurus have historical importance, but he has been criticized for holding doctrines arguably irreconcilable with his strong expressions of empiricism.

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.

It appears from Cicero that he possessed an estate on which were the ruins of Epicurus ' house, and that he had determined to build on the site a house for himself.

Ataraxia ( Ἀταραξία " tranquility ") is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a lucid state of robust tranquility, characterized by ongoing freedom from distress and worry.

In the philosophy of Epicurus, hēdonē was the quest for pleasure that would have only good consequences.