“This little book contains some of the greatest wisdom literature of the ages. Everyone, and especially young people, should be familiar with it.”
—Alan L. Boegehold (Emeritus Professor of Classics, Brown University)
Summary
Epicureanism and Stoicism occupy a unique place in the history of human thought. They were philosophies, not religions, but they came to take the place of religion for the more educated ancient Greeks and Romans.
They answered questions about ultimate reality, right conduct, and the way for human beings to find meaning and happiness in their lives.
Both philosophies taught, as Shakespeare later put it, that “Nothing is but thinking makes it so.” If we want to be happy and productive, we must strengthen and train our willful and wayward minds. There are echoes of the Buddha’s Dhammapada, and it is noteworthy that Buddhism too began as a highly empirical philosophy rather than as a religion.
Including Passages By
Epicurus (c. 341-270 BCE); Greek philosopher
Lucretius (1st-c BCE); Roman philosopher and poet
Epictetus (c. 50-130); freed slave and Greco-Roman philosopher
Marcus Aurelius (121-80); Roman emperor and philosopher
The Midwest Book Review – Small Press Bookwatch:
“Epicureans and Stoics” is a must for any with an interest in the classical world.”
[Complete review: MidwestBook Review.com]
Preface
Chapter One
Metaphysical Ethics: F. H. Bradley
Chapter Two
G. E. Moore
Chapter Three
Intuitionism
Chapter Four
The Emotive Theory
Chapter Five
After the Emotivists
Chapter Six
Moral Psychology
Chapter Seven
Existentialism: J-P. Sartre
Chapter Eight
Conclusion
Short Bibliography
Notes
Introduction: About Epicureanism and Stoicism
Epicureanism and Stoicism occupy a unique place in the history of human thought. They were philosophies, not religions, but they came to take the place of religion with the more educated ancient Greeks and Romans.
They answered questions about ultimate reality, right conduct, and the way for human beings to find meaning and happiness in their lives. This book omits the metaphysical teachings about the nature of the world and reality, but covers the personal and moral instruction.
The passages selected are wise, based on a close observation of human life. But they are also beautiful and moving. They speak to us as directly today as they did to the ancients.
In Roman times the differences between Epicureanism and Stoicism were emphasized. From the perspective of our own time, the similarities are more striking. Both instructed us, as the old saying goes, to be “philosophical” about life.
In particular, both Epicureanism and Stoicism taught, as Shakespeare later put it, that “Nothing is but thinking makes it so.” If we want to be happy and productive, we must strengthen and train our willful and wayward minds. There are echoes of the Buddha’s Dhammapada, and it is noteworthy that Buddhism too began as a highly empirical philosophy rather than as a religion.
Each saying in this short book is worth reading and re-reading. It is, in effect, a user’s manual for life, and continues to be as useful and relevant for us as it was for the ancients.
From Chapter One: Epicurus
The Principal Doctrines
1. [Live] exempt from movements of anger and partiality….
2. Death is nothing to us; for the body, when it has been resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and that which has no feeling is nothing to us.
8. No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves.
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Vatican Sayings
XI
For most men rest is stagnation and activity madness.
XIV
We are born once and cannot be born twice, but for all time must be no
more.
XIV
But you, who are not [master] of tomorrow, postpone your happiness: life is wasted in procrastination and each one of us dies without allowing himself leisure.
*****
From Chapter Two: Lucretius
Book I
62
When the life of man lay foul to see and groveling upon the earth, crushed by the weight of religion, which showed her face from the realms of heaven, lowering upon mortals with dreadful mien, it was a man of Greece [Epicurus] who dared first to raise his mortal eyes to meet her, and first to stand forth to meet her.
80
Nay, but on the other hand, again and again our foe religion, has given birth to deeds sinful and unholy.
102
And justly so: for if men would see that there is a fixed limit to their sorrows, then with some reason they might have the strength to stand against the scruples of religion, and the threats of seers. As it is there is no means, no power to withstand, since everlasting is the punishment they must fear in death.
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