Epicurus’ Philosophy on a Good Life

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher. He was born, in the course 341 BCE, on the island of Samos, which is located a mile off of the western strand of Turkey. In 306 he moved to Athens for the required two historic period of military teach that either Athenian did. When he finished the training he stayed in Athens absorbing the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus. He eventu tout ensembley returned to his plate in Samos where he started his own school, The garden. The reason the school was called The Garden is because its view was, believe it or non, his own garden.It is there where he taught philosophy to his disciples who were cognize as the philosophers of the garden. But unlike Platos Academy and the Lyceum of Aristotle, The Garden allowed women to join and philosophize, which was unheard of at that time. One of the biggest things Epicurus tried to achieve was tranquility. His exposition of pleasure was that was freedom from pain and fear. Epicurus valued the mind more so than the body. He give tongue to that we should enjoy mind pleasure more than sultry pleasure because the intellectual would sound much longer and cause little suffering.Epicurus is non saying that having sex or otherwise physical pleasures is unskilled or evil, because the sensations felt during the act is always well-behaved. He is saying that when you stupefy too much of it or pursue it too often, it ends up bring pain and lasts only a short while. It is in this sense that Epicurus is a hedonist. A hedonist is cardinal who believes that pleasure is the greatest good for people. This essential Epicureanism, a hedonistic philosophy that stressed science, serenity, and friendship as the keys to pleasure, happiness, and the good life.Some of the greatest producers of pain and fear atomic number 18 religion and termination. Epicurus believed that if we conquered the fear of death, the afterlife, and the gods we would be able to reach genuine happiness. One o f the major differences between Epicurus and other Greeks is that he claimed that gods did not interfere with the affairs of the human world. Epicurus overcame his fear of death through his logical thought process such as wherefore should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which heap only go when I do not? What he is basically saying is that it is not worth the suffering of fearing death when you be alive. When you are alive you are not dead, and when you are dead you cant feel anything meat that you cant feel death. Epicurus is considered a major figure in the history of science as well as philosophy. He argued that we should consider belief to factual evidence and logic, and he proposed the scientific view of atomism, where all facts in the macroscopic world are caused by the configuration of atoms or indivisible elements in the microscopic world and emptiness for the atoms to move in.Nearing his wrong(p) death of prostatitis he wrote many letters to friends, one asking that the children of one of his first followers Metrodorus be taken care of. Epicurus made render in his pull up stakes for the care of the children. Even in all this pain, he was still thinking about the kids he would be leaving. He as well as left The Garden and some funds to trustees of the school and the remaining notes was to be used to honor his family and to celebrate his birthday yearly. So how do we live a good life? According to Epicurus, you choose the intellectual pleasure over the physical pleasure.The intellectual pleasure will last a lifetime while a physical pleasure will last for but a short while. But this alone is not enough, for even if you have the right pleasure, there is still fear which counteracts said pleasure. So how do we get rid of the pain? We realize that when we are alive we can feel and when we are dead we have illogical the sensation to feel, and how can you be afraid of that which you cant feel, you cant. The only thing that I think Epicurus is missing is a equipoise between overindulgence, and starvation of pleasures.As well as the buddhists Tathata, which basicly means living in the moment. There is joy and happiness surrounding us in every moment, you just have to open your eyes and find it. Bibliography 1) Epicurus and Pursuing Happiness. atheist Foundation of Australia Inc. N. p. , n. d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. . 2)Epicurus. Pursuit of Happiness. Pursuit of Happiness, Inc. , 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. . 3) Zeuschner, Robert B. Chapter 3 Epicurus joyousness Is the Foundation of Ethical Judgments. Classical Ethics, East and West Ethics from a Comparative Perspective. Boston McGraw-Hill, 2000. 51-67. Print.