EPICURUS AND ZENO

Epicurus (341–270 B.C.) founded a “philosophy” for plain people. His aim was to help people bear the hardships and changes in life. He also sought to help people to stop unnecessary suffering. He knew that much of the mental suffering that most people have is unnecessary; to this extent, he felt that a philosophy was needed to help people overcome such unnecessary suffering.

“Vain is the word of a philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either if it does not expel the suffering of the mind.” — Epicurus

According to Epicurus, the greatest of the unnecessary mental suffering was caused by fear, especially fear of the gods and of death. He sought to alleviate the former not by denying the existence of the gods but by insisting that they were not interested in human affairs and therefore did not interfere in them, either favorably or unfavorably.

And, he wanted to cure the fear of death by his famous argument, “As long as we are, death is not; and when death is, we are not,” so that there is no reason to be concerned with it or to be afraid of it.

Through a misunderstanding of his teaching that we must not avoid pleasure, the term “epicurean” became synonymous with a person who seeks sensual pleasures of all kinds. This was not Epicurus’ intention, for he sought moderation in everything. The ideal to strive for, according to him, was that of “ataraxia”—peace of mind.

As is shown by his emphasis on fear (or, as we would say today, anxiety, since the fears of which Epicurus was speaking were, according to him, fears of imaginary dangers), Epicurus was trying to make his philosophy fulfill the function which today is served by psychotherapy, particularly psychoanalysis.

While Epicureanism appealed to ordinary people, another philosophy became the dominant one of the intellectual elite of ancient times. It was founded by Zeno of Citium (335-265 B.C.). Also unlike Epicureanism, it did not derive its name from that of its founder but from the place where it was taught. This was the “Stoa Poikile” or “Painted Porch” at Athens, and thus the name “Stoicism.”

Stoicism was a much more elaborate and comprehensive philosophical system than that of Epicurus.

Epicurus saw nature as chaotic and basically hostile to people.


Stoicism, on the contrary, saw nature as a wonderfully ordered whole and humans as an integral part of it. Therefore, everything that was “according to nature” was of necessity good. Even death was not to be feared, because, like birth, it was “according to nature.”


But this view did not exclude the use of reason to find out what was “according to nature” and to help in mastering one’s emotions and desires.


“All things are parts of one single system, which is called Nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with Nature.” (Zeno, 4th Century B.C.)

Stoicism teaches:

1. Live in accord with Nature; worldly Nature and human nature.

2. There is a Unity of All; all gods; all substance; all virtue; all mankind.

3. The external world is maintained by the natural interchange of opposites (poioun / yin, paskhon / yang).

4. Everyone has a personal, individual connection to All; a god within.

5. Every soul has Free Will to act and the action of the soul is opinion.

6. Live simply through moderation and frugality.

7. Spiritual growth comes from seeking the good.

8. Regard Virtue as the only good, Vice the sole evil, and everything else as neither good nor evil.

9. The Cardinal Virtues are Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.

10. The path to personal happiness and inner peace is through the extinguishing of all desire to have or to affect things beyond ones control and through living for the present without hope for or fear of the future; beyond the power of opinion.

11. The sequential reabsorption and recreation of the Universe by the Central Fire; the Conflagration.

The Stoic ideal of “apatheia” (apathy)—total imperviousness to the blows of misfortune—was even more difficult to attain than the peace of mind of the Epicureans.

When Rome became the dominant world power, Stoicism became its leading philosophy. Its best-known representatives were significantly a slave, Epictetus (A.D. 60-117), and an emperor, Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180). The Discourses of Epictetus and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are the best-known expositions of Roman Stoicism, with its consoling message that nothing, not even death, is evil, since all is “according to nature.”