A letter to my children on Epicurus

After sending to my daughter the email on Lucretius, I realised that I must tell her that Lucretius’ grand poem De rerum natura is an exposition of the theory of an ancient philosopher, Epicurus. I wrote to her:

Ask Dan, what Shakespeare says about Epicurus in King Lear. In exchange, show him a quotation that I just read – before I phoned you – in Epicurus’ letter to Pythocles, his disciple and friend: ‘In the first place, remember that, like everything else, knowledge of the celestial phenomena, whether taken with other things or in isolation, has no other end in view than peace of mind (ataraxia i.e. ataraxy) and firm conviction’ (quoted in Diogenes Laertius’ The Lives of Eminent Philosophers).

The translator, R.D. Hicks, remarks: “Epicurus defines philosophy as an activity which by words and arguments secures the happy life”.

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In King Lear, Goneril says to the king: “Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; Men so disorder’d, so debosh’d, and bold, That this our court, infected with their manners, Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust.”

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To my son I wrote:

I must admit that it is only now that I have been properly reading Epicurus. I started several times in the past, but repulsed by his language, I always stopped after a few pages. The Oxford Classical Dictionary says: “Epicurus' surviving writings are needlessly difficult, clumsy, ambiguous, badly organised and full of jargon. Present-day knowledge and appreciation of Epicurus' system depends very largely on the poem of Lucretius, De rerum natura 'On the nature of things'.”

On Epicurus I agreed with the OCD. But the more I have been reading him, the more I disagree. Let me quote the introductory paragraph from his letter to Menoeceus:

“Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young ought to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.”

One more thing. Three influential philosophical schools – stoicism, scepticism, and the system of Epicurus – pursued the same aim in life, ataraxy. But they widely differed in the way they pursued this aim, each opposing the other two. All three started around 300 B.C., although each had a long and distinguished pre-history.