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by lauret on October 15th, 2006

lauret

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What did the romans think about Epicurus and his teachings?

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  • by looney on October 15th, 2006

    looney

    Epicurus was a very popular philosopher in the later days of the Roman empire. However, the Romans grossly misinterpreted his teachings. They focused on Epicurus' proposition that happiness is identical to physical pleasure as a justification of gluttony. Epicurus actually taught that gluttony leads to unhappiness, as the unhappiness caused by gluttonous desires before their fulfillment exceeds the pleasure caused by the fulfillment of such desires. According to Epicurus, the true route to happiness is to rid oneself of unnecessary desires, so that such cannot cause pain by their unfulfillment.

    Epicurus' teachings on other topics, such as physics, were not generally accepted by the Romans (or by anyone else, for that matter). Epicurus was one of the few ancients who advocated an atomic theory of matter, which did not gain general acceptance until the development of modern chemistry. He also took controversial positions in other topics in physics and in epistemology.

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