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Philosophers
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)
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Epicurus {Epikouros ~ Επίκουρος} (341-270 B.C.). Greek philosopher, born in Samos [Images]; son of an Athenian colonist.
He claimed to be self-taught, although tradition states that he was schooled in the systems of Plato [People] and Democritus by his father and various philosophers. He taught in several towns in Asia Minor [Contents] before going to Athens [Place Names] c. 306 B.C. There Epicurus purchased the famous garden that has become linked in the annals of philosophy with the Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle [People].
He was a generous and genial man who lived on the warmest terms with his followers. Although his writings were voluminous, only fragments remain. Epicurus defined philosophy as the art of making life happy and strictly subordinated metaphysics to ethics, naming pleasure as the highest and only good.
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)
04-22-2004