Epicurus is a brief biography

Ancient Greek philosopher. From year BC. Philosophy shared the doctrine of nature, canon. The doctrine of cognition and ethics. In physics, Epicurus followed the atomics of Descartes. He recognized the blissfully indifferent gods in the spaces between countless worlds, but denied their intervention in the life of space and people. The motto of Epicurus - live in solitude.

The purpose of life is the lack of suffering, the health of the body and the state of serenity of the spirit. Epicurus lived in one of the gloomy eras that the ancient world only knew. Blood, fires, killings, robberies - this is his time. In Athens from a year BC. The future great philosopher, known to the ancient world under the name of the Savior of People, was born in the family of Klerukh Neocla, a native of the Attic village of Gargett.

Some of the ancient writers are inclined to believe that the ancestors of the neockes were noble people, but, as the poet Euripid claimed, “evil poverty will drown out the truth of the name,” and neocl was so constrained in the means that he could hardly feed his four sons, processing his put on his own and, in addition, teaching the writing and account of local children.

The eldest of his sons was, apparently, Epicurus, who was born on the 7th of the month of Gamerleon, at the end of the beginning of the year BC. Epicurus studied at the school of his father, as ancient authors believe, and stood out with outstanding abilities. He was little interested in poetry and music, Epicurus stubbornly asked his father about what neocl himself knew much less - about the wisdom of Heraclitus, Anaxagoras and Protagoras.

He talked with his father about the "theogony" of Hesiod, whose philosophical symbols became interested in childhood, and then helped him clean the premises for classes, cultivate the land. For about a year, neocl sent his eldest son to study in the Asia Minor City of Theos, where then lectures on philosophy Praxifan and Navsifan were given. The last of them, according to ancient writers, was a follower of Democritus.

Most likely, Epicurus was not long as a listener of the Theosa Democritor, it was unlikely that his father could pay for his training for several years later the ill -wishers have repeatedly ultimately, that he, they say, studied with copper money. In addition, he, from a young age, was distinguished by the independence of thinking and proud that "he owes only himself to himself", relations with Navsifan did not develop.

Most likely, their disagreements were of a worldview nature, which was emphasized by Epicur himself in a “letter to Mitilean philosophers”, calling Navsifan a “bad person who engaged in such things through which wisdom cannot be achieved.” Meanwhile, Epicurus turned eighteen and, like an Athenian citizen, he was supposed to go to Athens for military service - the so -called efebia, the initial meaning of which was more lost as the once rich and powerful city turned into a provincial province.

In Athens, he attended classes of Academician Xenokrat, listened to Aristotle's speeches. Fate brought him to Menander - a young man of "brilliant family and a brilliant life", the future great poet -comedographer. According to ancient authors, Menander was one of Epicurus’s close comrades in Ephesus and, in these years, both poetry and philosophy, he was a listener of Feofrast, could introduce the native of the Pattern from Samos to these two areas of spiritual culture.

Two years later, having served in Efebia, Epicurus became a full -fledged Athenian citizen, like his great -grandfather, grandfather and father. His father by this time settled on the Ionian coast in the colofon. The twenty -year -old Epicurus went there. Information about this time of his life is scarce. It is known that, having stayed for some time with his father in the colofon, Epicurus settled in Milenes, on the island of Lesbos, having settled the teacher at school the best of what he had left, so that for almost eighteen years to earn a teaching that did not consider the Greeks honorary.

After Mithilen, he taught in Lampsak. The foggy messages of ancient authors suggest that, persecuted by the need, Epicurus visited these years from a year BC. Epicurus gave all his free time to the study of philosophy. But he had an ailment in a young age at a young age, he had diseases of the stomach and bladder prevented his beloved business. And Epicurus adapted to his painful ailment, he steadily endured painful attacks and rejoiced at the breaks between them.

Sources do not report anything about Epicurus's personal life. It is not known whether he was married, whether he had children, but his own statements and excerpts from letters allow us to assume that he did not have his own family. Without apparently, he apparently attached special importance to the feeling of love between a man and a woman, believing that “a noble person is more busy with wisdom and friendship” that “the sage should not be in love”, that “love is given to people not from the gods” and “neither marry, nor make children,” with the age of the epimurus, he began to relate even more negatively as a certain annoying obstacle and virtuous.

life. Epicurus did not have a tribal estate, no money, or even a house under an old plane, like Democritus in Abders.He never traveled around the world like Pythagoras, Plato and the same Democritus. Maybe he did not always have enough money for a good dinner, and he convinced himself that simple food is no worse and even in many respects more useful, but harmful to the health of dishes.

And even then, when his position improved markedly, Epicurus, laughing, claimed that a piece of fresh cheese was already an unprecedented luxury for him. Seeing what ways people seek wealth, Epicurus said: "Free life cannot gain a lot of money, because it is not easy to do without servility in front of the crowd or rulers, but it has everything in continuous abundance. And if it somehow gets a lot of money, it can easily share it to acquire the location of loved ones." And he really, as ancient authors note, was always ready to share with friends everything that he had.

But at the same time, Epicurus was not a supporter of an excessive survey, neglect of conventions, believing that the main thing in everything is a sense of proportion: "The sage will not talk to the drunk, even a drunk will not become a tyrant, will not live both a cinema or poverty." Epicurus created his own picture of the world, based on the conclusions and conclusions of Anaxagoras, Democritus, Protagor, but in some ways with himself only himself.

He read and commented on Anaxagoras in particular, in his "Anaksagor's objection," which, according to ancient authors, preferred everyone else, "although he did not agree with him in something," the idea of ​​infinite divisibility and Anaxagorovo, the idea of ​​the first -hand time. Like Plato and Aristotle, Epicurus attached great importance to logical conclusions, believing that in this way it is possible to get new knowledge about things even in the absence of data from direct experience.

For many years, more than seventeen years, he studied the works of natural philosophers, and especially Democritus. Philosophy, in his opinion, should not explore nature, but to indicate to a person the path to happiness. Epicurus admits that the bodies consist of atoms, which are indivisible and differ in form, size and weight. The release of the distinction of atoms by weight is a very significant feature of its concept.

The difference between Epicurus physics and Democritus also consists in understanding the movement of atoms. Epicurus believed that when moving, the atoms spontaneously deviate from the straightforward movement and move into curvilinear.

The concept of deviations of atoms, according to Epicurus, should be the basis for the concept of human freedom. A person should be free. If he cannot achieve freedom in public life, then he should try to achieve the freedom of internal - he must free himself from the fear of suffering. The fact is that there is a difference between the unaccountable fears of people and reasonable feasibility.

We experience mystical horror when we do not understand the causes of what is happening and cannot assume a further course of events. In this sense, knowledge of natural causes and consequences is able to free a person from the panic fears of Epicurus comprehensively and in detail, as the science of his time allowed, considers heavenly, astronomical and meteorological phenomena.

He puts forward various hypotheses regarding what the phases of the moon, sunrise and the sunset can occur, which is why earthquakes occur, which is why dew and ice, thunder and lightning, clouds and rain are formed. Epicurus believes primarily in the reality of what he sees. In the world there are only atoms, their movement and emptiness. Hence all types of reality, objects and creatures that we see, as well as those that we do not see because they consist of smaller atoms.

The soul exists but too ephemeral existence, full of joy, if it realized its nature, doomed to destruction, the gods intended for all creatures of the world, but these are compounds, complex constructions of material atoms. Of course, there are ideas, but these ideas are not intangible creatures living outside us in the Absolute, they are nothing more than the fruits of our mind, like a harvest, like flowering emanating from the same black -Zeem of our bodily life.

Epicurus believes in the gods. And at the same time, he eliminates the gods, so to speak, from human life. Why do the gods who live in the highest rest engage in us and, most importantly, why will they do evil to us? The gods have no other object of care, except for their own well -being. A person cannot reconcile with his mortality. It is difficult for him to imagine that he will not be on earth.

From here, according to Epicurus, an illusory representation is born that there is some kind of force that may be ensured by some other existence - after death. But will your soul "live"? Epicurus turns to everyone, trying to explain that with death a person has nothing in common: "... The worst of evils, death, has nothing to do with us, since, when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist." Of course, Epicurus does not forget about physical suffering that can precede death, but do we not have the opposition of courage and dignity?

As for moral suffering, he defeated them, considering them unworthy of a reasonable person. And with the cessation of fears that most care about people, the main cause of human misfortunes is dispelled. If you eliminate suffering, joy will arise. The centuries -old history of the Epicurean school is known mainly according to the surviving fragmentary information of its largest representatives, and this information is contradictory in many cases.

So, the ancient authors report in different ways to the emergence of the school itself, some believe that Epicurus began to teach his philosophy already in the colofon, while others write that he "thirty-two years old founded his school first in Mitilen and Lampsaka, where it lasted five years." Perhaps it was here, in this ancient Maloazi town, the son of Neocla began to truly teach people close in the spirit of his "human life", to teach - and at the same time look for it with their friends - followers.

From here, from Lampsak, his first, most faithful disciples - Hermakhs, Metrodor and Polyien were also. Epicurus set out his teachings in his many works, conversations with friends and letters; From all this, only an insignificant part has reached our time. But according to the testimony of Diogenes of the Laertian, “the writer was the abundant epicurus and many of his books surpassed everyone, they make up about scrolls.

They have not a single extract from the side, and everywhere the voice of Epicurus himself” - and this very distinguished his work from the works of modern Platoniks and peripatics, who were mainly engaged in the endless commenting of the great founders of their schools. The best of the works of Epicurus were “about atoms and emptiness”, “brief objections to physicists”, “doubts”, “about preference and avoidance”, “On the ultimate goal”, “On gods”, “On goodness”, “On the way of life”, “On love”, “metroodor”, “main thoughts”.

His main work - “On nature” consisted of 37 books, and, as Epicurus himself said, not even all of his students was able to completely study it. Epicurus was criticized for preaching an unbridled cult of pleasure. In fact, Epicurus said that a person cannot live without getting any pleasures, and he cannot live without avoiding any suffering. No, not drinking and continuous cores, not enjoying boys and women, not enjoying fish and all other dishes that the luxurious table gives a pleasant life, but a sober reasoning that explores the causes of any choice and avoidance and expelling [false] opinions that produce the greatest confusion in the soul.

The beginning of all this and the greatest good is prudence. Therefore, prudence is even more expensive than philosophy. "Epicurus told his students about an infinite number of worlds, as endless as the Universe itself, he was convinced of the repeatability of similar forms in the universe. In the spring of the year BC, Epicurus went to Athens. He was his faithful friends - Germarch, Metrodor and Polyz.

They will be able to live themselves, as well as teach others to live the way the epicurom of his student Menkei later wrote about this, convincing him to prefer everything to be the “immortal benefits” of the freedom of spirit and reason: “You will never, in a dream, you will come in confusion, but you will live like God among people.