EPICURUS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY * * EPICURUS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY by Norman Wentworth DeWitt UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, MINNEAPOLIS Copyright 1954 by the UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Permission is hereby granted to reviewers to quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Second Printing 1964 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-6368 PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN, INDIA, AND PAKISTAN BY GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON, BOMBAY, AND KARACHI * PREFACE T HE aim of this study is threefold: first, to organize the surviving data on the life of Epicurus into a consequential biographical sketch so as to throw some light upon the growth of his personal- ity and the development of his philosophy; second, to present a new in- terpretation of his doctrines based upon less emended remains of his writings; and third, to win attention for the importance of Epicurean- ism as a bridge of transition from the classical philosophies of Greece to the Christian religion. This new approach requires a total rearrange- ment of the pertinent materials, the rectification of grave oversights, and the exposure of time-honored fallacies, even of the fond beliefs that Epicurus declared all sensations to be trustworthy and identified pleasure with the greatest good. The slanders and fallacies of a long and unfriendly tradition have been enjoying modern sanction ever since Eduard Zeller expounded them with seeming reasonableness and undeniable tidiness a century ago in his Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics. This sanction was confirmed in 1887 by the suave erudition of Hermann Usener in his Epicurea. This indispensable work, which ought to have inaugurated a fresh scrutiny of the texts, was unfortunately accepted as authoritative, and after its publication the attention of scholars was diverted to the minor Epicureans, especially Philodemus. In this field an imposing corpus of meritorious studies has long been accumulating, chiefly through the industry of German and Italian researchers, though the hope of making great additions to our knowledge of Epicurus himself has fallen short of expectations. In England the ignominy to which Epicureanism had been relegated by Puritanism after flourishing briefly under the Restoration, though long enough to administer a smart stimulus to philosophical thought, was terminated at last in 1910 by R. D. Hicks in his Stoic and Epicurean, followed in 1925 by his translation of Diogenes Laertius, the chief an- cient authority, in the Loeb Library; but in the former he merely EPICURUS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY enlarged with lucidity upon Zeller's mistakes while in the latter he confirmed tradition by the benedictory correxit Usener. A new text and translation was made available in 1925 by Cyril Bailey, soon fol- lowed in 1928 by The Greek Atomists and Epicurus, the old errors and fallacies being repeated in both books and amplified in the second one with such urbanity that to dissent seems like discourtesy. It was in Italy that new ground was first broken. This was the good fortune of Ettore Bignone, who in 1936 began to set the account straight in respect of the life of Epicurus and the development of his doctrine in his L'Aristotele perduto e la formazione filosofica di Epicuro. The present study, even if more inclusive than others and based upon less emended sources, is offered with no fond hope of having achieved finality. The feat of rescuing Epicurus from the injustice of centuries will not be accomplished at a blow nor by the efforts of any single re- searcher. To have made a breach in the wall of false opinion will seem to have been a sufficient advance. Since the diffusion of knowledge deserves priority over professional scholarship, the level of treatment has been set to meet the needs of students in philosophy and the educated layman. All excerpts from texts have been translated anew to eliminate the traditional slants and elicit the true implications without sacrificing precision. Resemblances to published translations are coincidental. Greek words have been trans- literated. Notes have been kept brief and restricted to support for the particular interpretation. Completeness of coverage, in the author's judgment, should be reserved for a critical edition of the texts. The following acknowledgments are gratefully made: to the American Council of Learned Societies for a grant to defray the cost of an Index to the writings of Epicurus; to the Humanities Research Council of Canada for a grant to defray the cost of typing; to Professors Ben E. Perry and R. P. Oliver and Dr. Edith C. Jones for courtesies in the Library, University of Illinois; to my colleagues Professors R. K. Ar- nold, P. H. Brieger, and F. V. Winnett for timely assistance; and to Professors R. J. Getty and D. O. Robson, who have read the manuscript and made useful suggestions. It remains to add that the work of printing has been greatly facilitated by the happy liaison maintained by my son Dr. Norman J. DeWitt between myself and the competent Univer- sity of Minnesota Press. N. W. D. * TABLE OF CONTENTS I A SYNOPTIC VIEW OF EPICUREANISM 3 II SAMOS AND ATHENS 36 III COLOPHON: DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE 55 IV MYTILENE AND LAMPSACUS 70 v THE NEW SCHOOL IN ATHENS 89 VI THE NEW EDUCATION 106 VII THE CANON, REASON AND NATURE 121 VIII SENSATIONS, ANTICIPATIONS, AND FEELINGS 133 IX THE NEW PHYSICS 155 x THE NEW FREEDOM 171 XI SOUL, SENSATION, AND MIND 197 XII THE NEW HEDONISM 216 XIII THE TRUE PIETY 249 XIV THE NEW VIRTUES 289 XV EXTENSION, SUBMERGENCE, AND REVIVAL 328 BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 ABBREVIATIONS 363 NOTES 364 INDEX 378 This page intentionally left blank EPICURUS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY