Epicurus

Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher born around 341 BC who studied under the teachings Democritus and Plato. Epicurus founded a philosophical community and school for people to live out his teachings which allowed his philosophy to continue after his death as other Epicurean colonies developed. Epicureanism lost its popularity with the rise of Christianity, but many pieces of it were renewed in the Renaissance when people were looking for a basic, fundamental explanation of things in life (Epicurus). Epicurus taught egoistic hedonism in that the only thing that is valuable is pleasure and all things are a mean to a pleasurable end. This pleasure is not of the “eat, drink, and be merry” school followed by the Cyrenaics however. Epicurus’ school of hedonism came from a rational discernment of evaluating the necessity of action and giving value to the pleasure that comes from it (Panichas 23).
Epicurus takes the basics of his philosophy of egoistic humanism from Ari...