Reading Recommendations for Epicurean Philosophy

which books and authors are key for studying this classical philosophical school?

Responding to a desire articulated by many people, asking for expert guidance on reading their way into ancient Stoic philosophy, I worked up a set of structured recommendations some time back. I get a lot of similar requests about another important ancient school of philosophy as a way of life, the Epicureans, so I’ve decided to write another set of reading recommendations for Epicurean tests, structured in a sequential order, accompanied by brief explanations about each work. Hopefully it will prove helpful for those who would like to study this ancient philosophy as a way of life.

Start With Works Of Epicurus Himself

It’s rather unfortunate that we don’t possess more than a tiny portion of Epicurus’ works. According to Diogenes Laertes, he was one of the most prolific philosophical authors of antiquity. In fact, we have Laertes to thank for most of the bits of Epicurus’ works that have survived, since in book 10 of his Lives of the Philosophers, he copied out, word for word, three letters from Epicurus and the text translated as “Sovereign Maxims” or “Principal Doctrines”. Those texts supplemented by one additional work are the place for the beginner-level student of Epicurus and his school to start.

We have two collections of short sayings:

• the Principal Doctrines (kuriai doxai) — this set of 40 passages preserved by Diogenes Laertes articulates key ideas of Epicurus’ philosophy

• the Vatican Sayings — this is a set of 81 passages, a number of which replicate passages from the Principal Doctrines, found in a document from the Vatican Library

You can find these in a number of places online. Two particularly useful ones are the recent translation of Principal Doctrines by Peter Saint-Andre, which has Greek and English side by side, and the version of the Vatican Sayings on Epicurus.net, which notes which passages are found in both texts.

Then there are the three letters that have been preserved

• Letter to Menoecius — this is probably the most commonly read of these letters, and focuses primarily on matters of Epicurean ethics

• Letter to Herodotus — this one presents some key ideas from the Epicurean physics or natural philosophy, including discussion of atoms, natural phenomena, the human soul, and perception

• Letter to Pythocles — this one also deals with nature, particularly celestial matters and meteorological phenomena, but it also discusses why it is beneficial to human beings to study these things

At this point, it would also make good sense to mention the very short, quite literally four-line Tetrapharmikon or Fourfold Remedy. This is a distillation of the first four passages of the Principal Doctrines, found in Philodemus’ works (see below).

The Rest of Diogenes Laertes’ Lives Book 10

If you want to know more about Epicurus himself, some of the details of his life and things he said, controversies about him and his works, and the listing of books attributed to him as an author, then you will definitely want to read through the entirety of book 10 of Diogenes Laertes’ Lives of the Philosophers.

There are a number of other reasons well worth reading that that relatively short book. One of these is what Diogenes preserved of the matters from the time of Epicurus’ demise, and there are two relevant texts contained in that book.

• Letter to Idomenaeus — this letter, composed as he was dying, is very short, discusses Epicurus’ condition, and gives a brief instruction

• Epicurus’ Will — this is an important document, since it sets out his intentions and instructions about the workings of the community he established in Athens, the Garden, after his death

Another very important portion of book 10 consists in what Diogenes calls “preliminary remarks” (proeiponta) about the divisions of philosophy. This is relatively short, but quite helpful for understanding a bit of the system of Epicurean philosophy.

Within book 10, we also find some discussion of his school, companions, and particularly his friend Metrodorus (who died before Epicurus) and the books he wrote.

Lucretius’ Poem — On The Nature Of Things

After reading through the few works we have by Epicurus himself, as well as what else we can learn about Epicurus and his school from book 10 of Diogenes Laertes’ Lives of the Philosophers, the next text one would go to in order to learn more — much more — about Epicureanism would traditionally be Lucretius’ lengthy philosophical poem, On The Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura).

Within the six “books” (the length of a scroll, so if you like, “chapters”) of this work, Lucretius unpacks in significant detail, and fairly systematically, a number of key ideas, doctrines, arguments, and criticisms drawn from the Epicurean school, possibly even rearranging material from Epicurus’ own lost texts.

Interestingly, the poem also — as non-Epicureans like Albert Camus would later remark upon — frames Epicurus himself as a savior-figure, liberating human beings through his doctrines from all sorts of unnecessary fears and foolish desires, from superstition and ignorance. From the Epicurean point of view, this was one main motivation for engaging in studies of natural phenomena, to wean ourselves away from wrongheaded ideas about matters like physical death and human mortality, the relationship between soul and body, causal determinism and free will, pleasures and pains, and the nature and motivations of the gods.

So, by working your way through On The Nature Of Things, you will considerably expand your understanding of what the Epicurean school actually thought and taught about a great number of matters. There are a number of translations and editions of Lucretius available, quite a few of which you can find for free online.

Cicero’s Presentations of Epicurean Positions

Marcus Tullius Cicero was not himself an Epicurean. In fact, he is a critic of that school, its founder, and its representatives on a number of counts, sometimes fairly and sometimes not. Still, Cicero enjoyed the opportunity of studying the works of Epicurus and his followers and engaging in conversations with proponents of that school.

Given the loss of the vast majority of Epicurean literature, we are fortunate to possess (most of) the works of Cicero. Among his many projects was bringing the wealth and resources of Greek philosophy into a Latin context by producing works that critically presented and compared the doctrines, arguments, practices, and perspectives of main figures and schools of philosophy. In quite a few of these works, this takes place through proponents and critics of those schools engaging in dialogue or making lengthy and systematic presentations.

His most useful works for better understanding Epicurean philosophy are:

• On The Ends (De Finibus)— book 1 is largely devoted to the presentation of Epicurean ethics, carried out by Lucius Manlius Torquatus. Among the topics explored there are Epicurean views on friendship and the nature and importance of the four cardinal virtues — wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance.

• On The Nature Of The Gods (De Natura Deorum) — book 1 of this work presents the Epicurean views on the divine and the universe, placed in the mouth of Gaius Velleius. It also provides criticisms of the Epicurean position, articulated by the skeptic Gaius Cotta.

• On Fate (De Fato) — this unfortunately incompletely preserved short work contains some discussion of the Epicurean position on causal determinism and freedom of choice. It is to be sure, rather short, and Cicero presents it mainly in order to criticize and reject it.

A Newer Source — Philodemus’ Recovered Texts

Philodemus of Gadera was a prolific Epicurean philosopher of the Roman era. His works were, like those of many other Epicureans, lost until the discovery of a set of charred papyrus rolls at Herculaneaum. Early attempts to unroll the scrolls unfortunately damaged portions of them. But newer methods have recovered works that were otherwise lost, and Philodemus’ texts are among them. The Philodemus Project has been leading the way.

The texts that are now available in translation include:

• On Anger

• On Death

• On Frank Criticism

• On Rhetoric, books 1–2

• On Poems, book 1 and books 3–4

• The Epigrams (you can also find an online copy here at the Attalus site)

There is also a translation of the fragmentary On Hellenistic Philosophers, discussing Stoics, Skeptics, and Epicureans, also found at the Attalus site.

Some of these are quite expensive, unfortunately, and not all that easy to find in libraries. Since all the Philodemus works we have are recently translated and published, none of them are in the public domain, like nearly all of other works mentioned so far. It’s a bit of a shame, because with Philodemus’ works we get an important interpreter of Epicurean philosophy who also knows and engages other schools as well.

Diogenes of Oinoanda

One of the unfortunately fragmentary texts — or rather set of texts — we possess are by a wealthy Epicurean named Diogenes, who purchased land in Oinoanda and had inscribed a number of Epicurean doctrines on the walls of a complex there. This can be termed, straightforwardly enough, the Oinoanda Inscription.

At present, the inscribed texts are in the form of fragments, which you can read here or in somewhat fuller form here. They include a section on Epicurean physics, a section on Epicurean ethics, a set of maxims, letters to Dionysos and to Antipater, and a discussion of old age.

Work is still ongoing, carried out by the German Archeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut), so there are reasonable hopes that additional portions of the inscriptions will be recovered and translated as time goes on.

Seneca’s Letters and Other Works

You might be a bit surprised to see the late Stoic philosopher Seneca as a recommended source for learning about Epicureanism. After all, aren’t the Stoics diametric opposites to — even opponents of — Epicureans? That is quite true for certain Stoics, like Epictetus. It definitely is not the case for Seneca, whose interlocutor, Lucilius, is someone conversant with and attracted to Epicureanism.

Seneca cites Epicurus fairly often in his Letters to Lucilius (aka Moral Letters, Letters From A Stoic), to the point where by Letter 8 he provides a justification for that seemingly incongruous practice:

It is likely that you will ask me why I quote so many of Epicurus’s noble words instead of words taken from our own school. But is there any reason why you should regard them as sayings of Epicurus and not common property?

The New Epicurean website has a very helpful and organized listing of Seneca’s letters that cite or refer to Epicurus, arranged according to topic.

You’ll find occasional and short references to Epicurus in other works by Seneca, for example:

• On The Shortness of Life

• On Benefits

• On Leisure

• On The Happy Life

In that last work, you will find Seneca writing

I myself believe, though my Stoic comrades would be unwilling to hear me say so, that the teaching of Epicurus was upright and holy, and even, if you examine it narrowly, stern: for this much talked of pleasure is reduced to a very narrow compass, and he bids pleasure submit to the same law which we bid virtue do — I mean, to obey nature

Plutarch’s Polemics Against Epicureans

This middle Platonist, who most people know about because of his many morally-focused biographies (most of which are “parallel lives”) did write a lot of broadly philosophical works. Like Cicero, he is a mainly a critic of the Epicureans, and at points is arguably a more hostile interlocutor of them. Then again, Plutarch also goes after the Stoics, and in both cases, we can learn some things about the schools he criticizes from his presentations.

Sometimes, however, he offers us tantalizing tidbits about Epicurus, for example in his work The Symposiacs, where he recounts some interesting controversies touching on matters that Epicurus reputedly advocated, criticized or explained in his own lost work, The Symposium. These have to do with sexuality, food and drink, indulgence and temperance, and a number of other matters concerned with pleasures.

The works where Plutarch does quite clearly go after Epicurus and the Epicureans are:

• That Epicurus Actually Makes a Pleasant Life Impossible

• On the Contradictions of the Epicureans

• That the Epicureans Speak More Paradoxically than the Poets

• On Free Will in Reply to Epicurus

• Reply To Colotes

You can easily tell by the titles of most of these that the motivations for writing those works is to attack the Epicurean point of view. The last one responds to a now-lost work by the Epicurean philosopher Colotes, who had claimed that it was impossible for followers of other philosophical systems to live a pleasant life. In order to levy criticisms well, however, Plutarch also has to present the point of view he is criticizing, so it can be valuable (though if one is an Epicurean, perhaps also frustrating!) to read through these works.

Lactantius’ Critical Engagements With Epicureanism

We bring this set of reading recommendations to a close with the works of yet another critic of the Epicureans, Lactantius, an early Christian philosopher who had studied rhetoric and philosophy prior to his conversion. In his works, we see him engaging not only with the Epicureans, but also the Stoics, Platonists, Aristotelians, and Skeptics, among others. He presents their doctrines, of course, in order to highlight what he argues to be their shortcomings, but he does provide us at times with additional information about their views.

One of these in particular has taken on a literary and philosophical life of its own, Epicurus’ argument articulating what will later be interpreted as the “problem of evil”.

God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them?

You will find that passage in chapter 13 of Lactantius’ relatively short treatise On The Anger Of God.

The other, much longer work, of Lactantius that can be helpful to read for its presentations of Epicurus and Epicurean positions is his Divine Institutes.

Where And Who Else?

You will find more references to Epicurus and his school in other ancient and early medieval writers, but I don’t include them in this already rather long set of recommendations, mainly because I don’t see them adding much useful to the overall picture of classical Epicurean philosophy that isn’t already included in the picture so far.

There are also a great number of interesting authors who take up Epicureanism and adapt it within the context of early modernity. For those interested in those reinterpretations, I plan to write a separate set of reading recommendations about them down the line.

For now, however, if you’re someone interested in Epicurean philosophy and just getting started, this should supply more than enough reading recommendations. If you’re someone who already has some background in Epicurus and Epicurean philosophy, perhaps you’ve now found a few other interesting sources you can use to expand your knowledge about this philosophical tradition.