The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers · Character
Epicurus
The garden philosopher who taught that pleasure rightly understood is the absence of pain, and that death is nothing to us.
major
Also known as Book X Epicurus
First appearance: Epicurus
As a major figure in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Epicurus is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.
Mentioned as having referred to Zeno's pupils as Zenonians in his Epistles.
Epicurus closes Diogenes Laërtius's Lives as the founder of the last great school, the Garden, whose doctrines of atomism, friendship, and tranquil pleasure stand in deliberate contrast to Stoic austerity. His letters and maxims, preserved at length in Book X, present a teacher who prized the quiet life, the company of friends, and the removal of fear above public honor. He matters to the book's arc as the counterweight to Zeno: two paths out of Socrates, one through endurance, one through pleasure, both claiming the wise man's peace.
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Monimus’s feigned madness and destruction of the money is the emotional and psychological peak because it dram…
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