people
the Epicureans
The followers of Epicurus, who made pleasure the highest good; the chief target of the polemic of On the Happy Life, though Seneca distinguishes their austere founder from the libertines who abuse his name.
Reading notes
- On Benefits §4.2.1 Epicureans
Followers of Epicurus, who made pleasure the highest good; Seneca attacks their subordination of virtue to pleasure.
- On Leisure §3.2 the Epicureans
The school of Epicurus, which on principle kept the wise man out of public life ('he will not engage unless something intervenes'); Seneca sets their default withdrawal against the Stoic withdrawal-for-cause.
- On the Happy Life §7.1 those who have located the highest good
The Epicureans, who made pleasure (voluptas) the highest good; the chief opponents of this dialogue, though Seneca later defends their founder against the libertines who misuse his name.
- Moral Letters to Lucilius §5.48.1 like an Epicurean
The Epicureans held that the wise man acts always for his own tranquillity; Seneca jokingly wonders if his talk of weighing his own advantage sounds Epicurean, then corrects himself — for a true friend, a friend's advantage is his own.
- Moral Letters to Lucilius §7.68.10 Epicurean talk
The Epicureans famously counseled withdrawal from public life ('live unnoticed'); Lucilius teases Seneca that recommending retirement sounds Epicurean, a charge Seneca turns aside.
- Moral Letters to Lucilius §8.72.9 Epicurean chaos
In Epicurean physics the universe is atoms falling through an infinite void (the 'chaos'); Seneca borrows the image of the boundless, bottomless void for the endless downward plunge of the untrained mind.