Epicurean Communities

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"“Epicurus, however, in a single household, and one of slender means at that, maintained a whole host of friends, united by a wonderful bond of affection. And this is still a feature of present day Epicureanism.”

- From Cicero’s On Ends

By the time Epicurus with his friends settled in Athens, he had a strong enough network to start competing with the other major philosophical schools of Plato and Aristotle. As the Epicureans gained converts and financial support, they were able to purchase property, a garden, in the outskirts of Athens where the community would be able to live and practice their philosophy. This is where the name of the Epicurean school, the Garden, comes from.

One major feature of the Garden was its acceptance of marginalized people. In the Epicurean community, slaves practiced philosophy along with legally free men. The ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius mentions Epicurus’ kindness toward his own slaves in his Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, and informs us that they studied philosophy with him.

It should be noted that in antiquity there was no concept of abolishing slavery. It was considered an inevitable part of a functioning economy, much like wage labor is today. However, within this context, the Epicureans were among those who most strongly called for slaves to be treated humanely. The doxography on the Epicurean wise man in Diogenes Laertius’ biography states the following:

“Nor will he punish his servants; instead he will pity them and pardon any who are of good character.”

Women were also accepted in the community and discussed philosophy along with men. This was unusual for this period where women enjoyed few rights. Among the Epicureans one could find married couples as well as a class of women called hetaerae. These hetaerae, a term often translated as “courtesans”, were considered in ancient Athens to be in a different category than married women or prostitutes. They enjoyed much more freedom in their interpersonal relationships than the average Greek married woman, who was subject to the extremely restrictive societal norms of the time. However, they were financially dependent on male providers, who often competed for their attention. They also tended to be well read and knowledgeable in subjects such as poetry, art or philosophy. One of them, Leontion, is known to have written a treatise defending Epicureanism."

(https://societyofepicurus.com/life-in-epicurean-communities/)