Epicure, les plaisirs de la sagesse

Philosophy both heavily criticised and popularised since Antiquity, Epicurus, born in Samos in 311 BC, died in 270 in Athens having established his own school thirty years earlier, places an onus on the ethical role of philosophy: to liberate us from false opinions on the gods, death and nature, which prevent us from being happy, in other words from enjoying the pure pleasure which we all long for. This liberation will be obtained through an awareness of nature, which reveals a world stripped of all metaphysical meaning and all providence, as well as a human who is vulnerable but able to lead a free rational life, the guaranteed hallmark of happiness. 

• Présentation : Epicure et la philosophie - L'étude de la nature : la physique et ses principes - La canonique : critère et certitude - Le plaisir et la vie bienheureuse.
•Texte commentés : Bonheur et philosophie : Lettre à Ménécée 122 - Propriétés des atomes : Lettre à Hérodote 54-55 - Simulacres et images : Lettre à Hérodote 46-50 - Le savoir, principes et méthode : Lettre à Hérodote 37-38 - Plaisir et raisonnement sobre : Lettre à Ménécée 131-32 - Maximes de l'amitié : Maximes capitales Sentences vaticanes.