Epic Battles in Practical Ethics: Stoicism vs Epicureanism
Comparing Two Ancient Philosophies
It is no secret, I guess, that a few years ago I adopted Stoicism as my chosen philosophy of life. It is also not a secret that the Stoics engaged in a number of robust debates with several other Hellenistic schools, from the Peripatetics (followers of Aristotle) to the Academic Skeptics (like Cicero), to — and perhaps most of all — the Epicureans.
Even when the Stoics agreed with the Epicureans (which they did, on a number of issues, as we shall see), they were cautious to distance themselves from their chief rivals. Consider what Seneca says here:
The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy’s camp — not as a deserter, but as a scout. (Letters to Lucilius, II.5)
Epictetus, on his part, devotes the entire section 20 of book II of the Discourses to a diatribe against the Epicureans (and the Academics, for good measure). Here is a taste of it, where Epictetus is making fun of Epicurus himself for teaching certain things (that there is no natural fellowship among human beings, as the Stoics maintained) while at the same time behaving as he didn’t believe his own teachings (why, then, does he care enough about human beings to write books aimed at…
