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Meléta: Epicurus’ Instructions for Students

Do and practice (μελέτα), then, the things I have always recommended to you, holding them to be the stairway to a beautiful life …

So practice these and similar things day and night, by yourself and with a like-minded friend, and you will never be disturbed whether waking or sleeping, and you will live as a god among men: for a man who lives in the midst of immortal goods is unlike a merely mortal being. – Epicurus’ Epistle to Menoeceus

ταῦτα οὖν καὶ τὰ τούτοις συγγενῆ μελέτα πρὸς σεαυτὸν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς <καὶ> πρὸς τὸν ὅμοιον σεαυτῷ, καὶ οὐδέποτε οὔθ’ ὕπαρ οὔτ’ ὄναρ διαταραχθήσῃ, ζήσῃ δὲ ὡς θεὸς ἐν ἀνθρώποις. οὐθὲν γὰρ ἔοικε θνητῷ ζῴῳ ζῶν ἄνθρωπος ἐν ἀθανάτοις ἀγαθοῖς.

The Teaching Mission: “Deliberate … with a Like-Minded Friend”

A good disciple is one that tries to follow the instructions of his teacher. Based on the early part, and the closing, of the Letter to Menoeceus, it seems that Epicurus would not consider us true and sincere disciples if we don’t dedicate ourselves to deliberating (meléta) about philosophy in two ways: both by ourselves and with others who are similar to us (of like mind, or who are at the same level).

Epicurus may have been thinking, when he wrote these words at the end of LMenoeceus, that since he (and perhaps his philosopher friends) took so much time and effort to organize the doctrines for the students, that he preferred that they honored his effort by multiplying the fruits of his effort. Hence, by closing LMenoeceus in this manner, Epicurus was basically saying: “Go share this with (those among) your friends who are like-minded intellectual peers”

This is how (what Norman DeWitt called) “the teaching mission” of the Epicurean Gardens began: there was an Epicurean interest in education, or rather re-educating both old and young. We can think of the Epicurean critique of paideia (traditional Greek education) in this light: it comes with an attempt to offer an alternative or an addendum to conventional education.

Who was studying philosophy in the Garden? We might surmise–from the invitation at the beginning of LMenoeceus to young and old to study philosophy–that the Garden had at least two educational curricula: one for youth, and one for elders–or at least one for beginners, and one for advanced students, as we can also imagine from the fact that new students were given the Little Epitome to study, and advanced students had other works to study. We have to imagine also that these curricula included the three bodies of the Epicurean wisdom tradition (canon, physics, ethics).

We can also surmise that the disciples to whom these works were dedicated were advanced and sincere enough, that they were entrusted to continue passing down these teachings. A good teacher would not entrust the “teaching mission” to just anyone: he would not give a doctrine to share if it’s incomplete, or if the disciple who receives it has not mastered the basics and isn’t able to lead a study group, at the very least. Although elsewhere we have a fragment that says that Metrodorus, Polyaenus, and Hermarchus were Epicurus’ ambassadors–we have here an invitation to missionary work not for the Guides (kath-hegemones) of the Garden, but for Menoeceus: a regular disciple. As Norman DeWitt said: “each one teach one“.

Since both the PD’s and the LMenoeceus seem to be conclusive summaries–which is why Diogenes Laertius included them in his biography of Epicurus–, we can surmise that by the time they were given to the disciples, the doctrines of the Garden had matured to a point that was considered sufficiently stable and complete to warrant such a definite summary.

Epicurus said that his teachings were not for everyone, but for those who are “armed for happiness“. While there was a clear hierarchy of knowledge in the Garden, we see in LMenoeceus that every Epicurean pupil was considered intelligent enough to be a “like-minded friend” to other Epicureans, and in this sense there was a form of equality (which manifests as like-mindedness) in the Garden even among slaves, women, and people of different classes.

Practicing Meléta

I’d like to direct attention to the word used here, which is sometimes translated as “practice these things“, or “ponder these things“. The word meléta (μελέτα) has several meanings:

to think carefully
to meditate upon
to give oneself totally to
to dedicate oneself to
to practice
to cultivate
to ponder
to deliberate

This process of pondering is, of course, mostly private, and it’s meant to ensure a full, sincere, cognitive assimilation of the Doctrines, and clear convictions. It also helps us to do the introspective work that the Doctrines sometimes challenge us with.

But there’s a second mode of study that Epicurus recommends. He says we should study with “kindred souls“. He uses the word omoion, which is related semantically to the English word “same”, and with the idea of a counterpart, a double, or equivalent.

Studying Philodemus, Lucretius, and the other great Epicureans of the past (and present) gives us privileged access to the meléta processes of previous generations and allows us to capitalize on their wisdom, and to participate in some way in the meléta of others, enhancing our own, and giving us a different perspective.

As an exercise to help us visualize what is meant by the closing passage of the Letter to Menoeceus, we could ask ourselves: “How do I practice meléta (as defined above) with others, and by myself?“. That is,

How do I think carefully on the Epicurean doctrines with others, and by myself?
How do I meditate upon philosophy with others, and by myself?
How do I give myself totally to EP with others, and by myself?
How do I dedicate myself to the study of philosophy with others, and by myself?
How do I practice EP with others, and by myself?
How do I cultivate Epicurean philosophy with others, and by myself?
How do I ponder EP with others, and by myself?
How do I deliberate about EP with others, and by myself?

This may involve study, reading, writing essays to document what one is learning, asking questions to those who are more knowledgeable, and having conversations with them online or in person. The point is that collective deliberation with knowledgeable Epicurean friends helps to catch most errors, and that by exposing us to frank criticism, collective deliberation helps us to develop a good character, to practice true friendship, and to gain knowledge.

Why should anyone trust that our words are true to the Principal Doctrines, if we are not knowledgeable? Knowledge is an important currency to us. In the Society of Friends of Epicurus, we believe in a hierarchy of knowledge, and place great importance in having knowledgeable Epicureans (preferrably, formal Guides who have been trained in EP) to study with.

Another point that must be raised is that proof is in the pudding: Guides must be happy. They must show in their own life that they are living pleasantly with the aid of philosophy. If a person seems unhappy, impractical, unfriendly, if he relies on Fortune for his happiness, or if she relies heavily on particular and obscure interpretations with no reliance on the PDs, you should look for other students to study with.

Knowledgeable friends or Guides must not harbor ill-will, which destroys philosophical inquiry and makes philosophy degenerate into ad-hominem attacks. That is not true meléta. Guides must give parrhesia with good will, and with a sincere investment in the happiness, wisdom, and good character of their friends. They must also frequently cite the sources, and give exegetical or interpretative insight about them, rather than merely rely on their own pre-established biases. When they do discuss their own ideas or those of non-Epicureans, these ideas must be: 1. in harmony with the rest of the Epicurean doctrine, and be 2. internally consistent (these are Epicurus’ two instructions for innovation).

Meléta is Both Passive and Active

I wish to mention here the essay by R Braicovich (which I recently read in Spanish) on the use of epitomes (summaries) by Epicureans, which cites the critique by some hostile scholars who say that the Epicurean practice of memorizing and repeating doctrines is passive and does not constitute true philosophy. In the essay, the author argues that part of the utility of memorization (and of an Epicurean education) is to assist people in the process of hedonic calculus, and therefore this process of memorization was not as passive as these hostile scholars claim. The author also mentions that the epitomes must either 1. be memorized or 2. studied in depth with tutors (to cite Norman DeWitt: “each one teach one“) or with other writings that explain our summaries, but our discussion of the end of the Letter to Menoeceus makes it clear that these two forms of studying are not mutually exclusive: they are complementary, and both are necessary. The bottom line is that Epicurean studies require both a personal cognitive commitment, as well as a community of friends.

Furthermore, the essay stresses that learning is not merely passive memorization and repetition, but that the doctrines of Epicurus are meant to aid us in carrying out our hedonic calculus and in our choices and avoidances. In other words, we must actively interpret the doctrines and use them as moral agents in the real world. The doctrines furnish theory, and we must furnish praxis.

Conclusion

Epicurus advises us to passively and actively deliberate on his doctrines and teachings both by ourselves (private meléta, which takes the form of reading, repetition, memorizing, and evaluating the doctrines against empirical case studies) and with others who are of like mind (conversations with friends, as well as indirectly by studying the writings of other Epicureans and learning from their own process of meléta).

Continue Reading: Epicurus’ Instructions on Meleta, Part II

Vatican Sayings – Brief Study Guide

Someday I dream we will have an online source for all the literary works in Epicurean philosophy, all in one place and searchable, with study guides, in various languages and with various translations available for comparison for the benefit of students of Epicurean Philosophy everywhere. I think of websites like Bible Gateway and some of the online Qur’an and Bhagavad Gita translation sites available online, where students can search for a subject or word, or systematically read and study a particular chapter. I envision this Epicurean site as including the entire ancient Epitome (the works of the founders), On the Nature of Things, all the works by Philodemus, Diogenes’ Wall, Diogenes Laertius, and even A Few Days in AthensPerhaps it should even include some of Lucian’s worksAll of these works are worthy of careful study by sincere students of Epicurus, and have also accumulated a growing body of commentary by devoted readers that deserves to be preserved and built on. 

In the meantime, here’s a brief thematic study guide for the Vatican Sayings for beginners. As more study material becomes available, please stay appraised by joining our online forum!

ON HAPPINESS

14. We have been born once and cannot be born a second time; for all eternity we shall no longer exist. But you, although you are not in control of tomorrow, are postponing your happiness. Life is wasted by delaying, and each one of us dies without enjoying leisure.

IN CELEBRATION OF WISDOM

27. The benefits of other activities come only to those who have already become, with great difficulty, complete masters of such pursuits, but in the study of philosophy pleasure accompanies growing knowledge; for pleasure does not follow learning; rather, learning and pleasure advance side by side.

32. The honor paid to a wise man is itself a great good for those who honor him.

36. Epicurus’s life when compared to that of other men with respect to gentleness and self-sufficiency might be thought a mere legend.

45. The study of nature does not create men who are fond of boasting and chattering or who show off the culture that impresses the many, but rather men who are strong and self-sufficient, and who take pride in their own personal qualities not in those that depend on external circumstances.

54. It is not the pretense but the real pursuit of philosophy that is needed; for we do not need the semblance of health but rather true health.

78. The noble man is chiefly concerned with wisdom and friendship; of these, the former is a mortal good, the latter an immortal one.

ON AUTARCHY

29. To speak frankly as I study nature I would prefer to speak in oracles that which is of advantage to all men even though it be understood by none, rather than to conform to popular opinion and thus gain the constant praise that comes from the many.

35. Don’t spoil what you have by desiring what you don’t have; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.

71. Question each of your desires: “What will happen to me if that which this desire seeks is achieved, and what if it is not?”

67. Since the attainment of great wealth can scarcely be accomplished without slavery to crowds or to politicians, a free life cannot obtain much wealth; but such a life already possesses everything in unfailing supply. Should such a life happen to achieve great wealth, this too it can share so as to gain the good will of one’s neighbors.

68. Nothing is enough to someone for whom what is enough is little.

77. Freedom is the greatest fruit of self-sufficiency.

ON DEATH

31. It is possible to provide security against other things, but as far as death is concerned, we men all live in a city without walls.

ON FRIENDSHIP

34. We do not so much need the assistance of our friends as we do the confidence of their assistance in need.

61. Most beautiful is the sight of those close to us, when our original contact makes us of one mind or produces a great incitement to this end.

66. We show our feeling for our friends’ suffering, not with laments, but with thoughtful concern.

ON WHOLESOME CHARACTER

46. Let us completely rid ourselves of our bad habits as if they were evil men who have done us long and grievous harm.

53. We must envy no one; for the good do not deserve envy and as for the bad, the more they prosper, the more they ruin it for themselves.

79. He who is calm disturbs neither himself nor another.

69. The thankless nature of the soul makes the creature endlessly greedy for variations in its lifestyle.

EPICUREAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS FATE

47. I have anticipated you, Fortune, and entrenched myself against all your secret attacks. And we will not give ourselves up as captives to you or to any other circumstance; but when it is time for us to go, spitting contempt on life and on those who here vainly cling to it, we will leave life crying aloud in a glorious triumph-song that we have lived well.

65. It is pointless for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

ON CONSOLATION

55. We should find solace for misfortune in the happy memory of what has been and in the knowledge that what has been cannot be undone.

Self-Guided Study Curriculum

Epicurean philosophy is the only secular-humanist missionary philosophy that was born in Hellenistic Greece. It is also, among the old philosophical systems, the one that most continues to be of relevance. The corpus of our wisdom tradition is divided into three parts: Canon (its epistemology, or how to think about nature), Physics (the nature of things), and Ethics (the art of living).

The following is intended as a long-term, self-guided curriculum for people wanting to study Epicurean philosophy on their own and at their own pace. For additional support and resources, we advise students to join the Garden of Epicurus FB group and to raise questions about any of the reading material covered.

Book: Tending the Epicurean Garden

Essay: Six Things I Learned After Writing Tending the Garden  

Canon: the Standard of Truth

The ancient Epicureans were reacting against the Skeptics, a school founded by Pyrrho, when they stated that it is possible to have certainty and clear knowledge about nature by means of certain checks and balances–while the Pyrronists believed that certainty was impossible to obtain, and also that it was not desirable. In that sense the atomists were dogmatic: they understood that certainty was possible and desirable.

But if certainty is possible, there must be a standard for firmly establishing something as real. Hence the Canon–the standard of reality and an early precursor to the scientific method, which educates us on the primacy of the senses and of our natural faculties as judges of what is and is not true. This Canon includes: the five senses, the pleasure/aversion faculty, and anticipations.

Book: The Tripod of Truth: An Introduction to the Book That Fell From The Heavens

The Canon has two important effects: first, to establish nature as the standard and ultimate authority, rather than abstractions invented by mortals; second, to help us emancipate ourselves from traditional and arbitrary authorities, which helps explain how women and slaves could be treated as intellectual equals in the ancient Gardens or schools of Epicurus–this kind of equality was very rare in ancient Greece. They did not need priests, mediators, or experts in logic. They believed that each person can independently philosophize and be an arbiter of reality and of their ethical choices by using their nature-given faculties and always basing their views, choices and avoidances on the study of nature.

Physics: The Nature of Things

The philosophy of existence, or in what way things exist, is called ontology. Atomists accept a scientific understanding of the nature of things, and because we accept that things are material, our ontology is Physics, which studies material bodies, and chemistry, which studies the interactions between different bodies. In the writings of Epicurus (as seen in his Epistle to Herodotus), we see that bodies have primary (their own) and secondary (relational) properties.

But modern ideas have ancient roots. Early pre-atomist philosophers speculated non-empirically that everything in the cosmos was made of a primal substance (or several). Some said it was water, other said fire. Anaximander said they were the four known “elements”.

The proto-Platonist Parmenides (515-440 BCE) postulated, again without attempting to reconcile his doctrines with the evidence of nature, that change does not exist, that everything is the same thing (ho Pan, “the whole”), and that our senses deceive us. However, when we see the evidence that nature presents to our faculties, we see the enormous diversity of things (not a single substance that can be called “the whole”), and we also see that there is constant change.

Zeno of Elea was known for his paradoxes, one of which postulated that, if we cut things progressively, we would get smaller and smaller particles to infinity and that this process would never end. This paradox was one of the inspirations for atomism. The word atom means “uncuttable” or “indivisible”.

The first atomists–Leucippus and Democrates–were attempting to prove Parmenides, Zeno, and the others wrong. They tried to reconcile all these cosmological models with the evidence in nature.

Some of the arguments of these early atomists are written in the Epistle to Herodotus. In response to the paradox of Zeno, they thought that if the particles could be cut to infinity, that would mean that all objects would have an infinite number of atoms. And we know that this is not the case because an object with infinite number of atoms would be of infinite size, and that is not what we see. Therefore, there must be a limited amount of atoms in each thing, and therefore there must be a point at which the particles are so small that they are no longer divisible: the a-tom (“in-divisible”).

Then, in considering the error of Parmenides, who denied the existence of change and movement claiming that “the whole” is the same always everywhere, they considered that there had to be empty space (not filled by “the whole”) between the particles because if there was no empty space, there could be no movement and change, which when we observe nature, we see that they obviously exist. Realizing that there must be space between these primordial particles–otherwise there would be no space to move, no sponges could fill with particles of water, nor would we observe things with greater and lesser density and weight–they concluded that in the cosmos, the two primal things must be atoms and void.

Things can either exist or not exist, and to exist is to be made up of atoms. Let’s put it in Shakespearean terms: “To be or not to be”. To be is to exist as particles, and not to be is to exist as void between the particles. Anything that exists, must root its existence in the dynamics between particles and void, or as relational or emergent properties of bodies which, as they increase in size and interact and form systems with each other, gain greater complexity.

Note: We now believe that quarks are the smallest units that make up protons and neutrons. Electrons and photons are not made of quarks but are themselves elementary particles. These and a host of other particles are now considered the irreducible pieces which we may now consider to be what Democritus meant by “atoms.” We must always consider this when translating from Greek, however if we put vocabulary aside, the basics of the classical theory are still valid: it is impossible to divide matter beyond a certain point.

In reading the Epistle to Herodotus we learn that the theories of the ancient atomists and their cosmology model include a fascinating doctrine of innumerable planets, some similar and others different from our own, some without life but others with life both similar and different from the one we see on Earth. This is a function of the infinity of atoms and emptiness in all directions, combined with a limited number of possible combinations of particles according to the laws of nature which are the same everywhere, so necessarily there must be infinite repetitions in every direction of the same phenomena that we see in our part of the cosmos. Ancient atomists speculated often about extraterrestrial life, and the Epicurean comedian Lucian wrote the comedy True Story, which is believed to be the first historical example of the genre of science fiction (although it also falls within the genre of fantasy).

*Essential Book*Letter to Herodotus. This constitutes “the smaller Epitome” which every beginner in Epicurean philosophy must study before moving on to more advanced material.

The Canon was invented by Nausiphanes, who was a student of Democritus and the teacher of Epicurus. However, Epicurus revolted against the determinist and mechanistic doctrine of his predecessors, as he believed in free will, and this revolt made it possible for Epicurus to become a moral reformer and to add an ethical component to the atomist teaching: a science of happiness and of morality. Epicurus saw that we are not mere robots, that there seems to be a natural impulse that allows for human freedom. He proposed that there must be some element of chaos in the particles, and theorized that there must be a swerve, a movement that happens at random. This element of chaos and chance may translate into what’s known as either Brownian motion, or–more likely–the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, in modern physics.

Ethics: the Art of Living

Blog: Back to the Basics

Ancient Writing: Epistle to Menoeceus 

You are probably beginning to see the coherence of the Epicurean system: from the Canon, we get the Physics; and from the Canon and Physics, we get the Ethics. The Epicurean understanding of reality has many practical implications. It implies that it is not wise to fear or appease the gods, who intervene in nothing, since all things follow natural laws. It provides sober therapeutic treatment for the fear of death based on the Physics. More importantly, it implies that we only have one life and, if this insight is taken seriously, it gives us an urgency to make plans and to live pleasantly, to take advantage of the single, non-renewable time we have under the sun. The work of being happy is of supreme importance. The doctrine that says that it is in our nature to seek pleasure and to avoid pain is called hedonism. We inherited this doctrine from the intellectuals of the Libyan city of Cyrene, which has been called by Michel Onfray “a philosophical Atlantis”.

Cyrenaic Reasonings (a summary and commentary on the book by Kurt Lampe titled The Birth of Hedonism)

Herculanean Scroll: Philodemus On Death

Essay: Epicurus’ Four Cures 

But what is happiness? What can we know empirically about happiness? And why do the Epicureans insist on establishing pleasure, and not “virtue” (or “happiness”) as the end? For the Epicureans, all Platonization of natural phenomena is a kind of alienation. On the other hand, pain and pleasure are concrete and real, observable in nature, and are perceived and experienced directly by the sentient being. They are not Platonic, but natural and real. The faculty of pleasure and aversion is not an arbitrary dogma of an academic philosopher, but the guidance that nature itself gives us. If we look at newborn babies, or puppies or kitties, we will observe that they shun pain and seek pleasure.

Essays: On Epicurean Virtue and Dialogue on Virtue

The faculty of aversion-pleasure is part of the Canon, so it is understood that through it, nature guides us in our choices and avoidances, as this is the main component of our moral faculty. In establishing pleasure as an end, it is important to understand that it is not a particular activity but a natural faculty, and therefore the definition of a pleasurable life is broad, diverse and individualized. Neither is it a Platonic abstraction, but concrete activities and natural states of mind. The science of happiness has demonstrated that there is something called “hedonic adaptation”: once a person gets used to the pleasure of an activity, she does not enjoy it as much. Failure to understand this phenomenon of adaptation leads to addictions, disenchantment, and other problems. In ancient Epicurean writings, this subject is covered as the need to understand the natural limits of our pleasures and desires. “Pleasant abiding” regardless of our objects of desire, for many, requires training and cultivation of our attention.

That is why Epicurean ethics teaches that we must develop a hedonic regimen, a menu of diverse and varied pleasures, and that we must take on the training to learn to experience constant pleasures, both dynamic and passive. This is done through philosophical practices such as daily cultivation of a spirit of gratitude, frequent association with our wholesome friends, repetition and memorization of teachings, self-reliance projects that protect us from long-term fears and insecurities, Cyrenaic adaptability that helps us to put less faith in our ability to control what happens in the future than in our ability to adapt to it, and other Epicurean practices.

Educational Videos: How to Live a Good Life according to Epicurus; Gregory Sadler “Core Concepts” Series on Friendship, Mental and Bodily Pleasures, on Desires, on Pleasure, Prudence and Justice, on Utility of Justice, and on Pain and Pleasure

On Epicurean Economics – essay

Epicurus and His Philosophy (Minnesota Archive Editions)

A Counter-History of Philosophy

Biography and History: Diogenes Laertius, Chapter 10: Epicurus (Perseus)

Video: A Gigantic Jigsaw Puzzle: The Epicurean Inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda

Sometimes those of us who learn to love this philosophy acquire a sense of our place within its history. It is impossible to avoid noting that Platonism has been from the beginning the intellectual arch-enemy of our school, and in fact Epicurus and his great friend Hermarchus were expelled from Mytilene by the Platonists. This event is symbolic of the historical opposition between theologians and naturalistic philosophers, between the idealists and the materialists.

Academic philosophy has typically focused on Platonism and Aristotelianism, even though the scientific description of the universe has again and again confirmed the theories of the materialists. That is why modern intellectuals such as Michel Onfray have called for an alternative narrative: a counter-history of philosophy “spoken from the perspective of the friends of Epicurus and enemies of Plato”.

Lucretius in his book On the Nature of Things is a forerunner of this. In his epic poem, he shares anthropology-based origin stories by which he means to dismantle the mythical, non-empirical world-view of his predecessors. Philodemus of Gadara, in his scroll On Frank Criticism, explains that the philosopher must apply two forms of frank criticism (public and private) in order to help improve collective and personal moral character. In the arsenal of rhetorical tools that the Epicureans have historically used for this, we find the use of comedy and suavity.

Another tool we use to honor our own narrative is the monthly celebration of a feast of reason, where delicacies are shared and philosophy is studied the twentieth of every month. This tradition was established by Epicurus in his Final Testament, and is the reason why ancient Epicureans were known as eikadastai (the twentiers, or “the people of the twentieth”).

Book Review: Michel Onfray’s Hedonist Manifesto

Essay: Swinish Herds and Pastafarians: Comedy as an Ideological Weapon

Book: Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura

Book: A Few Days in Athens