A short, smart guide to living the good life through the teachings of Epicurus. As long as there has been human life, we've searched for what it means to be happy. More than two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus came to his own conclusion: all we really want in life is pleasure. Though today we tend to associate the word "Epicurean" with indulgence in the form of food and wine, the philosophy of Epicurus was about a life well lived even in the hardest of times. As John Sellars shows in this concise, approachable guide, the ideal life envisioned by Epicurus and his followers was a life much more concerned with mental pleasures and the avoidance of pain. Their goal, in short, was a life of tranquility or contentment. In The Pocket Epicurean Sellars walks us through the history of Epicureanism, starting with the private garden on the edge of ancient Athens where Epicurus and his students lived in the fourth century BC, and where women were as welcome as men. Sellars then moves on to ancient Rome, where Epicurean influence flourished thanks to the poet Lucretius and his cohort. Throughout the book, Sellars draws on the ideas of Epicurus to offer a constructive way of thinking about the pleasures of friendship and our place in the world.
John Sellars es profesor de Filosofía en Royal Holloway (Universidad de Londres) y profesor invitado de investigación en el King’s College de Londres, donde combina la docencia con el proyecto Ancient Commentators on Aristotle. También ha sido profesor de Filosofía en varias universidades del Reino Unido; de las cuales la más reciente ha sido la de Birkbeck (Universidad de Londres).
Es miembro del Wolfson College de Oxford y uno de los miembros fundadores de Modern Stoicism, una organización sin ánimo de lucro cuyo objetivo es investigar y publicar información sobre la aplicación de la filosofía estoica a la vida moderna en beneficio del público general. También forma parte de los organizadores de la Stoic Week, un evento anual que invita a los participantes a vivir como estoicos durante una semana.