1.7 Major Philosophical Schools

Epicureanism

Traces its origins to Epicurus (341–270 BCE).
Allows for free will, questioning the role of fate (or of the gods) to determine human lives.
Pleasure is the ultimate goal of life, but true pleasure is found through the attainment of tranquility (freedom from anxiety), not through simple gratification of desires.
Those seeking true pleasure exercise their free will to enjoy good things in moderation and to make responsible choices that improve their lives and the lives of others.
Likewise, followers avoid those things that lead to disappointment, pain, or grief (romantic love, emotional attachment, political commitments, devotion to material things).
Rejects any sense of afterlife: what meaning life has is to be found here and now.
Sometimes degenerated into a notion of freedom from accountability or responsibility (rather than from anxiety); Epicureans were then regarded as “pleasure seekers” in a crass sense, and the philosophy was viewed as a license for self-indulgence.

Traces its origins to Zeno (333–264 BCE), reshaped by Epictetus in the first century CE.
Everything is predetermined; history is cyclical and repetitious.
Virtue is what matters most in life, and it is attainable through acceptance of fate.
Those seeking virtue appreciate the logic of the universe (called Logos or Reason) and are indifferent to circumstances (“no reason for joy, still less for grief”).
Epictetus accentuated the moral obligation of virtue: love and respect for all people, whose merits and station in life lie beyond their control.

Traces its origins to Diogenes of Sinope (ca. 410–324 BCE).
More lifestyle than dogma; emphasizes radical authenticity and independence.
Authenticity is attained through repudiation of shame: no embarrassment over bodily features or functions; no concern for reputation or status.
Independence is attained through renunciation of what cannot be obtained freely, by embracing simplicity and voluntary poverty and desiring to have only what is natural and necessary.
Cynics employed diatribe for pedagogical instruction, a style of teaching or argument that uses rhetorical questions to engage in conversation with an imaginary partner.

Traces its origins to Pythagora of Samos (ca. 570–495 BCE), a mathematician.
Intelligence is to be valued above all else; memory is thus highly prized.
The pursuit of intelligence involves a reasoning process that seeks single hypotheses to explain all relevant facts.
But truth also has a mystical side, as is illustrated in the power of music, which is highly mathematical, and yet can heal disease and affect appetites.
In accord with the appreciation of music, success in life is measured through the attainment of harmony (of ideas, of body and soul, etc.).
The goal of harmony may be achieved through intelligence, when employed with radical honesty.

Traces its origins to Plato (ca. 425–423 BCE), the influential Athenian philosopher, with development of ideas that would eventually crystallize into Neoplatonism under the influence of Plotinus (204–270 CE).
Articulated especially by Plutarch (45–125 CE) and highly influential on both the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (30 BCE–45 CE) and the Christian theologian Origen (185–245 CE).
Posits the existence of a creative first principle, the intermediaries of which account for various world religions.
The material world is but a type or shadow of an intellectual reality that might be represented as the Logos (rational principle or “thoughts of god”).
Insists on freedom of the will—divine providence involves cooperation between human will and divine agency.
Emphasizes the immortality of the human soul, leaving open possibilities of transmigration or reincarnation, but denying death in the absolute sense that implies cessation of one’s essential, rational being.
The goal of life often involves preserving a purity of the soul that recognizes the value of truth, reason, and ideas, avoiding the corruption of what is false, temporal or material.