The Epicurean Virtues

1. Temperance – Epicurean Hedonism

2. Courage – The wise man will not falter under torture and will die for his friends if need be.

3. Justice – Anti-Platonic doctrines. Social contract conception of justice. "The Justice of Nature is a covenant of advantage to the end that men shall not injure one another or be injured." Emphasis on social contract over political contract.

4. Honesty – Greatest of all the virtues. Parresia – freedom of speech. Fundamental right, recognized in the Athenian democracy of every citizen to speak his true opinion in the public assembly. Opposite of flattery or sycophancy. Connected to epicurean notion of frankness of speech. Expressed in Vatican Saying 29: "As for myself, I should prefer to practice the outspokenness demanded by the study of Nature and to issue the kind of oracles that are beneficial for all mankind, even if not a soul shall understand, rather than by falling into step with popular opinions to harvest the lush praise that falls from the favor of the multitude."

5. Faith – First philosophy in which faith plays an important role. Response to the deep skepticism of Pyrrho. Happiness must be based on the certainty of knowledge, not the belief in the impossibility of knowledge. Epicurus thus refers to Pyrrho as "incapable of either learning or being instructed", and is unapologetically dogmatic, saying that "the wise man will dogmatize and not be a doubter."

6. Altruism, Universal Love – philiathropia. Root of philanthropy. Requires the rejection of social class systems. Demands that one treat all persons as having been created equal. Roots in Hippocratic medicine, with it's saying, "where there is love of mankind there will be love of healing." This is connected to Epicurus own saying, "Vain is the word of the philosopher by which no malady of mankind is healed, for just as there is no benefit in the art of medicine unless it expels the diseases of men's bodies, so there is none in philosophy either unless it expels the malady of the soul." This is probably the source of Epicurus' discontent with Democritus, whom he saw as merely a natural scientist. Also evident in Vatican Saying 52: "Love goes whirling and dancing about the whole earth veritably shouting to us all to awake to the blessedness of the happy life." But this does not mean that Epicureans must be evangelical.

7. Friendship, Personal Love – See rough draft of essay on Epicurean friendship compared to Aristotelian friendship.

8. Suavity – generosity toward others. Source of pleasure and cultivator of friendship.

9. Considerateness – Roots in Aristotle: "The magnimonius man will make it his aim to give pleasure or not to cause pain, referring his actions to the standards of honor and expediency, for, as it seems, he concerns himself with the pleasures and pains that are incidental to social contracts." For the Epicurean, "holds in high regard as many people as possible." Necessary for the working of the social contract. A part of the working of justice.

10. Hope – proper orientation to the future. Engendered by loyalty in friendship.

11. Patience – proper orientation to the present. Engendered by temperance and hope.

12. Gratitude – proper orientation to the past. One of the greatest sources of pleasure, especially in old age. Also engendered by friendship and philosophical conversations past.