Two schools, one city

Epicurean and Stoic

Both schools began in Athens within a few years of one another, both aimed at a calm life, and they disagreed about almost everything else.

What they share

Both schools were practical. They treated philosophy as a craft for living well, much as medicine is a craft for staying healthy. Both thought that most unhappiness comes from false beliefs, that our desires can be trained, and that the fear of death can be reduced by thinking clearly. Both gave daily exercises, and both expected students to study and live together.

They also drew opposing conclusions from the same starting points. Epicureans said nature shows us that pleasure is good, and Stoics said nature shows us that reason and virtue are. They attacked each other for centuries, and their arguments still shape the way we talk about happiness.

Side by side

This is a simplified summary. Within each school there were disagreements, and the Stoic school changed a great deal from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius.

Topic	Epicurean	Stoic
The goal	Tranquillity of mind and freedom from bodily pain, which Epicurus called pleasure.	A good character: living in agreement with nature and reason. Peace of mind follows from it.
Pleasure	The only intrinsic good. Pleasures are weighed by their lasting effects.	Not a good in itself. Pleasure is a "preferred indifferent" that may be taken but not relied on.
Virtue	Valuable because it makes a pleasant life possible.	The only real good, and enough by itself for happiness.
How the world works	Atoms and void. No designer and no purpose. Worlds form by chance.	A single rational order, often called logos or providence, that runs through everything.
Fate and choice	Rejects strict fate. Lucretius says atoms occasionally swerve, leaving room for free action.	Everything is caused. Freedom means giving the right assent to what happens.
The gods	Blessed beings who ignore us. There is nothing to fear or ask for.	The divine is the rational order itself, which cares for the whole.
Death	Nothing to us. The soul scatters and sensation ends.	Natural and indifferent. A person should be ready to meet it calmly.
Emotions	Reduce disturbance by limiting desires and removing false beliefs.	Destructive passions come from mistaken judgements and can be removed. Good feelings, such as joy, remain.
Public life	Usually avoid it. The advice is often summed up as "live unnoticed".	Take part and do your duty to others. Several Stoics, such as Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, held public office.
Friendship	The greatest of the goods that wisdom provides.	Valued, and part of our shared human nature, but not required for happiness.
Where they met	The Garden, a house with grounds on the edge of Athens, from about 306 BCE.	The Stoa Poikile, or painted porch, in the Athenian marketplace, from about 300 BCE under Zeno of Citium.

Which to try

There is no need to choose. A reasonable rule of thumb is to try what answers the problem you have. If you worry about things you cannot control, the Stoic exercises on judgement and acceptance are well suited. If you are tired from wanting more, from ambition or from a crowded life, the Epicurean habits of simple pleasures, friendship and fewer desires may help.

Some people use both. Seneca, a Stoic, quotes Epicurus often and with approval in his letters, so the line between them was less sharp in practice than in theory.

Epicurean and Stoic

What they share

Side by side

Which to try

More on Epicureanism

Epicurus and Lucretius

The Principal Doctrines

Death and the gods

Epicureanism today