Why are Stoics More Popular Than Epicureans?
In his book A Guide to the Good Life, Stoic author William B. Irvine points to the death of Marcus Aurelius as the high water mark for Stoicism. Though never as popular as Epicureanism, Stoicism was widely known in the Ancient Roman world with countless thousands of adherents.
After this point, though, the philosophy started on a slow decline. Irvine’s point is well taken if we are doing a head count on those practicing Stoicism in our modern world. There are vastly fewer people who count themselves as serious practitioners than there were at Stoicism’s height. But even so, Stoicism has been experiencing a renaissance that is way beyond anything that Epicureans could dream of.
Antonia Macaro notes in More Than Happiness: Buddhist and Stoic Wisdom For a Skeptical Age that Stoicism has enjoyed “... a surprising rise in popularity in recent years. After centuries of attracting small numbers of aficionados, there are now numerous books, blogs, online forums and an annual Stoic Week…” In contrast, Epicurus is “not enjoying such a resurgence.”
Go to any bookstore and you’re bound to find at least one book with “Stoic” in the title. With Epicurus it’s much more hit and miss. Have a look at the rankings on Amazon.com and you will find that books on Stoicism dominate the philosophy section. Stoics like Ryan Holiday and Massimo Piggliucci are superstars of the book world. Books like Catherine Wilson’s How to Be an Epicurean will sometimes punch through, but with the public at large Epicurean philosophy remains unknown.
What happened? Epicureanism is broadly misunderstood. People believe it’s about maximizing sensual pleasure. Moreover, content creators have built up on audiences using this misconception, creating cookbooks labeled “Epicurean” and so forth.
But as Irvine points out, Stoicism is widely misunderstood too. People get the wrong idea about Stoics being stoical, grim and indifferent to life. So clearly wrong first impressions aren’t all there is to the story.
I think Stoicism has found an audience where Epicureanism hasn’t because of the differences in what each philosophy claims to offer. Stoicism is more complimentary to “grind culture.” Many people seek to use philosophical insights to understand how to achieve wealth and other markers of personal success.
If Epicurus wrote even one word about career success, it hasn’t survived. And frankly, I doubt that he ever gave the matter even a passing thought. There was no business culture in his time, but people still traded and engaged in commerce. They also schemed and strove to get ahead. Epicurus was interested in opting out of the rat race, not finding the quickest route to beat the other rats to the cheese.
Another reason why Stoicism is more well known is the fact that there are more Stoic teachers and writings available. If you want to be a Stoic, you can choose to learn from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, etc.. All of them left behind completed works and wrote about aspects of life that the mostly incomplete surviving works by Epicurus can’t match.
Stoic philosophers wrote about work and family, overcoming personal tragedy and a lot else. Epicurus gave some practical life advice too, but most of what survives are fragments. You can build a book around these fragments. Hell, you can build a whole daily newsletter around it if you want to. But it’s not as easy as having a set of complete manuals to turn to.
I think the primary reason why Stoicism has resurged in popularity has to do with the techniques of mental framing which can be used to unravel past traumas. Author Greg Lukianoff discusses in The Coddling of the American Mind how he applied the Stoic technique of abandoning control over external circumstances and reframing past experiences so as not to give them too much power. This process is similar to the more contemporary Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and can be life changing for people experiencing anxiety and PTSD. Epicureanism can’t match this.
Epicurus’s main appeal to the ancient world was the promise to free people from fear of death and the superstitious fear of Gods and divine punishment. This offers a powerful corrective to people who believe the world is populated by good and evil spirits and spend countless hours fretting over how to appease invisible forces. But it just isn’t much of a draw for secular people who don’t believe in gods anyway.
In Epicurus’s world, basically no one had a secular mindset. But today most people who read non-Christian self-help books have one. A philosophy which offers to help people with a problem they don’t have is not going to be more popular than a competing philosophy that doesn’t.
As Epicureans, we’re not bitter about the Stoics’ success. Stoicism has a lot of value to the world, and Epicureans should smile on people who are growing more confident and capable whether they do so by following Stoic or Epicurean teachings. Stoics and Epicureans don’t have to be rivals and shouldn’t be. But Epicureans have plenty to offer the world, too.
Epicureanism’s lack of popularity isn’t a given. For centuries it was the more popular of the two creeds, and it may become more popular again. Just because it’s the underdog now doesn’t mean that it’s doomed to remain in the shadows. Actually, its history suggests just the opposite. Over and over again, Epicurus’s ideas have been rediscovered and revived. There’s no reason this can’t happen again. Stoics have their promoters. We need to promote Epicureanism too.
Ειρήνη και Ασφάλεια
Peace and Safety
Epicureanism has contributions to CBT ( and was earlier than Stoicism ) but it was not so obvious and the founder of CBT declared Stoicism as the basic inspiration.
Epicureans CBT=> Some things are up to necessity, some coincidence, some up to us ; check opinions if they are empty ideas ; check the limits of your desires and consequences ; check your fears of superstition, death and pain/suffering; and check all your impulses and opinion/ ideas with using all your faculties and sober reasoning.
Thats much for CBT 😊
Also Philodemus has much contribution.
What increases the popularity of Stoicism is this feeling of becoming a hero who can conquer every misfortune , I think. The image of a hero draws more attention than a pleasent person sitting satisfied in the garden 😆
I feel like Epicureanism can contribute a lot in modern times.
I’ve found being able to find and savor the little pleasures throughout the day makes it so much easier to do everything I need to do during the day and do it with more enjoyment. It also gives me the mental energy to interact with others in a more wholesome and genuine way.
Moreover, the Epicureanism emphasis on reducing and eliminating mental disturbances has been helpful. For example, paying attention to feelings and sense perceptions as a means of collecting evidence is much more helpful than what I often previously did by brooding or over-analyzing when my mind started coming up with unreasonable hypothetical scenarios about the past or future. For Epicurus, he focused on the gods, celestial phenomena, etc. , but I have found it helpful for as well for things like illness, financial problems, and social situations.
Thirdly, there’s the Epicurean emphasis on community. I’ve known people who spend so much time caught up with politics that they ignore their own problems and the problems of the people around them. Epicurus’ teachings on community help to remind me that there’s often a lot of good I can do for the people directly around me, even if it is just bringing some more pleasant memories to their life. This can be done regardless of the political situation at the time.