Read the material, practice with self-tests, and pass graded quizzes to earn your certificate of completion.
"I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of our master Epicurus... One of his canons, you know, was that ‘that indulgence which prevents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be avoided.’"
"It was an occasion for a Democritus, nay, for an Epicurus or a Metrodorus, perhaps, a man whose intelligence was steeled against such assaults by scepticism and insight... [who] would at any rate have been perfectly certain that… the whole thing was a lie and an impossibility."
"...men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of the pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue."
Epicurus College is actively developing additional courses covering Epicurean Physics, Canonics, Ethics, biography, and Epicurus's relationship to other philosophies. Explore what's planned below.
Our first course, Introduction to Epicurean Philosophy, is free and entirely self-paced: six sessions, about 4 hours in total. We recommend taking one session per sitting – plan on 30 minutes to an hour each – but there is no live instructor, no class schedule, and no deadlines. Stop whenever you like, log back in later, and pick up right where you left off.
Every session follows the same three steps:
| Session | Read | Practice | Test | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sources and the Big Picture | ~10 min | ~15 min | ~5 min | 30 min |
| 2. Historical Perspectives | ~15 min | ~15 min | ~10 min | 40 min |
| 3. Physics – The Nature of the Universe | ~15 min | ~15 min | ~12 min | 40 min |
| 4. Canonics – How We Know What We Know | ~25 min | ~15 min | ~12 min | 50 min |
| 5. Ethics – How to Live | ~30 min | ~15 min | ~14 min | 1 hour |
| 6. Recap – The Big Picture Revisited | ~5 min | ~15 min | ~10 min | 30 min |
| Whole course | about 4 hours | |||
Once you have completed every session's lesson and passed every session's quiz, a certificate of completion becomes available for you to view and download.
Start here: Introduction to Epicurean Philosophy
Epicurus's life and historical context, his physics, his theory of knowledge (Canonics), and his ethics – the whole system, from first principles to daily practice, in six sessions.
New here? See our complete step-by-step guide – with screenshots – to creating an account, working through a course, and earning your certificate.
Epicurus (341–270 BC) was an Athenian philosopher who built one of the most complete and influential philosophical systems of the ancient world. Working from the evidence of the senses rather than religious tradition or abstract speculation, he taught that the universe is entirely natural – made of atoms and void, governed by no gods, guided by no cosmic plan – and that a happy life is one lived in the confident, well-reasoned pursuit of pleasure, supported by practical wisdom, honest friendship, and freedom from groundless fear. He founded a school in Athens known as "The Garden," unusual for its time in welcoming women and enslaved people alongside citizens as full participants in philosophical life.
Epicurus's significance is hard to overstate. For over two thousand years his ideas have stood as the principal rival to Stoicism, Platonism, and the various supernatural religious traditions that followed them – and for nearly as long, they have been misrepresented by rivals who found a fully naturalistic, pleasure-affirming philosophy threatening to their own systems. Much of what "everybody knows" about Epicurus – that he counseled passive withdrawal, or that "epicurean" simply means indulgence in food and drink – is a distortion left behind by those rivals rather than an accurate picture of what he actually taught.
What Epicurean philosophy offers is a coherent, evidence-based way of understanding the world and a practical, workable approach to living well within it: an account of nature that removes the fear of death and the fear of arbitrary divine punishment, and an ethical outlook that takes pleasure – not virtue for its own sake, and not the mere avoidance of pain – as the goal of life, while still making full room for friendship, justice, and prudent long-term choice. It is a complete philosophy of nature, knowledge, and living, not a lifestyle slogan.
Please contact us at EpicureanFriends.com for any questions about this website!
Epicurus College is undergoing a full redevelopment. We expect to launch our first course (Epicurus 101 - Introduction To Epicurean Philosophy) in the fall of 2026.
Keep checking back for the official launch announcement, and be aware that the site will be changing frequently. In the meantime, feel free to visit EpicureanFriends.com and listen to the Lucretius Today Podcast.