SOURCE: Terence Irwin, "Epicureanism," in A History of Western Philosophy: I Classical Thought, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 145-63.

In the following excerpt, Irwin places Epicurean thought in the context of Greek political and intellectual history. He investigates the movement's doctrine using the tools of logic.

I. the Hellenistic World1

The 'Hellenistic Age' (a term coined by modern historians, not by the Greeks) begins with the death of Alexander the Great in 323, and ends with the end of the Roman Republic and the victory of Octavian (later Augustus) in 31 BC. Alexander conquered the empires of Persia and Egypt, and his successors ruled over them until they were incorporated in the Roman Empire under Augustus.

Alexander's conquests extended the Greek-speaking world. Greek cities (Alexandria in Egypt being the most famous) were founded throughout his empire; and they made the Greek language and culture familiar and dominant far beyond mainland Greece...