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Philosophy started in Ancient Greece and became very popular in the Hellenistic Era. Many philosophers from all over came to Greece, mainly Athens, to teach their philosophies to other people. There were many philosophers but there were two very famous philosophers from the Hellenistic Era whose philosophies were both based around happiness. Their names were Epicurus and Zeno.
Philosopher Epicurus believed that the ultimate goal of life was happiness. Some sources also say that he believed the gods had no interest or care for humans and that is why they should just have fun and be happy in life. The way to find that happiness was to seek pleasure. To Epicurus, pleasure meant spending time with the ones you love and learning to avoid worry and just forget about the problems and be happy. His students (Epicureans) tried to avoid worry by staying out of politics and public service. This philosophy is now today known as Epicureanism and the word Epicurean means the love of physical pleasure, such as good food or comfortable surroundings. Although, that is not really quite what Epicureans believed.
Philosopher Epicurus believed that the ultimate goal of life was happiness. Some sources also say that he believed the gods had no interest or care for humans and that is why they should just have fun and be happy in life. The way to find that happiness was to seek pleasure. To Epicurus, pleasure meant spending time with the ones you love and learning to avoid worry and just forget about the problems and be happy. His students (Epicureans) tried to avoid worry by staying out of politics and public service. This philosophy is now today known as Epicureanism and the word Epicurean means the love of physical pleasure, such as good food or comfortable surroundings. Although, that is not really quite what Epicureans believed.
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Zeno had another philosophy about life and happiness. He believed that happiness came from simply learning to deal with the good as well as the bad in life and doing your job or duty for your city. He taught this to all of his students who were called Stoics. The whole philosophy and idea was known as Stoicism. His philosophy was given this name because when he came to Athens to teach about his philosophy, he didn't exactly have a place to do it. He could not afford to rent a lecture hall so he taught from a building called the "painted porch". The Greek word stoa means porch, hence the name, Stoicism. Today, the word stoic means someone who isn't affected by grief. Stoics believed that they had a job and purpose and had to serve their city, unlike the Epicureans.
Want to find out more? Well something cool about Zeno, is that we mainly know about him through the writing of other philosophers, Aristotle and Plato. They wrote about Zeno and his many paradoxes. According to http://dictionary.reference.com, a paradox is 'a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.' So basically that means something that can be proven true and false. Like if someone says, "I never tell the truth." Well if they say they don't tell the truth, how do we know they are telling the truth about lying all the time? But if he really was telling the truth, that would really mean that he lies all the time. And now we are back where we started. Kinda confusing right? Zeno made and studied many things like this to try to prove them one way or the other. One of his most famous paradoxes is often known as The Tortoise And Achilles. If you want to learn more about his paradoxes and studies he did click the buttons below!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno%27s_paradoxes
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http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ZenosParadoxes.html
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http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/ze/Zenos_paradoxes
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