Epicure'ans, The. The Epicureans derived their name from Epicurus, (342-271 B.C.), a philosopher of Attic descent, whose "Garden" at Athens rivalled in popularity the "Porch" and the "Academy." The doctrines of Epicurus found wide acceptance in Asia Minor and Alexandria. (95-50 B.C.). The object of Epicurus was to find, in philosophy, a practical guide to happiness.
True pleasure and not absolute truth was the end at which he aimed; experience and not reason was the test on which he relied. It is obvious that a system thus formed would degenerate by a natural descent into mere materialism; and in this form, Epicurism was the popular philosophy at the beginning of the Christian era. When St. Paul addressed "Epicureans and Stoics," Acts 17:18, at Athens, the philosophy of life was practically reduced to the teaching of these two antagonistic schools.