Updated 2026 Fall
Note: the term “Epicurean Family” is formulated by your instructor for purposes of introductory instruction. In ethical theory, this kind of philosophy would more usually go by the name “consequentialist.” In epistemology, this family would generally count as “empiricist.” And for metaphysics this family tends to run in the direction of “materialist.”
Ancient Epicurean Family
Democritus
The material world is made of atoms
Epicurus
Principal Doctrines
Modern Epicurean Family: Part One
Marx
Dissertation
Part 2, Chapter 5
“Epicurus is therefore the greatest representative of Greek Enlightenment” (Pt. 2, Ch. 5)
Theses on Feuerbach
“the abstract individual . . . belongs in reality to a particular social form” (Thesis VII)
Capital
See for example, Ch. 6
Engels
Utilitarianism
Bentham
Fragment on Government
“with so little method and precision have the consequences of this fundamental axiom, it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong, been as yet developped” (Preface par. 2)
Principles of Morals and Legislation
l
Mill
On Liberty
Singer
Nietzsche
The Gay Science (a.k.a. Joyful Wisdom)
Beyond Good and Evil
Zarathustra
Concepts of Nietzsche which are similar to those of Freud include (a) the concept of the unconscious mind; (b) the idea that repression pushes unacceptable feelings and thoughts into the unconscious and thus makes the individual emotionally more comfortable and effective; (c) the conception that repressed emotions and instinctual drives later are expressed in disguised ways (for example, hostile feelings and ideas may be expressed as altruistic sentiments and acts); (d) the concept of dreams as complex, symbolic “illusoions of illusions” and dreaming itself as a cathartic process which has healthy properties; and (e) the suggestion that the projection of hostile, unconscious feelings onto others, who are then perceived as persecutors of the individual, is the basis of paranoid thinking. Some of Freud’s basic terms are identical to those used by Nietzsche.
Source: Chapman, A., & Chapman-Santana, M. (1995). The Influence of Nietzsche on Freud’s Ideas. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166(2), 251-253. doi:10.1192/bjp.166.2.251
Camus
The Myth of Sisyphus (pdf)
Database suggestion:
Armstrong, Aurelia. “The Passions, Power, and Practical Philosophy: Spinoza and Nietzsche Contra the Stoics.” The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 44.1 (2013): 6-24. Project MUSE. Web. 7 Jan. 2014.
PST=Primary Source Text (Warning, please do not quote from introductions or notes.)
