Epicureanism
E76896
Epicureanism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Epicurus that teaches that the highest good is a life of modest pleasure, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Epicureanism canonical | 39 |
| Epicurean ethics | 1 |
| Epicurean physics | 1 |
| Epicurean theology | 1 |
| Epicureans | 1 |
| Roman Epicureanism | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T606579 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Epicureanism Context triple: [Classical Greek philosophy, hasSchool, Epicureanism]
-
A.
Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek and Roman philosophical school that teaches cultivating virtue, rationality, and inner resilience to achieve tranquility amid life's hardships.
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B.
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a school of thought that taught that the highest good is the pursuit of modest pleasures, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
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C.
Cyrenaic school of philosophy
The Cyrenaic school of philosophy was an ancient Greek hedonistic movement, founded in Cyrene, that taught immediate physical pleasure as the highest good and the primary aim of life.
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D.
Cynic school
The Cynic school was an ancient Greek philosophical movement that advocated for a life of virtue in accordance with nature, rejecting conventional desires for wealth, power, and social status.
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E.
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is the philosophical tradition based on the works and methods of Aristotle, emphasizing empirical observation, formal logic, and systematic inquiry into nature, ethics, and metaphysics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Epicureanism Target entity description: Epicureanism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Epicurus that teaches that the highest good is a life of modest pleasure, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
-
A.
Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek and Roman philosophical school that teaches cultivating virtue, rationality, and inner resilience to achieve tranquility amid life's hardships.
-
B.
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a school of thought that taught that the highest good is the pursuit of modest pleasures, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
-
C.
Cyrenaic school of philosophy
The Cyrenaic school of philosophy was an ancient Greek hedonistic movement, founded in Cyrene, that taught immediate physical pleasure as the highest good and the primary aim of life.
-
D.
Cynic school
The Cynic school was an ancient Greek philosophical movement that advocated for a life of virtue in accordance with nature, rejecting conventional desires for wealth, power, and social status.
-
E.
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is the philosophical tradition based on the works and methods of Aristotle, emphasizing empirical observation, formal logic, and systematic inquiry into nature, ethics, and metaphysics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Hellenistic philosophy
ⓘ
ancient Greek philosophy ⓘ ethical theory ⓘ philosophical school ⓘ |
| aimsAt |
absence of bodily pain
ⓘ
freedom from fear ⓘ tranquility of mind ⓘ |
| centerOfActivity |
Epicurus' Garden in Athens
ⓘ
surface form:
Garden of Epicurus
|
| contrastsWith |
Aristotelianism
ⓘ
Platonism ⓘ Stoicism ⓘ |
| coreValue |
aponia
ⓘ
ataraxia ⓘ pleasure as the highest good ⓘ |
| distinguishes |
natural and necessary desires
ⓘ
natural but unnecessary desires ⓘ vain and empty desires ⓘ |
| emergedInCentury | 4th century BCE ⓘ |
| epistemologicalView | empiricism ⓘ |
| ethicalFocus |
consequentialism
ⓘ
hedonism ⓘ |
| foundedBy | Epicurus ⓘ |
| headquartersLocation | Athens ⓘ |
| holdsView |
death is the end of sensation
ⓘ
fear of death is irrational ⓘ gods do not intervene in human affairs ⓘ the soul is mortal ⓘ |
| influenced |
Enlightenment thought
ⓘ
Lucretius ⓘ Roman philosophy ⓘ modern secular ethics ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Democritus
ⓘ
Leucippus ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
classification of desires
ⓘ
tetrapharmakos ⓘ |
| metaphysicalView |
atomism
ⓘ
materialism ⓘ |
| misinterpretedAs | crude sensual hedonism ⓘ |
| originatedIn |
Greek Antiquity
ⓘ
surface form:
Ancient Greece
|
| primaryText |
Letter to Menoeceus
ⓘ
De rerum natura ⓘ
surface form:
On the Nature of Things
Principal Doctrines ⓘ Vatican Sayings ⓘ |
| primaryTextAuthor |
Epicurus
ⓘ
Lucretius ⓘ |
| teaches |
avoidance of unnecessary desires
ⓘ
friendship as a key to happiness ⓘ pursuit of modest and sustainable pleasures ⓘ rational understanding of nature ⓘ simple living ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Epicureanism Description of subject: Epicureanism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Epicurus that teaches that the highest good is a life of modest pleasure, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
Referenced by (44)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Epicurean physics
Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
→
philosophicalSchoolsCovered
→
Epicureanism
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Epicureans
this entity surface form:
Epicurean theology
subject surface form:
Book 8 (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
Roman Epicureanism
subject surface form:
tetrapharmakos
this entity surface form:
Epicurean ethics