単に快楽の追及と受け取られがちな快楽主義ですが、実際にはより複雑な道徳哲学上の立場であり、幸福主義の一種です。節度や簡潔さに重きを置き、自然界は原子と空虚から成り立つと解きます。現在に至るまで影響力を持つ思想ですが、本書ではストア派やカントとも比較します。また政治に限らず、ロックやニュートン、ガリレオ、ルソー、マルクス、ベンサム、ミルなど、科学分野にも渡った影響を考察します。
　　

• Provides readers with a sense of the influence of Epicureanism and its ideas on philosophical thought across the centuries
• Demonstrates how Epicureanism's message of 'civilized moderation' remains relevant today
• Places Epicureanism within the context of its rival views: Stoicism and Kantian ethics

  
Epicureanism is commonly associated with a carefree view of life and the pursuit of pleasures, particularly the pleasures of the table. However it was a complex and distinctive system of philosophy that emphasized simplicity and moderation, and considered nature to consist of atoms and the void. Epicureanism is a school of thought whose legacy continues to reverberate today.
 
In this Very Short Introduction, Catherine Wilson explains the key ideas of the School, comparing them with those of the rival Stoics and with Kantian ethics, and tracing their influence on the development of scientific and political thought from Locke, Newton, and Galileo to Rousseau, Marx, Bentham, and Mill. She discusses the adoption and adaptation of Epicurean motifs in science, morality, and politics from the 17th Century onwards and contextualises the significance of Epicureanism in modern life.