Link Centre Dictionary

epicureanism

epi·cu·rea·nism

UK/ˌɛpɪˈkju(ə)ɹiənɪzəm/ uncommon obsolete

noun

1.

a doctrine of hedonism that was defended by several ancient Greek philosophers

Origin

From Epicurean + -ism. As a pejorative synonym of atheism, both from the philosophy's rejection of deontological morality and from Epicurus's specific belief that the Greek gods-if they did exist-did not concern themselves at all with mankind, its actions, or any system of reward or punishment for them. Doublet of epicurism.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.