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Epicurus, drawing of a roman sculpture, a copy of an original around 270 BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum Inv. 11.90.. Epicurus of Epicurus was the author of around 300 writings from which only three letters survived. The Letter to Herodotus is considered to be a summary of his philosophy. Diogenes Laertius and Lucretius are the main indirect sources of the life and work of Epicurus. Laertius says that the work of Epicurus is divided in three main parts:
....canonic, physics, ethics. Canonic forms the introduction to the system and is contained in a single work entitled The Canon. The physical part includes the entire theory of Nature: it is contained in the thirty-seven books of Of Nature and, in a summary form, in the letters. The ethical part deals with the facts of choice and aversion; this may be found in the books On Human Life, in the letters, and in his treatise Of the End.
Epicurus in Raphael's
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