listen to part of a lecture in a philosophy class. So in the third century BCE, there were several schools of philosophy flourishing in Greece. Now by school, I\'m referring to a set of philosophical teachings that gained a group of followers. I\'d like to talk a little bit about one of the most popular of these schools, Epicureanism, which was founded by the philosopher Epicurus. Epicurus conducted most of his teachings in the garden outside of his house. This space where his followers came to learn from him was simply called the garden. It\'s interesting because most philosophers around that time taught out in the open in very public places, where they attracted the best students of the day. But not Epicurus, the garden was much more secluded, tucked away from public life. And as you\'ll see, that\'s in keeping with epicurean philosophy professor. So is this where we get the term epicurean today, I\'ve heard it used to mean like someone who really enjoys indulging in good food or eating at expensive restaurants. Ah, good question. The term does originate from epicurean philosophy, but eating at an expensive restaurant is a good example of something Epicurus would have considered unnecessary. So for example, people in the garden had a relatively modest diet. They drank water and ate bread made from barley. It was pretty plain water and barley bread not exactly what we think of when we use the term epicurean today. Epicurus and his followers lived a rather simple life, and they believed that this simple life would help them obtain ataraxia. Ataraxia refers to tranquility or peace of mind. And many different schools of philosophy around this time were very interested in this concept. Of course, they had different ideas about how to achieve it, but they all started with the same question, if ataraxia is so desirable, well, because, well, clearly we all want to have peace of mind, then why don\'t more people already have it? Epicurus believed that the answer to this question was that people were pursuing the wrong kinds of desires. So the key to peace of mind was in pursuing the right kinds of desires. Epicurus argued that it was okay to pursue desires that are necessary, so like the desire to eat and drink, but when we pursue desires that are unnecessary, like, say, if you wanted to become famous or live a public life in any way, even by running for public office, those kinds of desires prevent us from obtaining peace of mind. But doesn\'t somebody have to hold public office? Otherwise you\'d have no government. Was Epicurus against government, or he wasn\'t against government, but he considered it best for your peace of mind if you could minimize the extent to which your life is public. So a life in politics wasn\'t ideal, in his view. It\'s interesting, though, Thomas Jefferson the third President of the United States, so clearly a politician actually considered himself an epicurean. In fact, many political thinkers in the 17th and 18th centuries CE echoed some of Epicurus ideas in their own writing. For example, Epicurus said that a truly just society should ensure that all its members have the opportunity to pursue their own happiness, Jefferson and others were still discussing these ideas centuries later, which shows how influential Epicureanism was. You said that there were other schools of philosophy that were interested in this ataraxia, right? So what did they think? Okay, one example is skepticism. The founder was the philosopher Piro. The skeptics essentially say that people don\'t have peace of mind because they hold on to opinions or beliefs, and if people would suspend their judgment, essentially just get rid of their opinions, they would have no worries. But how do you even do that? Get rid of your opinions. It\'s not easy, and I think it might account for why epicurean philosophy has always been more popular than the skeptic philosophy. Giving up an opinion like I prefer coffee to tea, maybe isn\'t so difficult, but skeptics believe you had to give up all opinions, even opinions like it\'s better to be healthy than sick. There\'s actually an interesting story about Piro. Some consider it a bit farfetched, but the story says that he would walk into busy streets without even looking first. Seems dangerous, of course, but that\'s the point. A true skeptic would have no opinion about whether walking into a busy street was dangerous or not. So imagine what it would be like if you really followed that philosophy.