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Andy Zaltzman explores the teachings of three ancient schools of philosophy.

My Life as a...: Series 1

My Life as a...: Series 1: Epicurean

24/11/2017

Epicurean

Series 1

BBC Radio 4 - My Life as a..., Series 1, Epicurean

Comedian Andy Zaltzman spends a week living by the rules of Epicurean philosophy.

Comedian, lapsed classics student and cricket fanatic Andy Zaltzman finds that we have misunderstood what Epicureanism philosophy is really about.

Andy Zaltzman, the comedian, cricket fanatic and lapsed classics student will be spending a week living by the teachings of three ancient schools of philosophy. This week he'll mostly be being an epicurean. But this is a lot harder than you think. It's a philosophy that arose in around 300 BC in Athens and was named after Epicurus who set up a school of philosophy called The Garden, on the outskirts of Athens, where his followers lived and supposedly shared all their possessions. For Epicureans, the goal of life is happiness or pleasure, rather than virtue, but they advocated an analytical and questioning approach to the question of happiness and tended to live simply, eat simply.

Today psychologists are exploring how Epicurus' ideas on happiness can be used to teach people how to manage negative memories. Researchers in the psychology of happiness are experimenting with adapting the teachings to help people with obsessive compulsive disorders to focus on their internal life rather than external stimuli that drive their conditions. And the science of happiness is being used in economic and political theory. The bigger question behind all of these programmes is just how much one can recover of the original teachings, how far they can be updated with modern knowledge and will Andy be happier living a day without cricket?

Producer: Phil Pegum.

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