Epicureanism

The belief that great happiness can be achieved through the avoidance of pain and fear.

The Epicureans were founded by Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) in the late fourth century B.C. and did not believe in any divine power. They did not believe in human ability to know and understand absolute truth, instead teaching that only the senses could be trusted. They sought pleasure and inner peace, and their teachings later led to justification for excess and indulgence in whatever pleasures one desired. The Epicureans believe that there can be no pain in death because their can be no pain in non-existence, so one should not fear death. The Epicureans did not necessarily believe in an afterlife, but they believed that pain was the root of human suffering, thus death should be welcomed as the end of pain and the end of suffering.