Imperturbability or peace of mind [αταραξ(α], unlike security [ασφαλεια], is one of the central concepts that are immediately associated with Epicureanism.
It symbolizes the exceptional character of the Epicurean way of life; by contrast, the word ‘security' (a term that is vertiginously ubiquitous today, as observed by Hamilton)1 sounds prosaic and general.
Nevertheless, seven of the forty Principal Doctrines refer to security, and one of them (PD 14) equates the Epicurean style of life to the ‘purest security' [εiλικρινεστατη ασφαλεια]. PD 40 closes the series of P rincipal Doctrines with several superlative expressions focused on the security of Epicurean life. Security is therefore one of the main doctrinal issues of Epicureanism as condensed in the Principal Doctrines. But Epicurus does not coin the word ασφαλεια; when he employed it to qualify the way of life that he posits, the use of this term already had a long tradition of characterizing the life made possible by the existence of political communities. If we add to the Principal Doctrines concerned with security those that refer to the Epicurean contractual justice, it can be said that almost a third of the Principal Doctrines refer to the topic of the Epicurean life and society. It is striking that this theme is a major presence in the doctrine of a philosophy to which has been attributed, since antiquity, a contempt for laws and the polis.Epicurean philosophy includes, as we have discussed in chapter 1, a remarkable naturalistic genealogy of the human groupings that attributes the survival of the species to the security derived from the creation of justice and laws. This chapter aims to show how Epicureanism develops the category of security to conceptualize the philosophical life it proposes. Firstly, in section 1, we emphasize the continuity that exists between the recognition that Epicureans give to the security provided by political communities and the considerations that ancient literature dedicates to security [ ασφαλεια], safety [ σωτηρ(α] and freedom from fear [ αδεια, αφοβ(α] when dealing with the origin of culture, civil war [στασις] and good order [ευνομ(α]. Such continuity makes it evident that Epicurean philosophy understands itself as a curious historical phenomenon (the analysis of which occupies section 2 of this chapter).
Indeed, Epicurean philosophy recognizes the security provided by the polis as a necessary condition of its possibility on the one hand, and on the other attributes to the polis the promotion of the vain fears and limitless desires that it seeks to dissipate through ‘physiology' or the study of nature in order to attain Epicurean security. The Epicurean genealogy of justice and law is thus complemented by a genealogy of these fears and desires and, additionally, of the security to which human beings moved by them aspire. In both cases, the genealogical explanation is oriented towards the understanding of the present time. Next, in section 3, we focus on studying the Epicurean conception of security. After again emphasizing the dependence of the Epicurean way of life on the security provided by justice and law, we show that attention to necessary natural desires, friendship and philanthropy are, in the Epicureans' view, the main factors that give the purest security to the Epicurean way of life. Their conflation reinforces the liberation from irrational fears and desires. Further, it establishes in human beings a permanent articulation of the pleasant memory of the past with the satisfaction of the present and the reliable expectation of the future. This disposition is the basis of the unity and stability of the Epicurean life from which its exceptional security results. Finally, in section 4, we summarize and indicate some conclusions.1