The disciples of Epicurus, who flourished about A. M. 3700. this sect maintained that the world was formed not by God, nor with any design, but by the fortuitous concourse of atoms. They denied that God governs the world, or in the least condescends to interfere with creatures below: they denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of angels; they maintained that happiness consisted in pleasure; but some of them placed this pleasure in the tranquillity and joy of the mind arising from the practice of moral virtue, and which is thought by some to have been the true principle of Epicurus; others understood him in the gross sense, and placed all their happiness in corporeal pleasure. When Paul was at Athens, he had conferences with the Epicurean philosophers, Acts 17:18 . The word Epicurean is used, at present, for an indolent, effeminate, and voluptuous person, who only consults his private and particular pleasure.
See ACADEMICS.