Why You Should Choose EPICURUS To Be Your Guide — Free Ebook
…And Not These Other Guys: Against the Platonists, Aristotelians, Stoics, Skeptics, Abrahamists, Humanists and Buddhists, from an Epicurean Perspective
First Edition, October 30, 2026
Why You Should Choose EPICURUS To Be Your Guide compares the guidance of Epicurus with that of the seven traditions that have most often been set against him, and argues that Epicurus is the better guide. Each chapter states a tradition in the words of its own leading writers, on the Canon, Physics and Ethics, and sets out the Epicurean reply.
You can read the whole book online on this site, chapter by chapter, using the links below or the “Why You Should Choose Epicurus” section of the left-hand menu. Or you can download it for any ebook reader, or as a PDF book.
EPUB: for Apple Books, Kobo, Moon+ Reader, and all standard ebook readers. | AZW3: for Kindle devices and the Kindle app. | PDF: a 6 × 9 inch book layout for reading on a computer or tablet, or for printing, with a linked table of contents and bookmarks.
Read the Book Online
Section titled “Read the Book Online”- Introduction: What This Book Contains: what the book covers, Epicurus’s teaching in brief, and how each tradition answered the questions at issue.
- Against The Platonists: Socrates and Plato, the Forms, the divine craftsman and the immortal soul.
- Against The Aristotelians: Aristotle’s purposes in nature, his unmoved mover and his ethics of contemplation.
- Against The Stoics: providence, fate and virtue as the only good, in Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
- Against The Skeptics: Pyrrho, the Skeptic Academy and Sextus Empiricus, who denied that anything can be known.
- Against The Abrahamists: Judaism, Christianity and Islam on faith, creation, providence, judgment and pleasure.
- Against The Humanists: from Boethius and the Renaissance through Kant and Comte to the modern Humanists, with Nietzsche’s diagnosis.
- Against The Buddhists: the Buddha’s teaching that life is suffering and desire its cause, the senses “on fire,” no self and rebirth, and Nirvana against pleasure.
- Conclusion: Why You Should Choose Epicurus To Be Your Guide: the single view of the world that runs through the seven traditions, the Good they impose on others, and the Epicurean alternative.
The online chapters also include guides to the source texts on this site, which are left out of the ebook. Every quotation in both versions links to the full text it comes from.
How to Read the Download
Section titled “How to Read the Download”On your phone or tablet: open the EPUB file with any ebook app, such as Moon+ Reader (Android), Apple Books (iPhone and iPad), Kobo or Lithium. Most of these can also read the book aloud.
On a Kindle: download the Kindle Edition (AZW3) and transfer it to your Kindle by USB, or send it with Amazon’s Send to Kindle service.
On a desktop computer: Calibre is a free ebook reader and library manager for Windows, Mac and Linux.
The links in the ebook open the source texts on EpicurusToday.com, so a connection to the internet is needed to follow them.
About This Ebook
Section titled “About This Ebook”This ebook was edited by Cassius Amicus, editor of EpicurusToday.com and administrator of the EpicureanFriends.com discussion community.
Chapter drafts were prepared with the assistance of Claude AI. All opinions, editorial decisions and judgments as to content are solely those of Cassius Amicus, who is solely responsible for everything presented here.
Comments, corrections and suggestions are welcome at EpicureanFriends.com.