Leben im Verborgenen

Abstract This article focusses on an examination of Epicurus’ understanding of self-sufficiency, which is only marginally addressed within research. But many traditions suggest paying more attention to the concept of self-sufficiency. The scarcity of available sources must be regarded as problematic; therefore here an attempt is made to reconstruct this concept. The thesis is that Epicurus discusses human striving for self-sufficiency in two different ways and thus more comprehensively than previously assumed: extrinsic (physical or external autarky) and intrinsic (psychic or internal autarky). As so often, Epicurus is not talking about a theory, but about an immediate practice: human striving for self-sufficiency, an indispensable prerequisite for ataraxia, is made possible by living (hiddenly) in the garden in friendship—far from the politics of the polis. These connections lead to the conclusion that the individual self-sufficiency of the human being does not aim at ‘not needing anybody else anymore’, but requires a form of community that should allow the human being the greatest possible freedom within the framework of the Epicurean teachings.