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Epicurus, founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism

The Epicureans were materialists in the modern, scientific sense.They saw anxiety as the great thorn in mankind's side, and their philosophical project was to rid themselves of it, identifying that anxiety had its root in the fear of death, but as fear of death only makes sense if one believes in the permanence of the soul, and/or living a life steeped in regret (as in the regret of missed opportunities), acknowledging atomic materialism (when I am here death is not, when death is here I am not) and living life to its fullest (Carpe diem , Sieze the day!) one could have no reason to fear death, so could live their one and only life in satisfaction, and upon their death bed have no fear for what will happen next, and no regret over what they should have doneA key difference is that for the Greeks "the good life" didn't end after you were dead, but also included your legacy moving down the generations, your influence and effect on the world. It would take many years after a person's death to determine if they had in fact lived the good life. Accordingly, the Epicureans advocated moderation in things, and a balanced, "agreeable" life that pursued the "higher pleasures" of fraternity, self improvement, and freedom from the fear of death, which they thought would result in the freedom of all fear.They accepted the physics of Democritus that the universe was composed entirely of empty space filled with atoms of differing shapes and weights that moved in non-linear paths (swerving) smashing together and latching into greater structures, composing the universe.The universe is infinite in space, time, and the number of atoms (mass) but finite in regards to the number of unique types of atoms (diversity).

Epicurus, founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism

The Epicureans were materialists in the modern, scientific sense. They accepted the physics of Democritus that the universe was composed entirely of empty space filled with atoms of differing shapes and weights that moved in non-linear paths (swerving) smashing together and latching into greater structures, composing the universe. The universe is infinite in space, time, and the number of atoms (mass) but finite in regards to the number of unique types of atoms (diversity). They believed in thermodynamic entropy (it's easier to destroy arrangements of atoms than for the arrangements to be made, thus the universe is ageing towards a state of complete disorganization), and the conservation of energy (atoms, literally “uncuttables” could not be destroyed or created).

They didn't know about waves, they thought visual phenomena were caused by light atoms smashing into objects and causing atoms on the surface of the objects to be exploded off in thin films that resembled the object which, on account of their thinness, could float great distances, at incredible speed, invisibly until they were grasped by the sensitive eye/mind (the mind was composed of the smoothest, and smallest atoms, so it was sensitive to these thin films of atoms). They believed that thoughts and imagination were caused by these ambient fragments of object-films floating into the head, kind of like all of the tv, radio and wifi waves swirling around us today, with the mind then attracting more of the same films from the same type of origin (train of thought).

The ethics that went along with this was based on the fact that they did not believe in an after-life, or sensible spiritual realm (your constituent atoms would be dispersed when your body disintegrated and would go on to form into other structures), so they took empirical facts with deadly seriousness. Pain and suffering were bad, happiness and fulfillment were good. It’s a certain medieval christian bias that led to the interpretation of Epicureanism as the pursuit of sensual pleasure. The Epicureans understood that sensual pleasure was fleeting, and would quickly move over into its opposite if chased too vehemently. What is important is the Greek term Eudaimonia, which is often translated as happiness, but has little to do today with what we call happiness (the bubbly, pleasurable sensation that accompanies agreeable outcomes and events). Perhaps a better translation would be “Flourishing of life”. A key difference is that for the Greeks “the good life” didn’t end after you were dead, but also included your legacy moving down the generations, your influence and effect on the world. It would take many years after a person’s death to determine if they had in fact lived the good life. Accordingly, the Epicureans advocated moderation in things, and a balanced, “agreeable” life that pursued the “higher pleasures” of fraternity,  self improvement, and freedom from the fear of death, which they thought would result in the freedom of all fear. They saw anxiety as the great thorn in mankind's side, and their philosophical project was to rid themselves of it, identifying that anxiety had its root in the fear of death, but as fear of death only makes sense if one believes in the permanence of the soul, and/or living a life steeped in regret (as in the regret of missed opportunities), acknowledging atomic materialism (when I am here death is not, when death is here I am not) and living life to its fullest (Carpe diem , Sieze the day!) one could have no reason to fear death, so could live their one and only life in satisfaction, and upon their death bed have no fear for what will happen next, and no regret over what they should have done