{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "epicurus.principal_doctrines",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/epicurus/principal-doctrines/reference-20/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Principal Doctrines",
    "author": "Epicurus",
    "date": "3rd century BCE; compilation of sayings by Epicurus and associates",
    "summary": "The Principal Doctrines condense Epicurean ethics into propositions about gods, death, desire, justice, friendship, and security. Their sequence supplies a doctrinal aid to memory rather than continuous demonstration.",
    "learning": "Connect the doctrines with Epicurean therapy, distinguish natural from empty desires, and analyze the reciprocal and conventional account of justice.",
    "long_summary": "The opening doctrines disarm fundamental fears, then clarify limits of pleasure and pain. Others define justice as a useful agreement against harm and examine social conditions allowing life without disturbance.\n\nA maxim removes intermediate steps so its conclusion remains available. Such efficiency requires comparison with letters and testimony: terms such as pleasure, natural, or just retain precision only within the system.",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "Hellenistic Mediterranean, 4th-3rd centuries BCE",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Siege engines, pulleys, presses, mills, and large ships extend mechanical capacity, still limited by muscle, water, and wind.",
        "science": "Scholarly centres develop geometry, mechanics, astronomy, and geography. Manuscripts are hand-copied and instruments remain scarce.",
        "medicine": "Physicians, herbalists, and midwives use plant remedies and limited surgery; infection and pain remain poorly controlled.",
        "transport": "Roads, caravans, and Mediterranean shipping move soldiers, merchants, and ideas across very long distances.",
        "agriculture": "Grain, wine, oil, pulses, and livestock supply cities and armies through storage, estates, and maritime trade.",
        "communication": "Royal couriers, inscriptions, and manuscript rolls connect multilingual kingdoms. Public reading and memory remain decisive.",
        "clothing": "Draped tunics and cloaks predominate; dyed cloth, jewellery, and hairstyles distinguish gender, occupation, city, and wealth."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/04-334-bce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Siege engines, pulleys, presses, mills, and large ships extend mechanical capacity, still limited by muscle, water, and wind. Scholarly centres develop geometry, mechanics, astronomy, and geography. Manuscripts are hand-copied and instruments remain scarce. Physicians, herbalists, and midwives use plant remedies and limited surgery; infection and pain remain poorly controlled."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/04-334-bce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Roads, caravans, and Mediterranean shipping move soldiers, merchants, and ideas across very long distances. Royal couriers, inscriptions, and manuscript rolls connect multilingual kingdoms. Public reading and memory remain decisive."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/04-334-bce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Grain, wine, oil, pulses, and livestock supply cities and armies through storage, estates, and maritime trade."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/04-334-bce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Draped tunics and cloaks predominate; dyed cloth, jewellery, and hairstyles distinguish gender, occupation, city, and wealth."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "epicureanism",
        "label": "Epicureanism"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "grc",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/epicurus/principal_doctrines/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 40,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "6d6228657d6d84a54d307b68d073684b4b526f668af2480e8a1e65aaa7b5735f",
            "source_id": "principal-doctrines-open"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/epicurus/principal_doctrines/representations/grc.ndjson",
            "language": "grc",
            "records": 40,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "67e3126a2522ff3c4920c5592fef08ac9af1f15cb76f2682359919ea68745309",
            "source_id": "principal-doctrines-open"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/epicurus/principal_doctrines/representations/ai-generated/fr-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "fr",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 40,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "badf19abe05be20e30a5b7314ea000a168718a92dd5e4a98a0cd0039b8044b6e",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/epicurus/principal_doctrines_fr_carrier/representations/fr.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 40,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "fcb08e34841cef1d430213602a43eaf50b868fc7c4657e3c896f477c3c62515d",
            "source_id": "principal-doctrines-fr"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/epicurus/principal_doctrines_fr_carrier/representations/ai-generated/en-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "en",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 40,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "c8631bcaf30d0a9206aaab13fdf1e532e59fee7f032ecc63a184e3aabb050ebd",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "aponia",
            "label": "Aponia"
        },
        {
            "id": "ataraxia",
            "label": "Ataraxia"
        },
        {
            "id": "fear",
            "label": "Fear"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "justice",
            "label": "Justice"
        },
        {
            "id": "pleasure",
            "label": "Pleasure"
        },
        {
            "id": "prudent_choice",
            "label": "Prudent choice of pleasures"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "epicurus.principal_doctrines",
        "epicurus.principal_doctrines_fr_carrier"
    ],
    "passages": 40,
    "word_count": 1635,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 1635,
        "fr": 1809,
        "grc": 1285
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "epicurean-work-reference-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "reference",
                "label_fr": "Référence",
                "label_en": "Reference"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Fragment ou passage",
        "leaf_en": "Fragment or passage"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:epicurus.principal_doctrines:20",
    "canonical_ref": "20",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "The flesh assumes that the limits of joy are infinite, and that infinite joy can be produced only through infinite time. But the mind, thinking through the goal and limits of the flesh and dissolving fears about eternity, produces a complete way of life and therefore has no need of infinite time; yet the mind does not flee from joy, nor when events cause it to exit from life does it look back as if it has missed any aspect of the best life.",
            "translator": "Peter Saint-Andre",
            "edition": "principal-doctrines-open",
            "source_id": "principal-doctrines-open",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "ἡ μὲν σὰρξ ἀπέλαβε τὰ πέρατα τῆς ἡδονῆς ἄπειρα καὶ ἄπειρος αὐτὴν χρόνος παρεσκεύασεν· ἡ δὲ διάνοια τοῦ τῆς σαρκὸς τέλους καὶ πέρατος λαβοῦσα τὸν ἐπιλογισμὸν καὶ τοὺς ὑπὲρ τοῦ αἰῶνος φόβους ἐκλύσασα τὸν παντελῆ βίον παρεσκεύασε, καὶ οὐθὲν ἔτι τοῦ ἀπείρου χρόνου προσεδεήθη· ἀλλʼ οὔτε ἔφυγε τὴν ἡδονὴν οὐδʼ ἡνίκα τὴν ἐξαγωγὴν ἐκ τοῦ ζῆν τὰ πράγματα παρεσκεύαζεν, ὡς ἐλλείπουσά τι τοῦ ἀρίστου βίου κατέστρεψεν. [ ]",
            "translator": "Peter Saint-Andre",
            "edition": "principal-doctrines-open",
            "source_id": "principal-doctrines-open",
            "translation_type": "original"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "La chair suppose que les limites de la joie sont infinies et qu'une joie infinie ne peut être produite que dans un temps infini. Mais l'esprit, en réfléchissant à la fin et aux limites de la chair et en dissipant les craintes relatives à l'éternité, produit une manière de vivre complète et n'a donc nul besoin d'un temps infini. Pourtant, l'esprit ne fuit pas la joie et, lorsque les événements le conduisent à quitter la vie, il ne regarde pas en arrière comme s'il avait manqué quelque aspect de la vie la meilleure.",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-11",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "S’il était possible que l’homme pût toujours vivre, le plaisir qu’il aurait ne serait pas plus grand que celui qu’il goûte dans l’espace limité de sa vie, s’il pouvait assez élever sa raison pour en bien considérer les bornes.",
            "translator": "Jacques Georges Chauffepié",
            "edition": "principal-doctrines-fr",
            "source_id": "principal-doctrines-fr",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "If it were possible for a person to live forever, the pleasure he would have would be no greater than that which he tastes within the limited span of his life, if he could raise his reason high enough to consider its bounds properly.",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-11",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "39454b62a08042aac98493e5ee8654599403d04bcc0c09c8c6e7793be3b1e4d4"
}