Epicurus pioneered communal retreat as anti-city philosophy

Evidence

One very early example of this approach was the garden school of Epicurus in the fourth century BC. Epicurus, the son of a schoolteacher, was a philosopher who held happiness and leisurely contemplation to be the loftiest goals in life. He also hated the city, seeing in it only opportunism, corruption, political machinations, and military bravado-the kind of place where Demetrius Poliorcetes, dictator of Athens, could tax the citizens hundreds of thousands of dollars ostensibly because his mistress needed soap. More generally, Epicurus observed that people in modern society ran in circles, unaware of the source of their unhappiness: Everywhere you can find men who live for empty desires and have no interest in the good life. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 144

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hellenistic political impotence shifted philosophical focus from metaphysics to individual ethics — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 946; The eclipse of the City State shifted Greek philosophy toward individual salvation — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 950; Late-1960s communal retreat was judged escapist exactly as fourth-century Epicureanism was — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 174 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Hellenistic political impotence shifted philosophical focus from metaphysics to individual ethics — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 946; The eclipse of the City State shifted Greek philosophy toward individual salvation — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 950; Late-1960s communal retreat was judged escapist exactly as fourth-century Epicureanism was — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 174 (+1 more)