Across families

Epicureanism and Ethical Culture

Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.14 (0 would be identical).

EpicureanismPhilosophical

Atoms and void, gods who exist and do not care, and death as simply the end — so fear of both is misplaced. The good life is modest, friendly pleasure, deliberately unambitious about everything else.

Ethical CultureNon-theistic

Deed before creed: a congregational religious life with ceremony, community and moral education, and no theological claims at all. Keeps rather more ritual than secular humanism, which is the cell that separates the two.

Where they agree

B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at individual conscience decides — a gap of 0.00.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.00.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at an individual choice — a gap of 0.02.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.03.
D3 The body
Both sit at leaning to be celebrated — a gap of 0.04.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at one life, then judgment — a gap of 0.04.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at beginningless or natural — a gap of 0.05.
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at leaning nothing beyond the natural and nothing beyond the natural respectively — a gap of 0.06.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound and ignorant but fundamentally sound respectively — a gap of 0.08.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at leaning metaphorical, or no text at all and metaphorical, or no text at all respectively — a gap of 0.10.

Where they part company

A3 Plurality
Epicureanism: between strictly one and many powers and spirits. Ethical Culture: strictly one. A gap of 0.50 on an axis running from “strictly one” to “many powers and spirits”.

All seventeen axes

Axis	Epicureanism	Ethical Culture	Gap
A1 Divine reality	leaning nothing beyond the natural	nothing beyond the natural	0.06
A2 Personhood	between impersonal principle or order and a personal being one can address	impersonal principle or order	0.30
A3 Plurality	between strictly one and many powers and spirits	strictly one	0.50
A4 Locus	wholly beyond the world	leaning wholly beyond the world	0.20
B1 Source of truth	reason and direct experience	reason and direct experience	0.03
B2 Reading of sacred text	leaning metaphorical, or no text at all	metaphorical, or no text at all	0.10
B3 Institutional authority	individual conscience decides	individual conscience decides	0.00
C1 Survival of the self	ends at death	ends at death	0.13
C2 Shape of time	one life, then judgment	one life, then judgment	0.04
C3 The human condition	leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound	ignorant but fundamentally sound	0.08
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good	achieved by effort or insight	achieved by effort or insight	0.00
D2 Centrality of ritual	optional or absent	between essential and prescribed and optional or absent	0.33
D3 The body	leaning to be celebrated	leaning to be celebrated	0.04
E1 Exclusivity	between one true path and many valid paths	many valid paths	0.32
E2 Origin of the cosmos	beginningless or natural	beginningless or natural	0.05
E3 Locus of belonging	an individual choice	an individual choice	0.02
E4 Standing of nature	between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred	between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred	0.18

Positions for Epicureanism rest principally on Letter to Menoeceus, Principal Doctrines, Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura; for Ethical Culture, on Adler’s founding addresses and AEU statements of purpose. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.

Which of the two is closer to you?

The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.