The Ancient Greek Philosopher Epicurus and the Pleasure Principle

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus was celebrated for the rule of pleasure. Credit: Agostino Scilla (crop) Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA-4.0

The past Greek philosopher Epicurus is celebrated for his teaching that “Pleasure is the rule and extremity to a blessed life,” and for his Epicurean schoolhouse successful Athens.

The Epicurean doctrine is simply a doctrine of the bully beingness by nature. Epicurus (341–270 BCE) was the archetypal humanist philosopher; helium not lone understood but besides believed successful the worth of antheral and that quality quality is accompanied by contented and justness without hypocrisy.

The past Greek philosopher spent astir of his aboriginal beingness connected the island of Samos, an Athenian colony successful the Aegean. He studied the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and Democritus successful Athens, wherever helium yet started his ain school.

He was a prolific writer, with 37 volumes attributed to his name. However, lone fragments of his writings and 4 letters remain. Yet his teachings would power galore thinkers who followed.

Epicurus believed that an idiosyncratic tin pb a pleasurable beingness and, with comparative self-sufficiency, guarantee their ain freedom. Pleasure was the worth that Epicureans lived their lives by, successful opposition to different philosophies that focused connected virtue.

One of the things helium valued astir was friendship. Although helium ne'er married, helium believed successful matrimony and the family. For him, friends provided information arsenic good arsenic strength. Personally, Epicurus was considered by galore to beryllium humble, quiescent and shy.

The pleasance principle

The past Greek philosopher was misunderstood by his contemporaries who believed that his doctrine was astir hedonism. However, that was not the case. Epicurus taught astir pleasance and the pleasant beingness successful the consciousness that radical should not beryllium burdened by unnecessary desires, fears and anxiety. Without these, 1 could unrecorded a pleasant life.

For Epicurus a pleasant beingness is 1 wherever an interior tranquility (ataraxia/αταραξία) is achieved by being contented with elemental things. For example, helium taught that 1 should take the pleasance of philosophical speech with friends implicit the pursuit of carnal pleasures similar food, portion and sex.

Overall, for him pleasance meant 1 indispensable pb a beingness of restful contemplation, eating and drinking successful moderation, surviving without anxiety, and forgoing the wants and worries of life.

At property 35, Epicurus bought a plot successful Athens wherever helium acceptable up his school, which helium called “The Garden.” It was located astir halfway betwixt the locations of 2 different schools of philosophy, the Stoa Poikile (where the Stoic philosophers met) and the Academy (founded by Plato). The Garden was much than conscionable a school, it was a assemblage of like-minded radical practicing a peculiar mode of life.

The superior members of The Garden were Hermarchus, Idomeneus, Leonteus and his woman Themista, Colotes, Polyaenus of Lampsacus, and Metrodorus of Lampsacus. It was the archetypal schoolhouse of immoderate past Greek philosopher to admit women. The biography of Epicurus by Diogenes Laërtius lists pistillate students specified arsenic Leontion and Nikidion. Everyone was invited to The Garden, adjacent slaves.

According to an epistle of Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger, who visited The Garden, an inscription astatine the gross read: “Stranger, present you volition bash good to tarry; present our highest bully is pleasure.”

Epicurus connected desire, senses and feelings

For Epicurus and his followers, each desires developed from 3 main sources: those earthy desires that are indispensable for 1 to live, specified arsenic nutrient and shelter; those earthy desires that 1 tin unrecorded without, chiefly ones that origin jealousy and boredom; and lastly, narcissistic desires specified arsenic power, wealthiness and fame. He wrote, “He who is not satisfied with a small is satisfied with nothing.”

In this doctrine determination is simply a adjacent transportation of pleasance with desire-satisfaction. If pleasance results from getting what you privation (desire-satisfaction) and symptom from not getting what you privation (desire-frustration), past determination are 2 strategies 1 tin travel with respect to immoderate fixed desire: you tin either effort to fulfill the desire, oregon you tin effort to destruct the desire. For the astir portion Epicurus advocates the 2nd strategy, that of reducing your desires down to a minimum, truthful they tin beryllium easy satisfied.

All of our cognition yet comes from the senses, the past Greek philosopher  said, and we tin spot the senses, erstwhile decently used. There are 3 criteria of truth: sensations, ‘preconceptions’ and feelings. Firstly, sensations springiness america accusation astir the outer world. Secondly, on with that accusation we person definite ‘preconceptions’—concepts specified arsenic ‘body,’ ‘person,’ ‘usefulness’ and ‘truth’—which are formed successful our (material) minds arsenic the effect of repeated sense-experiences of akin objects. Thus, each ideas are yet formed connected the ground of sense-experience. Thirdly, we tin usage our feelings to summation insights, and our feelings are important arsenic criteria of prime and avoidance. Feelings run arsenic criteria connected each levels of life, somatic, societal and spiritual.

The pursuit of happiness

Epicurus had a explanation of happiness based connected the pleasurable feeling of the individual. “Pleasure is our archetypal and kindred good. It is the starting constituent of each prime and of each aversion, and to it we ever travel back, inasmuch arsenic we marque feeling the regularisation by which to justice of each bully thing.”

The past Greek philosopher claims that determination are 2 self-imposed beliefs that marque america unhappy oregon afloat of pain. First is the content that the gods volition punish america for our atrocious actions, and 2nd is our fearfulness of death. Both of these beliefs capable america with fearfulness and anxiety. Yet some are unnecessary since they are based connected fictions. The gods are cleanable and eternal and they bash not interest themselves with quality affairs. Therefore, we person nary request to fearfulness immoderate punishment from them, nor bash we request to walk clip successful acts of worship to redeem ourselves. As for death, our sentient acquisition ends with decease and determination volition beryllium nary sensation of pain. Therefore, the fearfulness of decease is groundless. “Death is meaningless to the surviving due to the fact that they are living, and meaningless to the dormant due to the fact that they are dead,” helium writes.

When it comes to desires, Epicurus distinguishes betwixt indispensable and unnecessary desires. Necessary desires are those which are indispensable to nutrient happiness, specified arsenic desiring that our assemblage is escaped of pain, oregon desiring a authorities of interior tranquility. “The extremity of each our actions is to beryllium escaped from symptom and fear, and erstwhile this is obtained the tempest of the psyche is quelled,” helium writes.

When we are successful pain, Epicurus believes, we consciousness the request to question pleasure, a request which inevitably lone produces greater pain. To destruct this pain-pleasure-pain cycle, we request to cultivate a mindset successful which determination is nary pain. Thus the purpose is not the affirmative pursuit of pleasure, but alternatively the attaining of a neutral authorities which is champion described arsenic “peace of mind” oregon adjacent “emptiness,” which helium calls ataraxia, astir meaning “absence of worry.”

Epicurus stresses the value of wisdom: 1 needs contented to spot which pleasures are truly pleasurable and which pains are indispensable to nutrient pleasure. Some pleasures pb to greater pain, similar drinking a large magnitude of wine, and truthful the omniscient idiosyncratic volition shun them. On the different hand, definite pains, similar sadness, tin pb to an appreciation for beingness oregon compassion, which are highly pleasurable states of mind.

Epicurus, subject and the universe

Epicurus was an empiricist and believed that each cognition comes from one’s senses. He believed that radical should beryllium liberated from the fearfulness of decease and of the gods, and subject was the means by which this state could beryllium achieved. He believed that quality acts without divine intervention. He was skeptical astir mathematics and astronomy, due to the fact that cognition should beryllium based connected wide foundations. For him, the 2 constituents of world were the earthy bodies, straight attested by consciousness perception; and the void, the abstraction wherever bodies beryllium and move. He considered lone naturalistic explanations of phenomena to amusement they are not divine. His doctrine of nature, based connected earthy causes, was consistently materialist, and truthful anti-teleological.

The past Greek philosopher accepted Democritus’ atomism—the root of everything is the enactment of indivisible bodies, the atoms—but rejected the mechanistic effect arsenic a basal for the universe. He argued that if atoms were susceptible of mechanical motion, past the quality being, who is besides made of atoms would beryllium reduced to automation, and fatalism would go the instrumentality of the universe.

His content that thing comes into beingness from thing made him postulate that the beingness has nary beginning, but has ever existed, and volition ever exist. Atoms, too, arsenic the gathering blocks of everything else, cannot travel into existence, but person ever existed. Our peculiar cosmos, however, is lone a impermanent clump of atoms, and is lone 1 of an infinite fig of specified cosmoi, which travel into beingness and past dissolve away.

Unlike Aristotle, Epicurus argued that the beingness is unlimited successful size. Since the beingness is unlimited successful size, determination indispensable besides beryllium an unlimited fig of atoms and an infinite magnitude of void.

Taking from Democritus’ teachings, helium taught that erstwhile 1 dies the assemblage is reduced to thing but decomposing atoms. All that exists successful the full beingness is composed of atoms and space. Life—the assemblage and mind—is combining and dispersing these atoms. Even man’s psyche is composed of atoms, helium said. These atoms are not lone indestructible and eternal, but unpredictable arsenic well.

Was Epicurus an atheist?

Teaching that we should not fearfulness punishment from the gods erstwhile we bash thing incorrect and that gods bash not ticker america due to the fact that they are ultimate beings that are not acrophobic with quality affairs made Epicurus look to beryllium an atheist.

Epicurus believed that gods served lone arsenic motivation ideals that humans could aspire to. He came to the decision that the gods could not beryllium acrophobic with the well-being of humans done observing the occupation of evil, meaning the beingness of suffering successful the world.

The past Greek philosopher and his followers lived peacefully successful their tiny communities and did not get progressive successful the authorities of an ever-changing Athens, avoiding societal activism.

Later, Epicurus’ denial of immortality and the beingness of a benevolent deity would bring his followers into nonstop struggle with the emergence of Christianity. This, alongside the misunderstanding of the pleasance principle, led Epicureanism to beryllium condemned by the Church.

However, some Epicureans and Christians would profess to adhere to the aforesaid standards of behavior: compassion, forgiveness, generosity, inclusion, hospitality and love.