Epicureanism (What is Ancient Philosophy?)

People’s unhappiness comes from the fact that they want to obtain what they think is good, or to escape what they think is bad. It doesn’t matter what we do, so long as we do it with an attitude of indifference. Thus, according to Pyrrho’s philosophy our goal should be to seek stability in a state of perfect equilibrium.

Epicureanism originated in an experience and a choice. The experience was that of the “flesh”: “The voice of the flesh: not to be hungry, not to be thirsty, not to be cold. He who possesses this state, and hopes to possess it in the future, can rival Zeus for hap¬ piness.” The “flesh” here is of course not an anatomical part of the body, but-in a sense which is phenomenological and apparently wholly new in philosophy-it is the subject of pleasure and pain, or the individual. As Carlo Diano has expertly shown, Epicurus had to speak of “suffering;’ of “pleasure;’ and of “flesh” to express his experience, for there was no other way to reach and to point out the man in the street in the pure and simple historicity of his being-in-the-world, and finally to discover what we call the “individual” -that individual without which we cannot speak of a human person… For it is only in the “flesh;’ which experiences pain and relief from pain, that our “self” -our soul-emerges and becomes apparent to itself and to others… This is why the greatest works of charity…are those which have the flesh as their object-satisfying its hunger and quenching its thirst.

Other key points. No difference between the flesh and the soul. We should deliver flesh form suffering and allow it to experience pleasure. Epicurus thought that the Socratic and Platonic choice of the love of the good is an illusion. In reality, people are motivated to gratify their own pleasures and interests. The role of philosophy is to help us seek pleasure in a reasonable way. This means seeking the pure pleasure of existing (the only genuine pleasure). Suffering comes from being unaware of genuine pleasure. When people seek pleasure, they cannot find it, because it is not within reach; or they spoil their pleasure because they constantly feel they will lose it.

In a way, suffering comes primarily from empty opinions, and hence from their souls. Epicurus was on a therapeutic philosophical mission, to tend to the sickness of the soul and teach mankind how to experience pleasure.

A grave threat impairs human happiness. Can pleasure be perfect if it is disturbed by the fear of death, and by divine decisions in this world and the next? As is shown with great force by Lucretius,

it is the fear of death which is, in the last analysis, at the base of all the passions which make people unhappy. It was in order to free people from these terrors that Epicurus proposed his theoretical discourse on physics. Above all, we must not imagine Epicurean physics as a scientific theory, intended to reply to objective, disinterested questions. The ancients knew that the Epicureans were hostile to the idea of a science studied for its own sake. Indeed, philosophical theory is here merely the expression and consequence of the original choice of life, and a means of obtaining peace of mind and pure pleasure. Epicurus never tires of repeating this:

If we were not disturbed by our worries about celestial phenomena and death, fearing (because of our ignorance of the limits of pain and desire) that the latter is something dire for us, we would have no need of the study of nature. We cannot free ourselves of fear about the most essential things if we do not know exactly what the nature of the universe is, but attribute some hint of truth to mythological stories, so that without the study of nature it is impossible to obtain pleasure in its state of purity… There is no profit to be derived from the knowledge of celestial phenomena other than peace of mind and firm assurance, just as this is the goal of all other research.

The good person believes that the only evil is moral evil and that there is no good but moral good-namely, what we call duty or virtue. This is the supreme value, for which we must not hesitate to face death. The Stoic choice is thus situated in the direct line of the Socratic choice and is diametrically opposed to the Epicurean choice: happiness consists not in pleasure or in individual interest but in the demands of the good, which are dictated by reason and transcend the individual. The Stoic choice is also opposed to the Platonic choice, insofar as it holds that happiness – that is, the moral good – is accessible to all, within this life.

Source: What is Ancient Philosophy?

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