😊

Epicurus' Insights on Happiness and Pleasure

Jun 2, 2025

Lecture on Epicurus' Philosophy of Happiness

Overview

  • Central theme: Happiness
  • Goal: Enable people to live a happy life
  • Key aspects: Epistemology and natural philosophy

Hedonism

  • Hedonism: Pleasure as the highest good and ultimate goal
  • Contrast with Plato, Aristotle, Stoics (reason as the highest goal)
  • Epicurus: Happiness through pleasure

Types of Pleasure

  • Negative Hedonism: Freedom from pain as the highest good
  • Kinetic Pleasure: Pleasure from eliminating pain or changing pleasure
  • Catastematic Pleasure: Absolute freedom from pain (state of no pain)
  • Ataraxia: Inner peace and mental serenity from catastematic pleasure

Sources of Unpleasure

  1. Desires
    • Threat to peace if unsatisfied
    • Three categories:
      • Natural and Necessary: Food, clothing (must satisfy to avoid pain)
      • Natural but Unnecessary: Sexuality (satisfy in moderation)
      • Unnatural and Unnecessary: Luxury, honor, power (should be avoided)
  2. Fear
    • Fear of gods and death (unfounded according to Epicurus)
    • Gods are uninvolved, death is not an evil
  3. Pain
    • Real evil but manageable through reason
    • Hedonistic calculation: Weigh pleasure against pain

Achieving Happiness

  • Hedonistic Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • Sensibly weigh needs and satisfaction
    • Satisfy natural and necessary needs simply (e.g., bread over lavish meals)

Role of Reason and Virtues

  • Use reason to assess and satisfy needs
  • Virtues (wisdom, bravery, temperance, justice) are means to pleasure
  • Avoid unnecessary needs for inner peace

Key Sources of Pleasure

  1. Food
  2. Drink
  3. Sexuality
  4. Friendship
  5. Philosophy

Philosophy's Special Role

  • Immediate pleasure and helps manage needs/fears
  • Essential for a better life through serenity

Practical Advice from Epicurus

  1. Do not fear gods
  2. Do not worry about death
  3. Happiness is easy to achieve
  4. Suffering is easy to endure

Reflection

  • Consider relevance of Epicurus' teachings today
  • Potential changes if advice is followed

Learning Resources

  • Quizlet learning set on Epicurus for further study

Full transcript