Epicurus believed that essentially the most dependable solution to be completely satisfied is to cut back one’s needs till it’s straightforward to fulfill them. He distinguishes three forms of needs: pure and needed, pure and pointless and useless. Of those, solely the pure needs deserve any consideration, in keeping with Epicurus – and since they’re pure, they are going to be straightforward to fulfil.
This text is a part of The Ultimate Guide to Epicurus.
Welcome again to a different thrilling publish in our quest to check out six philosophies of life inside the area of 1 12 months. This week, we’ll discuss two details of Epicurus’ philosophy of happiness: find out how to distinguish which needs are higher than others — and what pleasures actually are. Epicurus believes that if we solely understood our personal needs and the character of enjoyment appropriately, it might be straightforward for us to guide completely satisfied and significant lives with out losing huge effort on pursuing the unsuitable targets.
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Misunderstanding Epicurus
If there was a prize for being misunderstood as a thinker, Epicurus and his view of needs would make an important candidate.
Dictionary.com defines: “Epicurean: Keen on or tailored to luxurious or indulgence in sensual pleasures; having luxurious tastes or habits, particularly in consuming and ingesting.”
Merriam-Webster: “Epicurean: Involving an appreciation of advantageous foods and drinks.”
The Cambridge English Dictionary: “Epicurean: Getting pleasure from foods and drinks of top of the range.”
Poor Epicurus. Nothing might be farther from the reality.
Epicurus advocated that we should reduce our desires to what’s pure and needed in order that they’re simpler to fulfil. For him, happiness consists in fulfilling one’s needs, and since pure needs are simpler to fulfill, concentrating on these will be sure that we stay completely satisfied lives.
After all, all of us need issues. We would like an iPhone. Or a greater home. A quicker automotive. A household, maybe. A very good meal. On a extra fundamental degree, we wish to be fed. To keep away from being hungry. To keep away from thirst, and chilly, and an excessive amount of warmth. To not stand within the rain. To not be threatened by wild animals.
Reading Epicurus: Pleasure and pain
For Epicurus, pleasure is nothing however the absence of ache. Ache can additional be subdivided into ache of the physique and hassle within the soul. This unfavorable description of happiness is stunning at first sight, however is a needed element of the Epicurean philosophy of happiness.
Epicurus and the three forms of needs
Epicurus appears in any respect these needs, and he sees three distinct sorts.
- First, there are needs that we have now resulting from our nature. Starvation, thirst, the necessity for sleep. These are additionally needed to fulfill. If not glad, they are going to trigger ache.
- Then there are needs which might be pure, however which received’t trigger bodily ache if not fulfilled. As an illustration, having pals. Or, maybe, having intercourse. (He’s not solely clear on which needs would fall below this group).
- And at last, there are all the opposite needs we have now. Telephones, automobiles, costly meals, trendy purses. These are neither pure nor do they trigger any ache if not glad. These Epicurus calls useless needs.
The factor about useless needs is that they don’t seem to be in themselves dangerous. Epicurus doesn’t decide needs from an ethical viewpoint. However some needs are merely not price it by way of happiness. If I need a fancy purse, I’ll must earn the cash. To be able to do this, I’ll must get a demanding job that can in all probability require me to work extra time. This may make it tougher for me to discover a associate and to begin a household. Ultimately, I do get that purse, however I’ve paid rather a lot for it — and never solely by way of cash. I paid for it by being lonely and pressured and overworked. It’s not morally dangerous to need that fancy purse. However is it definitely worth the sacrifice?
Let’s look just a little nearer, Epicurus says. What makes us sad? After we do have a need, however no solution to fulfill it. It’s the distance between my current state of affairs and the specified state of affairs that causes unhappiness. If my current state of affairs is an identical to the specified state of affairs, then I’m completely completely satisfied. Happiness is an ideal match between need and reality, between what I would like and what I’ve.
Now comes the Epicurean trick. If unhappiness is only a distance between two factors, then I can scale back the gap in two methods, not just one. I can attempt to fulfill my needs. That is the primary means. I can attempt to get that purse. However what occurs after I get it? I will probably be completely satisfied for some time, however then I’ll have a brand new need for one thing else. One other purse maybe, a extra fancy one. Or one other factor solely. Needs by no means finish. As quickly as you fulfil one, one other one comes alongside. That is the issue with attempting to be completely satisfied by satisfying one’s needs.
Epicurus (341-270 BC)
Epicurus (341-270 BC) is usually seen as an advocate of an expensive life, wealthy in good meals and different pleasures. That is incorrect. Epicurus was, if something, an ascetic: somebody who thought that pleasures and good meals have a unfavorable impact on our happiness and that we should always prepare ourselves to benefit from the less complicated pleasures of life.
Decreasing one’s needs
However now, look. If need is only a distance between two factors, what about transferring the will down to satisfy the information, fairly than attempting to maneuver the factual state of affairs up to satisfy the will? That is the second means of eliminating the gap between my current state of affairs and the state I need. Decreasing my needs produces, in keeping with Epicurus, simply as a lot happiness as fulfilling them. In any case, a distance is a distance. The gap between me and the desk will be decreased by transferring myself in direction of the desk, or the desk in direction of me. Each are equally legitimate methods of going about it. However transferring the will down has a number of benefits: for example, it doesn’t invite additional needs as quickly as the primary one is glad. And it doesn’t require me to spend cash, or effort, so as to buy something. The will is inside me, so I can manipulate it at will, and for gratis in any respect.
Epicurus’ concept of needs. Picture supply: Andreas Matthias and Day by day Philosophy. All rights reserved.
That is the great thing about the Epicurean answer. As a substitute of attempting to fulfill my needs, I can scale back them. In each instances, I’ll get the identical happiness, however one will probably be laborious, whereas the opposite will probably be straightforward.
Now, how do I scale back my needs? This entails realizing first, that many of the needs that we discover laborious to fulfill are, really, useless needs for issues we don’t want.
Who wants a flowery purse? Will its absence trigger ache? Will my life be price much less with out it? In all probability not. The issues that are wanted for all times are literally, so Epicurus thinks, straightforward to get: Some meals. Water. A spot to sleep. Contemporary air. So are all issues that we need naturally: The calming stroll alongside a forest path. The view of a sundown. A recent breeze. Friendships. Love. These items all come at no cost. We solely must pay and to battle for stuff we don’t really want.
And for this reason Epicurus is so horribly misunderstood. He wouldn’t say that you simply shouldn’t take pleasure in good meals if the chance presents itself. No hurt completed in the event you don’t domesticate a useless need for it. However wanting costly meals and luxuries is just going to make you depressing. It replaces what your physique and soul naturally need, and what’s straightforward to acquire, with a useless fancy: one thing that can enslave you. One thing that can drive you to stay your life pushed by unending needs. One thing that can require fixed sacrifices to often give solely a fleeting second of satisfaction.
Hedonism, Pleasure and Happiness
Hedonism is the thesis that happiness and pleasure are the identical. However is that true? Does the enjoyment of pleasures like good meals, chocolate, intercourse and a myriad different issues that we eat on a regular basis — do this stuff actually make us happier?
Realising how little we really want so as to be completely satisfied is, for Epicurus, step one in direction of freedom and happiness. And realizing additionally that what we most want is supplied by nature for little or no cash: fundamental meals, a spot to sleep, friendships, love, the great thing about nature. These items are price-less in a double sense. Freedom and happiness are only one eye-opening realization away.
This week…
Allow us to this week look at our personal needs within the mild of Epicurus’ distinction. Why do I actually need a costlier automotive or a quicker laptop? Will the costlier automotive deliver me to my vacation spot any sooner or safer? Will I kind my weblog posts quicker on the quicker laptop? More often than not, we would like this stuff not due to the true utility that they are going to deliver to our lives, however as a result of what we actually are after is the approval of others — and that is exactly what Epicurus calls a useless need: one that’s certain to make us sad with out offering any utility to our lives.
One solution to see the reality of that is to understand that we would like new and glossy issues extra if this stuff are extra publicly seen. Most individuals would need for an even bigger, extra luxurious home in a greater neighbourhood. Most would need for a brand new automotive that will look gorgeous of their firm’s car parking zone. Being very seen, these are the sorts of issues that invite us to need them for the sake of others (and their opinion of us), fairly than for our personal. Many people, when caught at dwelling (as we skilled life in the course of the previous 12 months) won’t put on costly perfumes, flashy garments or jewelry. Most of us won’t order an costly menu of uncommon delicacies, however fortunately eat no matter is lurking in the back of the fridge. When left alone, many people will binge on some previous TV collection fairly than watch the most recent masterpiece of that upcoming artsy movie director whom everybody talks about. These behaviours, the way in which we’re after we are alone, present us what we actually must be completely satisfied — and that is usually little or no. A snug, worn-out sweater. A ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. A bunch of wildflowers on the desk. A heat crust of bread, recent from the oven.
Let’s make a listing of the costlier issues that we’ve purchased previously month and one other of the moments wherein we’ve been most completely satisfied in the identical interval. What was it that induced this happiness? Was it the costly issues, or, as Epicurus would suppose, the issues that nature and our fellow people present to us at no cost?
Inform me within the feedback!
Return to The Ultimate Guide to Epicurus.
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The Artwork of Happiness is a group of Epicurus’ writings associated to his philosophy of happiness. Epicurus is simple and entertaining to learn and has rather a lot to show us in our fashionable (and infrequently misguided) societies about find out how to stay a cheerful life.
Travels With Epicurus is an enthralling journey diary to Greece, exploring the query how happiness pertains to age and the way older folks can attempt to discover the spirit of Epicurean happiness in in the present day’s world. It’s a fantastic, eye-opening ebook on the dignity and worth of ageing nicely.
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