For Epicurus, pleasure is nothing however the absence of ache. Ache can additional be subdivided into ache of the physique and bother within the soul. This detrimental description of happiness is shocking at first sight, however is a mandatory part of the Epicurean philosophy of happiness.
This text is a part of The Ultimate Guide to Epicurus.
Epicurus on pleasure and ache
Epicurus has this to say about pleasure:
However what does this imply? As previously discussed here, Epicurus doesn’t assume that there are any constructive pleasures. What Epicurus calls pleasure is simply the absence of ache. If we will attain a mind-set the place all ache is completely absent, then we name state ‘happiness’.
Observe that right here Epicurus doesn’t refer solely to bodily ache, like a tooth-ache or such. “Ache” for him is each sensation that’s detrimental, and that distracts us from being at peace. This generally is a tooth-ache, however it might additionally simply be starvation, thirst, the sensation of being drained. It will probably additionally imply nervousness: if I’m afraid of dropping my job, for example, or afraid of a medical examination that’s going to happen tomorrow. These are all causes of “ache.”
Epicurus believed that essentially the most dependable method to be completely satisfied is to cut back one’s wishes till it’s simple to fulfill them. He distinguishes three kinds of wishes: pure and mandatory, pure and pointless and useless.
And, after all, the largest such reason for ache is worry. We’re afraid of small issues: spiders, or darkish corridors within the night time. However we’re additionally afraid of larger issues: of dropping our family members in an accident. Of changing into incurably ailing. And, after all, of dying.
We are going to speak in a later put up about how Epicurus tries to rid us of those fears, particularly the worry of dying. However with the intention to perceive the quote above, it isn’t mandatory to enter the small print of explicit anxieties and fears. It’s adequate to notice that if we’ve got such fears, we is not going to be completely satisfied. Thus far, everybody would agree.
Is happiness actually solely detrimental?
However now comes the Epicurean transfer: He reverses the argument above. If we do not have such fears, he says, then we’re completely completely satisfied.
Is that this believable?
Epicurus actually must make this level. As a result of what he needs, ultimately, is to say that we will change into completely satisfied by decreasing our wishes. And the happiness that we’ll obtain by eliminating our wishes is nearly as good because the happiness we might get by fulfilling them. Now that couldn’t be the case if fulfilling my wishes, let’s say for chocolate, gave me something constructive. Then I might want that chocolate with the intention to be completely satisfied.
But when Epicurus manages to persuade us that excellent happiness is simply the absence of ache (as he tries above), then the chocolate wouldn’t give me any constructive pleasure. What provides me pleasure is the absence of starvation. So long as I’m not hungry, my happiness is ideal, and it doesn’t matter a bit whether or not I got here to that state by consuming caviar, or plain rice, chocolate, or a bit of dry bread.
Epicurus on pleasure once more:
Pleasure within the physique admits no enhance when as soon as the ache of need has been eliminated; after that it solely admits of variation. (Principal Doctrines, transl. Hicks, #18).
Certainly, he’s onto one thing right here. 5 minutes after I’ve eaten a bit of chocolate, and the speedy sensation of its style is gone, I’ll certainly not really feel any distinction in my happiness: I can’t be hungry, and this would be the solely factor I’ll know. Whether or not I’ll have reached that state by consuming any of a complete vary of doable meals, I’ll be unable to say. My fullness, the absence of my starvation, is the one factor that I’ll nonetheless understand. And that sweetness of the chocolate, or the blandness of white rice: these are solely variations of that primary happiness of not being hungry. They don’t truly contribute to the diploma of happiness itself. And certainly, in the long term, my happiness (and my well being) will probably be higher served by selecting the white rice, or a dish of greens, over the chocolate.
Epicurean frugality
Whether or not we agree with Epicurus or not, the concept is price excited about for a second. In a tradition like ours, the place commercials and business pursuits at all times attempt to push us in the direction of fulfilling our wishes in the most costly, most consumerist, most troublesome methods for ourselves (that are essentially the most worthwhile methods for many who attempt to affect our selections): on this atmosphere, it’s refreshing and empowering to grasp that what we actually need once we purchase one thing is to eliminate a want, of what Epicurus would name a ache: starvation, thirst, the necessity for transportation, the necessity for a telephone that may enable us to speak to our household and buddies. These wants are legit, and we must always attempt to handle them.
However an outdated, second-hand telephone addresses the necessity for a telephone simply in addition to the latest iPhone. An outdated automobile takes me in all places simply in addition to the latest Tesla. To spend some huge cash pursuing iPhones and Teslas is subsequently irrational: it distracts us from what actually counts in life, and it truly harms us.
Erich Fromm on Our Relation to Technology
In accordance with Erich Fromm, as an alternative of catapulting us right into a utopia of everlasting youth and affluence, trendy know-how has condemned us to a life below fixed surveillance, is destroying the planet, and, within the type of AI, now threatening to remove human employment on a grand scale. Rediscovering a few of the historical expertise that all of us as soon as had could present a method out of the issue.
By taking away a disproportionate quantity of my cash, an iPhone or a Tesla renders me unable to pursue different issues; whereas an inexpensive telephone or automobile leaves me equally happy, prices much less in the long term to keep up, and leaves lots of money in my pocket that I can use to pursue the fulfilment of different wishes that is perhaps extra necessary: the will for a house that’s not mortgaged, the will for an training that doesn’t plunge me into life-long debt, and so forth.
So maybe it is true, like Epicurus thought, that the very best, essentially the most worthwhile, essentially the most lasting sort of happiness is nothing however the absence of ache.
Return to The Ultimate Guide to Epicurus.
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