_015 Epicurus & Happiness

Epicurus was a 4^th Century BC Greek philosopher who believed that the greatest good was happiness and that we should try to maximise the amount of individual happiness we experience in life. This was grounded in an early form of psychological hedonism: the view that all human actions are motivated by pursuit of one’s own pleasure.

 

However, unlike Utilitarianism, Epicurus was a negative hedonist. This means that, rather than overindulging in order to gain pleasure, we should aim to minimise our desires, which are the ultimate source of unhappiness. If our minds are filled with desires that we won’t be able to satisfy, we will experience suffering.

Specifically, Epicurus was interested in the pleasures of the mind, not of the body, both of which are related to the satisfaction of desires. He categorised human desires as follows:

Natural desires are those which we seek out instinctively. He further subdivide these into necessary desires (food, water, comfort, friendship) and unnecessary desires (tasty food, power, sex, wealth).

Groundless desires are not naturally within us but rather derive from culture or advertising. Examples of these include fame and luxury items.

But Epicurus thought that desires were bad because they will always lead to some form of pain (see Schopenhauer). Power will corrupt us, wealth will consume our minds and fame can lead to depression. Pleasure is the removal or satisfaction of desires but they often lead to more. It is impossible to satisfy all of our desires, which means that we will always experience pain, defined as unfulfilled desires.

Since Epicurus believed that desires ultimately caused unhappiness, he proposed that we ought to get rid of our groundless and unnecessary desires and focus solely on those which are necessary.

His ultimate goal was “peace of mind” which is a passive pleasure, achieved by eliminating all pain. Without pain, we don’t need to seek pleasure because peace of mind in itself is the ultimate state of being (similar to Nirvana). To try and gain more pleasure would be a desire, which would cause pain and break this perfect state. “Static pleasure” is the pleasure derived from being sated and without desire. He believes this to be much better than “moving pleasures” which is the active process of satisfying a desire (e.g. eating) deriving from sensory stimulation (hunger and taste).

Another aspect of his philosophy is that we should not fear death. Upon death we will cease to exist and will be unable to experience either pleasure or pain. Therefore, death is neither something to look forward to nor something to fear. He relates this to the time before birth, where we felt no pain or pleasure either.

Epicurus, despite focusing on individual happiness, strongly advocated the development of friendships as a means of mutual happiness. This is an early form of social contract, whereby we agree to help others instead of pursue our own pleasure because we know that in the long term we will gain much more happiness and lead better lives.

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Laursen, Simon, 1995. “The Early Parts of Epicurus, On Nature, 25th Book,” Cronache Ercolanesi, 25: 5–109.

–––, 1997. “The Later Parts of Epicurus, On Nature, 25th Book,” Cronache Ercolanesi, 27: 5–83.