Epicurus and the simple life
Sort your wants the way Epicurus did, tell a pleasure that lasts from one that costs you later, and understand his famous argument that death is nothing to fear.
THE MAN
Epicurus and the Garden
Epicurus lived about 341 to 270 BCE and founded a school in a garden outside Athens, known simply as the Garden. Unusually for the time, it welcomed women and slaves. Its members lived simply and valued friendship above almost everything. Today 'epicurean' means a lover of fine food and luxury, which is close to the opposite of what he taught.
He reportedly lived mostly on bread and water, and once asked a friend to send a small pot of cheese so he could have a feast.
Ataraxia
For Epicurus, pleasure is the goal of life, but the highest pleasure is not excitement. It's the absence of pain in the body (aponia) and of turmoil in the mind (ataraxia, 'untroubledness'). A calm, healthy person among friends, not afraid of anything, has reached the peak. More thrills don't add much on top.
Think of the relief of a headache going away, then imagine that feeling as your normal state. That is closer to what Epicurus meant by pleasure than a party.
Check yourself
Mahsa can take a stressful second job to afford a nicer flat, or stay where she is with evenings free for friends and reading. What would Epicurus most likely advise?
- Take the job: a nicer flat means more pleasure every day
- Take the job, then buy even more things so that all the stress feels worth it
- Stay: calm evenings with friends are worth more than the extra comfort
- It doesn't matter, because pleasure isn't what life is about
Show the answer
Stay: calm evenings with friends are worth more than the extra comfort
Yes. For Epicurus the extra comfort would cost her the things that matter most for pleasure: peace of mind and friendship. A calm life with friends is already close to the top.
Epicurus' three kinds of desire
- Natural and necessary: food, water, shelter, and the things we need to be free of pain and anxious thoughts. Easy to satisfy, and worth satisfying.
- Natural but not necessary: fancy versions of natural things, like a gourmet meal instead of a simple one. Fine to enjoy when they come, but don't depend on them.
- Empty (neither natural nor necessary): fame, power, unlimited wealth. They have no natural limit, so they can never be filled.
Arman wants a new phone. His current one works fine.
Q1 What need is behind this? Calling, maps, photos.
Does my current phone meet it? Yes.
Q2 So what's the extra part? Newer camera, and people
at work noticing it.
Q3 Which kind of desire is that? Camera: natural but not
necessary. Being noticed: empty.
Q4 What would it cost? Four months of savings,
and worry about scratching it.Epicurean verdict: keep the old phone.
The need is already met. The rest is a desire with
no natural limit; next year there will be a newer model.The questions matter more than the verdict. Someone whose phone is failing would reach a different answer.
Check yourself
Sort these into Epicurus' three kinds of desire
- A glass of water when you're thirsty
- Saffron ice cream instead of plain bread
- A bigger house to impress the relatives
- A warm place to sleep in winter
- A million followers
- A special dinner out on your birthday
Show the answer
Natural and necessary: A glass of water when you're thirsty, A warm place to sleep in winter
Natural, not necessary: Saffron ice cream instead of plain bread, A special dinner out on your birthday
Empty: A bigger house to impress the relatives, A million followers
NOT JUST 'FEEL GOOD NOW'
Weighing pleasure over time
Epicurus did not tell people to grab every pleasure. In his Letter to Menoeceus he says some pleasures bring bigger pains later and should be skipped, and some pains are worth choosing because they lead to greater pleasure. What makes life pleasant, he says, is sober reasoning about what to choose and avoid, not endless feasting.
A third glass of wine feels good at 11pm and bad at 7am. A hard conversation with a friend hurts now and saves the friendship. Epicurus would skip the first and choose the second.
Check yourself
Donya is a follower of Epicurus, so whenever she has a choice, she should pick whatever feels best right now.
Show the answer
False
False. Epicurus asked people to weigh pleasures and pains over time. An option that feels good now but brings worry, debt or illness later is a bad choice by his own standard. That's why his followers lived simply rather than wildly.
THE FAMOUS ARGUMENT
Death is nothing to us
Epicurus argued that death can't be bad for the one who dies. Good and bad need someone to experience them. While we exist, death isn't here; when death is here, we no longer exist. So there is never a moment when death harms us. The Roman poet Lucretius, his follower, added a comparison: we don't grieve the endless time before we were born, so why dread the time after?
This isn't an argument that dying is fine for the people left behind. It's aimed at the private fear of 'not being' that keeps many people awake.
Check yourself
Kourosh, 30, sometimes lies awake terrified of one day not existing. Which reply is Epicurus' own argument?
- 'You'll live a long time, so there's no point worrying yet.'
- 'When you're dead, there's no you left to be harmed.'
- 'Death is bad, but thinking about it makes you grateful.'
- 'Keep yourself busy every evening so you don't have time to think about it.'
Show the answer
'When you're dead, there's no you left to be harmed.'
Yes. Harm needs a subject who experiences it, and death removes the subject. Whether you find that convincing is another question; many philosophers answer that death is bad because it takes away future goods.
The four-part cure
- Later Epicureans summed up the teaching as a 'four-part cure', roughly:
- Don't fear the gods.
- Don't worry about death.
- What is good is easy to get.
- What is terrible is easy to endure.
Lesson recap
- For Epicurus, pleasure is the goal, but the highest pleasure is freedom from pain and worry, not excitement.
- Desires are natural and necessary, natural but not necessary, or empty; empty ones can never be filled.
- Weigh pleasures and pains over time; some pleasures cost too much and some pains are worth it.
- His argument on death: where death is, you aren't, so it can't harm you.
- The main objection: death can still be bad because it takes away future goods.