--- date: '2023-11-09' description: epicurus's philosophy on desire, kinetic versus katastematic pleasure, virtues including prudence and friendship, atomism, and challenge to religion. id: Epicurus modified: 2026-06-06 00:11:17 GMT-04:00 tags: - philosophy - philos1aa3 title: Epicurus created: '2023-11-09' published: '2023-11-09' pageLayout: default slug: thoughts/university/twenty-three-twenty-four/philo-1aa3/Epicurus permalink: https://aarnphm.xyz/thoughts/university/twenty-three-twenty-four/philo-1aa3/Epicurus.md generator: quartz: v4.6.0 hostedProvider: Cloudflare baseUrl: aarnphm.xyz full: https://aarnphm.xyz/llms-full.txt --- [[thoughts/Socrates|Socrates]] ideas: - care for self → happiness and virtue are problems of knowledge - Idealism: Being is Idea; fundamental reality is immaterial, spiritual, and rational - Never by itself lead anyone astray Epicurus - Emphasize the value of philosophy as care of the self. - Deny Idealism, affirm matterialism in the form of atomism ## Desire > completely innocent, if it goes wrong because of its belief May be necessary or not necessary ### Necessary _non-satisfaction brings pain_ - Happiness (philosophy, friends) - Life (food, water) - Untroubled body (law, leisure) ### Not necessary _non-satisfaction not necessarily painful. Any pain of non-satisfaction relieved by other means (change one’s opinion about the object)_ - Natural (sex, immortality) - Conventional (reputation) ## The notoriety of Epicurus - materialism, denying the spiritual in nature - belief in chance and no final purpose - disbelief in afterlife - hedonism: pleasure is the highest good ## Idea of Pleasure - A feeling, not a sensation - An evaluation of sensation - Pleasure and pain are distinct qualities, like the two poles of a magnet. Neither is merely the lack of the other ## Pleasure ### Kinetic _depends on an object and is intermittent or discontinuous_ Shadowed by pain Excess → produce pain ### Katastematic _Continuous, independent of external objects._ Types: - _Aponia_: leisure, physical ease, stressless well-being - _Ataraxia_: untroubled, tranquil mind Un-quantified terms _Reasons for promoting pleasure as _the highest good__ 1. Cradle Argument The goodness of pleasure is learned in the cradle. The first good, naturally pursued 2. Conceptual Argument Concept of good becomes meaningless when conceived as independent of pleasure > The more obstructive, unpersuasive the definition comes ## Plato’s Against Pleasure as the Good - Pleasure is the replenishment of lack - Life spent in pursuit of pleasure constantly tries to fullfill newly arising lack - Any pleasure is made better by adding virtue. - Pleasure plus wisdom is better than pleasure without wisdom - Pleasure plus courage is better than pleasure without courage > So pleasure cannot be the highest good ⇒ Answer of Epicurus: > Wisdom, courage, and all the virtues _are_ katastematic pleasures Higher and lower hedonism ## Virtues > \[!note\] Note > > Personal qualities that assist us in the pursuit of happiness Katastematic Virtues according to Epicurus ### Prudence, practical wisdom Truly prudence have knowledge of kinetic pleasure ⇒ whether to choose or avoid it ⇒ never interfere with their katastematic pleasure Successful life =: uncanny unsucessful life in the eye of the world Aim for self-sufficiency, cultivate leisures, prefer private life, private pleasure, low-profile Learn to live in the little → circumstances changes ⇒ make due with less ### Self-sufficiency ### Frugality Less toy ⇒ more katastematic pleasure Wealth shouldn’t be the most important Doesn’t advocate poverty → invokes how we think wealth in a new way Wealth is not money, but the mean to enjoy life > Wealth is an abundant of katastematic pleasures Basis in nature ⇒ easy to apply ### Friendship Being a friend, having friend ⇒ support katastematic pleasures Awareness among friends that they _are not alone_ Sense of security := katastematic pleasure of virtues ### Justice Can’t be happy when act unjust ⇒ Epicurus believes in social contract. Human lives without any organisation 1st Civilisation: Agreement to prevent harm among themselves - Why?: Motives is not fear, but the desire for friendship. Unpleasant to prepare to fight at every moment → Violence is not a way of life > \[!tip\] blocks > > Justice and pleasures are fundamental building blocks of society Saw the needs for more formal definition of contract ⇒ Law and Justice > Justice is neither natural nor sheer conventional. Originated from conventional, but the motive is natural (pleasure of security and friendship) - Justice is an conventional good contrived to promote pleasure - Not eternal. Justice changes as circumstances change - Not inherently good. Good as a means to the higher end of pleasure. ## Challenge to Religion - Our world is one of infinite worlds in endless void - Nothing spiritual in nature. Human beings not special in nature. They are animals, system of matter, like everything else. Death is extinction. - The gods takes no interest in human affairs and cannot be moved by sacrifice or prayer. - Religious ceremonies are superstitious. They are the way a powerful few control the rest. The aim of philosophy is to liberate people from superstition. ## Tetrapharmakos _The four-fold remedy_ - The gods present no fears - Death presents no worry - The good is readily attainable - The terrible is readily endurable