---
date: '2023-09-11'
description: tutorial notes on epicurus's materialism, denial of afterlife, hedonism with pleasure as highest good, kinetic versus katastematic pleasure.
id: Epicurus
modified: 2026-06-05 15:08:42 GMT-04:00
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  - philos1aa3
title: Epicurus's Hedonism and Materialism
created: '2023-09-11'
published: '2023-09-11'
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# Materialism

For Epicurus, bodies are made of atoms moving through void. The soul is also bodily: its fine particles sustain sensation while joined to the body. When that arrangement breaks up, sensation ends ([Letter to Herodotus §§63–67](https://beta.perseus.tufts.edu/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0004.tlg001.perseus-eng2:10.1/)).

# Central role of chance

Epicurus distinguishes necessity, chance and our own agency. Chance makes outcomes uncertain; deliberation still matters because we can judge what to pursue ([Letter to Menoeceus §§133–134](https://classics.mit.edu/Epicurus/menoec.html)).

# Denial of afterlife

The soul’s dissolution leaves no subject to suffer after death. Epicurus argues that harm requires sensation, so death cannot be experienced as a harm. He accepts gods as blessed and immortal beings, without assigning them human anger or favour ([Principal Doctrines 1–2](https://classics.mit.edu/Epicurus/princdoc.html)).

# Hedonism

Pleasure is the highest good. Epicurus takes our attraction to pleasure and aversion to pain as the starting point for choice. Consequences matter: a pleasure can bring greater pain later, and an immediate pain can secure greater pleasure. A pleasant life requires judgment about desires, including which ones we can satisfy without creating further distress (Letter to Menoeceus §§128–132).

Q:

- Why is pleasure the highest good?
- Which pleasures should we choose?
- Agree?

Diogenes Laertius reports two kinds of pleasure at §136:

- **Kinetic:** pleasure in activity, such as joy and delight.
- **Katastematic:** a settled condition of bodily painlessness and mental tranquility.

The distinction concerns activity and condition. Both kinds have bodily and mental instances. Freedom from thirst still requires water; katastematic pleasure does not mean independence from material needs.