Epicureanism - A Week in the Pursuit of Pleasure

March 30 - April 5

"Pleasure is the beginning and the goal of a happy life" Epicurus as cited by Botton in The Consolations of Philosophy, p.50

Epicureans believe that:

• the pursuit of happiness is the purpose of life
• there is a hierarchy of humans needs; in order to be happy we must first address our primal needs for shelter, food and warmth
• happiness is acquired through:
• the possession of friendship;
• the experience of sensual pleasures;
• the avoidance/cessation of pain;
• ataraxy: freedom from anxieties and the fear of death.
• there is no life after death

Alain de Botton, author of The Consolations of Philosophy, has been accused of grossly oversimplifying philosophical concepts. This has worked in our favour and we will be basing our rules this week predominantly on his sifted version of Epicureanism...

1. Friendship

"Of all the things that wisdom provides to help live one's entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship" Epicurus as cited by Botton in The Consolations of Philosophy, p.57

• Rule: dedicate time every day to maintaining friendships

"Before you eat or drink anything, consider carefully who you eat or drink with rather than what you eat or drink: for feeding without a friend is the life of a lion or a wolf" Epicurus as cited by Botton in The Consolations of Philosophy, p.57

• Rule: always eat in company

2. Meeting basic needs

"... happiness (eudaimonia), according to Epicurus, is ... a form of pleasure in its own right - ... kinetic pleasures involve ... the pleasurable elimination of hunger or thirst. As the need is met, however, the pleasure associated with replenishment diminishes: one does not enjoy eating for replenishment when full." Epicurus; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Rule: always eat when hungry and only then; enjoy the moment; choose quality over quantity

3. Living an analysed life

"Mankind is perpetually the victim of a pointless and futile martyrdom, fretting life away in fruitless worries through failure to realise what limit is set to acquisition and to the growth of genuine pleasure" Epicurus as cited by Botton in The Consolations of Philosophy, p.70 

• Rule: at the end of each day write down your anxieties. Reflect on their impact on your pursuit of happiness. Are they baseless? What can you do to eliminate them?

March: Epicureanism

Reading list:

Letter to Herodotus by Epicurus, from Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Robert Drew Hicks

Letter to Menoeceus by Epicurus, from Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Robert Drew Hicks

Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius, translated by William Ellery Leonard

Epicurus; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Takeaways after 7 days

Gotta agree with Geoff - a lot of perseverance was required to get through this week. I was very glad to see Aurelius himself pardoning my failures, for they were many, and they weighed on me (which is another failure, I guess!)

Today I attempted some reflection on my week, with a focus on any lessons learnt. My self-imposed virtuous restrictions directed a lot of my energy over the last 7 days to ticking things off a to-do list. That list still has a lot of things on it, but I'm genuinely happy to have made a dent in it, and I'd like to keep chipping away at it. The 100% focus was obviously too much, but perhaps I can set a somewhat more forgiving routine that none the less schedules mandated daily time to the task. It'll take resolve, but I know I'll appreciate the results. We'll see.

Stay tuned for news of Simon and Geoff's next adventure in philosophy - a new subject and a new reading list should be coming your way soon.

Simon

On Having a Go

With one more day of Stoicism through which to persevere, and it has felt like perseverance, I thought I might reflect briefly on how the week has gone and what has come of it.

We've eaten plainly but not avoided flavour entirely, nor ignored hunger. We've slept on soft beds with pillows and blankets. We've paid little attention to our dress (not much of a change there) but not stepped bravely outside societal norms to meet some utilitarian ideal. We've held our tongues and reflected on our actions. We've avoided (mostly) the idle, shallow pursuits that are usually our daily companions and focused our energies instead on what we knew needed to be done.

Were we successful? Were we good Stoics? Well, we had a go.

As always, I'll let Marcus weigh in on the subject:

"Your attempt was always subject to reservations, remember; you were not aiming at the impossible. At what, then? Simply at making the attempt itself. In this you succeeded; and with that, the object of your existence is attained." (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book VI, 50)

Geoff