Welcome to another post on our year-long journey to experience six different philosophies of life, each one for two months! This month we’re talking about Epicurus and his theory of what really matters in life. I hope you’re enjoying this and feel free to send me your comments!
— Andy
Epicurus on pleasure and pain
Epicurus has this to say about pleasure:
The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together. – Epicurus, Principal Doctrines, #3 (transl. Hicks)
But what does this mean? As previously discussed here, Epicurus does not think that there are any positive pleasures. What Epicurus calls pleasure is just the absence of pain. If we can reach a state of mind where all pain is totally absent, then we call state ‘happiness’.
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