"Epicurus was no hedonist. He was a “tranquillist.”
Some psychologists take exception with Epicurus’s focus almost exclusively on pain relief. “Happiness is definitely something other than the mere absence of all pain,” sniffs the Journal of Happiness Studies.
Before reading Epicurus, I would have agreed. Now I’m not so sure. If I’m honest with myself, I recognize that what I crave most is not fame or wealth but peace of mind, the “pure pleasure of existing.” It’s nearly impossible to describe such a state in terms other than that of absence.
Avoiding pain is sound advice—I’m all for it—but isn’t it an awfully thin basis for a philosophy? Not if you’re in pain, Epicurus thought. Imagine you’ve fallen from a horse and broken your leg. A doctor is summoned and promptly offers you a bowl of grapes. What’s wrong? The grapes are pleasurable, aren’t they?
This absurd situation is the one many of us find ourselves in, Epicurus believed. We scoop trivial pleasures atop a mountain of pain, and wonder why we’re not happy. Some of us suffer the sharp shock of physical pain, others the dull ache of mental pain or the I want-to-die pain of a broken heart, but pain is pain, and we must address it if we hope to achieve contentment.
“We are only born once—twice is not allowed,” he said. Every human life, Epicurus believed, is the fortuitous product of chance, a swerve in atomic motion, a miracle of sorts. Shouldn’t we celebrate that?"
"The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers" by Eric Weiner: https://a.co/g3mFh61
Epicurus says that it's not enough to eat grapes after falling off a horse because peace of mind is much more than momentary pleasure, it's the release from pain. This reminds me of Aristotle's eudamonia, where it's less a feeling and more just a state of being. However, it doesn't seem like Epicurus placed as much importance on character and having a good relationship with the community; I'd say he's a lot more vague than Aristotle in this way.
ReplyDelete"We scoop trivial pleasures atop a mountain of pain, and wonder why we're not happy." This is a statement that really hits home for several reasons. I feel like for me, and several others, we are going through life empty. At times, everything seems meaningless, so we try to fill that void with meaning. We buy things, go places, see our friends and every time we have to come back and continue to live with our "mountain of pain." My mom calls it therapy shopping, but it's anything that offers a short burst of serotonin to distract you from the fact that you will inevitably have to return to the path you were just on. In order for us to break this habit we have to heal the wound, physical or mental, to be truly happy. That is much easier said than done, but the end result would be much better than artificial happiness.
ReplyDeleteI like that phrase, "therapy shopping," because that really is what we're doing, isn't it? But I agree, trying to fill the wound with trivial material objects or experiences doesn't work, because you have to actually address the "mountain of pain" itself.
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