Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who was especially interested in happiness. In the year 306 a.C., Epicurus founded in Athens his Garden, a place where he lived surrounded by friends teaching his philosophy. Although we know that he wrote many works (it is believed that more than three hundred), almost all have been lost. Among the few works of Epicurus that are conserved, the Letter to Meneceus stands out.
What makes us happy? The first answers that come to mind are clearly insufficient. It just takes a little reflection to show that money, fame and physical health are not necessary nor sufficient for living a happy life.
Epicurus deals with a central theme: how to achieve happiness.
What makes us happy? Many things, but all have a common ingredient: that we want them. Without the desire for them, things would not make us happy.
What makes us happy? Satisfying all our desires, because satisfying them gives us pleasure.
On the contrary, not satisfying our desires causes us pain.
In summary, Epicurus affirms that happiness is pleasure: happiness = pleasure.
In Ethics, we call hedonism to the theory that says that pleasure is the only good (good = pleasant), pleasure is the only thing that gives us happiness.
Therefore, Epicurus is a hedonist.
Epicurus reduces the multitude of desires and things that make us happy to a common ingredient present in all of them: the pleasure they produce.
But what is pleasure?
Pleasure is a sensation. The sensations are something subjective, it can not be shared with others.
The sensation of pleasure has degrees: it can be very intense or weaker.
The sensation of pleasure lasts a certain time: there are momentary pleasures and lasting pleasures.
The opposite sensation to that of pleasure is that of pain, it also has different degrees and durations.
Desires are at the origin of pleasure: if we do not want something, we will not enjoy it when we have it.
If a happy life is a life full of pleasures (and an unhappy life is a life full of pain), then in view of this diagram we see that there are two keys to achieving happiness:
Control our desires , suppressing those that we cannot satisfy or that their satisfaction in the long run will cause us other pains. For this, Epicurus studies our desires: their origin, if they are necessary or we can do without them and the duration of the pleasures that their satisfaction produces in us.
Get our actions right . Learning from experience and from other people to do what leads us to success and to avoid failure. Epicurus also studies how we should reason and calculate what actions are the ones that will produce the most lasting pleasures.
Our desires have two origins :
Our body : hunger or thirst are desires that force us to act. And when we can satisfy them, it gives us great pleasure. Our body also asks us to rest, sometimes we want to do nothing and lie down all day.
Our mind : we are social animals, and we need contact with other people. We enjoy the affection of our loved ones. Our mind also makes us want to be famous or have the power to rule over others.
Both our body and our mind are sources of desires, of many desires. It is not easy that we can satisfy all of them, we must give priority to some over others. We must also control some desires, as trying to satisfy them can make us unhappy. Epicurus proposes to classify our desires, and with them the pleasures they produce, into two types:
Natural . The pleasures that satisfy the desires that arise from our nature are natural . We are beings with specific characteristics and our nature makes us want certain things. But not all the desires that arise from our nature are equally necessary:
Natural and necessary : Our body makes us crave certain foods. Our mind makes us want the company of other human beings. If we fail to satisfy these desires, our existence is in danger: we may starve, we may not fully develop as human beings.
Natural but not necessary : Our body makes us want to eat or sleep more than necessary. Our mind makes us wish we had many good friends. But we can survive without eating or sleeping that much. We can survive without friends.
Not natural (vain). All those pleasures that come from artificially created desires: invented at some point and later reproduced within a society. Some people want to have a car or a mobile phone, others don't even know what those things are. Some societies place great importance on fame or the accumulation of wealth, others do not instill these desires in their members.
In view of this classification, Epicurus advises us that:
Let us first try to satisfy our natural and necessary desires. Our life depends on it.
Let us try to satisfy natural but not necessary desires in the second place , as long as this is possible without causing us other inconveniences and without jeopardizing the satisfaction of natural and necessary desires. To achieve this, Epicurus will give us some advice to choose well.
Let's avoid unnatural pleasures. As they are not pleasures related to our nature, they are superfluous. We can live without satisfying them. They can and in Epicurus opinion should be suppressed, ignored for our reason. And we can achieve this because just as they have entered our mind through external influences, we can expel them from it through our reasoning power.
In addition to classifying our desires according to their origin (body or mind) and their nature (natural or artificial), Epicurus adds a third way of classifying our desires and the pleasures that result from them:
Brief but intense pleasures . Like enjoying a glass of water when we are thirsty, or enjoying something new. These types of pleasures do not last and the desire for them soon returns: we are thirsty again if we do not drink again, we want to release something new again when we have gotten used to what we released before.
Lasting and growing pleasures . Like enjoying doing sports or enjoying the company of friends. This type of pleasure is maintained for a long time and the desire for them also remains constant, without suffering ups and downs.
We can get an idea of the evolution over time of these two types of pleasures if we graphically represent the intensity of pleasure as time passes.
The pleasure of launching something new is very intense the first day, but then decreases in the following weeks until disappearing after a few months. Then the desire to release something else reappears. To satisfy this desire once again, we need to spend money again to buy something new.
Instead, the pleasure of enjoying the company of friends grows as we get to know our friends better. If the friendship is sincere, it will not suffer great ups and downs. In addition, it is a lasting pleasure over time:
We already know the great variety of desires and pleasures associated with them. We have seen that some desires have their origin in our body while others are more typical of our mind. We have also classified desires according to whether they are natural or artificial. The natural ones can be necessary for our life or unnecessary. The artificial ones are all unnecessary. Finally, we have classified the pleasures according to their duration: brief and intense, some long and stable.
Among so much variety, how to choose our pleasures? What desires to try to satisfy and which others to ignore? Once chosen, what is the best way to achieve them? How to act to satisfy the desires that make us enjoy?
Epicurus offers us some general rules to choose what pleasures to seek and also to satisfy our desires in the best way.
When it comes to satisfying desires that are necessary for our life, it is clear that we must try to satisfy them. We cannot ignore or suppress them unless we do not want to live. For example, it is necessary to eat and rest. But are there better and worse ways to eat and rest? Epicurus thinks so: It is better to satisfy our needs in the simplest way possible.
If we need to quench our thirst, better with water than with a soda. Why? Because water is the easiest way to quench your thirst: it is cheaper and more accessible than soft drinks. If we get used to quenching our thirst by drinking soft drinks, when we can only drink water we will not feel the same pleasure as if we have become accustomed to drinking water. It is possible that we even feel disgusted, that we do not enjoy fresh water because we have become accustomed to soft drinks.
If we need to rest, it is again better to accustom our body to a simple mattress and pillow instead of accustoming it to more exclusive ones. In this way, when we have to sleep in other places, we will not be unhappy because we lack our most exclusive mattress and pillow.
Satisfying our most basic desires in a simple way has another advantage: when we can enjoy luxury or we will enjoy it more.
A second rule that Epicurus offers us is moderation: we must not go too far in satisfying natural desires. And this applies to both the most necessary and the least necessary natural desires:
If we feel hungry, we must eat. But we can eat some foods or others. The above recommendation for availability and simplicity applies perfectly here. But in addition to choosing simple and easily accessible foods, we must avoid overeating. If we get used to eating a lot, when we do not have an abundance of food we will feel that we lack food and we will be unhappy. On the contrary, if we get used to eating only what is necessary to calm our hunger, we will not feel pain or disgust when we have little food.
We must rest, but avoid sleeping excessively. Lack of moderation will lead us to suffer when we have to get up early. On the contrary, if we get used to getting up early, we will not suffer so much when we have to get up early.
If we enjoy playing with the console, it is better to do it in moderation. We won't always have the time or the place to do all the sport we want. Better to play with simple and available means (and not with an expensive controller or a last generation monitor), and also put a limit on the time of the game. If we get used to playing without moderation, then we will feel pain when we cannot dedicate all the time to which we have become accustomed.
As with the rule of availability, the rule of moderation has a second positive effect: we will enjoy more when we can dedicate ourselves more to those pleasures that we normally enjoy in moderation:
If we are used to eating little, we will enjoy the day of the banquets more when we can eat more.
If we are used to playing limit, we will enjoy vacation days more when we can play more.
Whenever we think of acting to achieve pleasure, we must ask ourselves about the consequences in the medium and long term. Not foreseeing the consequences of our actions is the cause of many unhappiness.
This rule applies to all kinds of pleasures:
The pleasure of eating sweets leads to tooth decay, diabetes and obesity.
The pleasure of sleeping on an excessively soft mattress brings back pain.
The pleasure of an afternoon without studying leads to worse results, recoveries and extra work.
Epicurus insists on reasoning before acting, weighing the pleasures and pains of our actions. Sometimes it is better not to satisfy a wish.
It may seem a contradiction that the same person who affirms that happiness consists in enjoying life tells us that sometimes we must suffer some pain. But it is not about suffering without more, but about accepting some suffering in exchange for later obtaining greater pleasures, or avoiding greater evils:
We do the unpleasant task of cleaning our boots in exchange for the pleasure of a field trip.
We peel the potatoes to later enjoy a delicious omelette.
Better the pain of the shot of the vaccine than to suffer a long illness.
Better the pain of the dentist than having a terrible toothache.
Again, Epicurus insists us to reason before acting, weighing the pleasures and pains of our actions. Sometimes it is better to accept a pain or make a sacrifice.
Obtaining pleasure requires some action from us, for pleasures rarely come to us without effort. This effort can be physical (like when we go home shopping), mental (studying to pass an exam) or economic (saving). In exchange for this effort, we should try to get as much enjoyment as possible. Therefore, Epicurus advises us to strive for long-lasting pleasures, which bring us happiness for a long time, and avoid short-term pleasures even when they are intense. For instance:
Better to invest our money in some boots to enjoy the field many times than to spend that money bingeing on food or buying a series or a football game that we will enjoy one day.
Better to use our intelligence learning to play a musical instrument than to use it learning to win in a game: once we have won, we will not enjoy playing it again. Instead, we will enjoy every time we play our instrument.
Better to use our energy splitting firewood and then be warm for several days than to go out to ride a bicycle.
Each of the previous rules or recommendations wants to help us choose well to achieve maximum happiness, which for Epicurus is the same as saying to achieve maximum enjoyment. The above rules assume that we can choose, that we are free to choose our actions. If we were not free, if we were forced, it would not make much sense to worry about choosing well. Whoever is a slave cannot choose what he wants to do and therefore cannot lead a happy life.
The importance of maintaining our freedom and trying to increase it in order to be able to choose better is the subject of this last recommendation. Being self-sufficient, not depending on anything or anyone, is for Epicurus a goal to try to achieve, because whoever does not depend on anything or anyone is maximally free.
Without going to the extreme of slavery, losing part of our freedom forces us to do or accept things that we do not enjoy. Many times, this loss of freedom, and the unhappiness that it brings, are not evident at first, even For example:
Who develops an addiction to a substance.
Who asks for a loan that later cannot pay.
Who only lives to get "likes".
It is not by chance that these examples are linked to artificial plates, completely unnecessary. The initial pleasure that some substances provoke, the enjoyment of luxurious objects, and the pleasure of fame are examples of unnatural, superfluous pleasures that often lead to unhappiness. Epicurus advises avoiding these pleasures precisely because of the lack of freedom that they usually bring, since they make us dependent on some substances, on who has lent us the money, on those who can give us and take away our fame.
We can summarize all the tips to choose and act well and also make them more specific if we understand Epicurus' answer to what things are necessary to lead a happy life. They are not many, but they are not easy to reach:
Friendship . Human beings are social animals, and Epicurus considers friendship to be the most perfect social relationship: it provides enjoyment and help but does not restrict our freedom.
Freedom . Without freedom we cannot choose and when we can choose but are forced, the result is often pain and unhappiness.
Reflection . Applying our ability to reason we can choose the best pleasures and the best way to satisfy them.
Let us remember that Epicureanism affirms that:
Good = Pleasure and Bad = Pain . Although Epicurus sometimes advises us not to choose pleasure and accept pain, the reason is that in this way we will obtain greater pleasure later. We must calculate rationally and in the long term which is the best decision for us, but always from the point of view of obtaining the maximum pleasure and the least pain possible.
Both the pleasures and the pains that we must take into account in our calculations are those that affect us personally , since Epicurus at no time asks us to take into account the pleasures and pains of other people.
Joining these two points, we can say that Epicureanism is a selfish hedonism :
Selfish Hedonism : theory that states that the best thing for each person is the pleasure that person can feel. A good life is a happy life, and happiness is found in personal enjoyment.
Both points can be criticized, at least on some occasions:
We do not believe that we should always choose what we like. For example, we may believe that making art or investigating nature has merit even though we do not like it. Usually the artist and the scientist enjoy what they do, but they also believe that even if they did not like it , or even if there was something they enjoyed more , they prefer art or knowledge to pure pleasure. The good is not always the pleasant thing or at least the best is not always the most pleasant. There are things that are good regardless of whether they are more or less pleasant or that are good for something other than the pure enjoyment we feel.
Spend your free time researching?
Spend your free time going for a walk?
We do not believe that we should always choose our own pleasure, sometimes we believe that choosing the pleasure of others has merit. We call altruism the behavior that consists of sacrificing one's own pleasure (or benefit) in favor of another's. We should not always choose what gives us the most pleasure possible. We often believe that we should do something for the welfare of others .
