Epicurus in 60 Minutes

By Walther Ziegler

The philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) has been controversial since antiquity. His provocative key idea is of compelling simplicity. Every human being possesses, by nature, an internal compass. In order to be happy he must do what causes him pleasure and joy and avoid what causes him unpleasure and harm. He writes: "Pleasure is the starting point and goal of living blessedly [...] (It is) our first innate good, and [...] our starting point for every choice and avoidance." Already newborns follow this "pleasure principle". But this discovery, which might at first seem so obvious, struck Epicurus's contemporaries as a monstrous provocation. The notion that the highest goal of life is enjoying pleasure stands in stark contrast to the then-established teachings of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics. These latter saw reason and a life lived by reason as the highest goal of Man. Because Epicurus accepted women into his school and even had a love affair with one of them, his contemporaries called him a "glutton" and "sex fiend". The Greek poet Timon described him as "doggish", the Stoic Epictetus as a "wastrel". Christian authors later even called him the Antichrist. But these critiques are fundamentally false, because beyond a superficial striving for pleasure, Epicurus's deeper concern was a lifelong, painstaking "care of the self". His questions, then, remain burningly relevant. What are the basic human needs whose satisfaction yields a happy life? Which needs are really necessary to life and which not? How, concretely, should we deal with these needs: for example with the need for food, drink, sexual intercourse and friendship? The book contains almost a hundred quotes from this charismatic ancient philosopher. It appears as part of the beloved series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes" which has now been translated worldwide into six languages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Nov 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9783756864638

Walther Ziegler

Walther Ziegler est professeur d'université et docteur en philosophie. En tant que correspondant à l'étranger, reporter et directeur de l'information de la chaîne de télévision allemande ProSieben, il a produit des films sur tous les continents. Ses reportages ont été récompensés par plusieurs prix. En 2007, il a prit la direction de la « Medienakademie » à Munich, une Université des Sciences Appliquées et y forme depuis des cinéastes et des journalistes. Il est l'auteur de nombreux ouvrages philosophiques, qui ont été publiés en plusieurs langues dans le monde entier. En sa qualité de journaliste de longue date, il parvient à résumer la pensée complexe des grands philosophes de manière passionnante et accessible à tous.

Book preview

My thanks go to Rudolf Aichner for his tireless critical editing; Silke Ruthenberg for the fine

graphics; Lydia Pointvogl, Eva Amberger, Christiane Hüttner, and Dr. Martin Engler for their

excellent work as manuscript readers and sub-editors; Prof. Guntram Knapp, who first

inspired me with enthusiasm for philosophy; and Angela Schumitz, who handled in the most

professional manner, as chief editorial reader, the production of both the German and the

English editions of this series of books.

My special thanks go to my translator

Dr Alexander Reynolds.

Himself a philosopher, he not only translated the original German text into English with great

care and precision but also, in passages where this was required in order to ensure clear

understanding, supplemented this text with certain formulations adapted specifically to the

needs of English-language readers.

Contents

Epicurus’s Great Discovery

Epicurus’s Central Idea

The Five Sources of Pleasure: Food, Drink, Sexuality, Friendship and Philosophy

To Enjoy Properly Is To Enjoy Intelligently – The Philosopher’s Way of Dealing With Pleasure

The Avoidance of Unpleasure, Pain and Fear

The Insignificance of the Gods for Happiness in the Here and Now

Hedonism as an Art of Living – Enjoyment, Friendship and Ataraxy

Of What Use Is Epicurus’s Discovery For Us Today?

Lust for Life! – Epicurus’s Speech in Defence of The Joys of the Senses

Enjoyment, Not Renunciation; Freedom, Not Fate! Epicurus Against the Stoics

Death Is Nothing to Us – Directing One’s Focus on Life

Epicurus’s Timeless Message: Make the Best of the One Life We Have!

Bibliographical References

Epicurus’s Great Discovery

Epicurus (341-270 BC) is, along with Plato and Aristotle, one of the great charismatic philosophers of the ancient world. He counts among those thinkers whose key idea has remained a living one across a span of several millennia. Just as the word stoic has characterized, for over two thousand years now, people who tend to remain calm and relaxed in situations of tension and pressure, we still today speak of someone as an epicurean or a hedonist if they openly declare that their chosen style of life is one oriented to the pursuit of pleasure. Hedone is, in fact, the Greek word for pleasure. And it is Epicurus who counts as the founder of so-called hedonism. A large number of people today choose to describe themselves as hedonists.

We may say that Epicurus long preceded Freud in formulating the notion of a pleasure principle playing a crucially important role in our lives. This pleasure principle runs simply: seek always to increase your pleasure and avoid anything by which pleasure is diminished! Epicurus’s key idea, then, appears initially to be one of seductive clarity: Nature itself, he maintains, provides human beings, right at their birth, with a sort of inner compass by the guidance of which they can lead a happy life. It is a kind of intuitive guidebook which stands by us in all decisions, great and small. In order to be happy, Epicurus says, a human being has simply to do what gives him joy and pleasure and avoid whatever is likely to cause him displeasure or pain:

But this discovery of Epicurus’s, which on a first reading strikes one as a matter of common sense, something that almost goes without saying, was in fact perceived already by the philosopher’s contemporaries as a monstrous provocation. The fulfilment of the desire for pleasure as the highest of life’s goals stands in sharp contrast and opposition to the other well-established doctrines of that day, such as those of Plato, Aristotle or the Stoics. These latter doctrines had praised, ever since their first foundation, reason and a life lived according to reason as the highest goals for Man. But now, suddenly, along came Epicurus with his claim that the highest good for Man was not Man’s reason at all but rather his body, his sensuality, his desire and pleasure.

Not that thought which had hitherto stood in such high moral regard but, on the contrary, those drives and needs hitherto looked on as lower things, such as eating, drinking and sexuality, show us, according to Epicurus, the right road to take through life. Expressed in its most radical and shocking form, Epicurus’s basic thesis ran: human beings will be happy only when they cease trying to pose as virtuous beings consisting essentially of mind and confess to others and to themselves all the powerful desires and needs that inhabit and motivate them. Pleasure,