Epicurean Hedonism – Tips for a Happy Life

When we say that someone is a hedonist, we usually mean a person who enjoys having a good time, indulges in food and drink, and avoids any kind of sacrifice in life. The term epicurean generates similar associations, with the added meaning of a debauchee.

Both terms are associated with Epicurus (341 – 270 BC), often criticized by his contemporaries and later, for advocating hedonism as mere bodily and sensory pleasure.

Did those who sought justification for their indulgence in pleasure interpret Epicureanism in this way, or is it because it was difficult to determine the exact pleasure to which he referred using the term “hedone” based on Fragmented Epicurean teachings?

In the search for happiness, contemporary philosophers and seekers increasingly revise old philosophical teachings, so today Epicurean teachings are very popular on internet video channels. Epicureanism is talked about as the first self-help program, and Epicurus is described as someone who offered practical advice. Wishing you a life filled with happiness and contentment.

What is satisfaction?

Only when we lack satisfaction do we feel discomfort, and only then do we feel the need for satisfaction. And when we do not feel dissatisfaction, then we no longer need satisfaction. And that is why we say that satisfaction is both the beginning and the end of a blissful life.

Epictetus speaks of two types of satisfaction: static, which can also be called spiritual satisfaction, and satisfaction in motion, which is transient. We feel spiritual satisfaction when we are undisturbed and when nothing hurts us, and the transient refers only to those moments in which we directly feel satisfaction and happiness.

One who is not thirsty and mixes wine with water does not feel the same satisfaction as one who is thirsty drinks.

The Greek word hedone, the Latin voluptas, denotes spiritual satisfaction, but also a pleasant feeling that flows through the body. The latter is also capable of being felt by animals. Is it then possible that this philosopher, who is quoted so much, Oh, and Seneca praised, whose students were admonishing each other: Always act as if Epicurus is watching you, the source of human pleasure being placed in the mere satisfaction of our animal instincts and desires, urges and cravings, bodily and sensory pleasures?

The pinnacle of pleasure is pure and simple elimination of pain… says Epicurus.

Contrary to his teachings, today the emphasis is placed on always feeling pleasure. Everything else almost has no value for us. Today we strive for unlimited pleasure in constant motion and perhaps because it is in motion, it constantly slips through our fingers like sand.

Our desire for this kind of pleasure is greatly fueled by our desires.

Which desires are necessary, and which are obstacles to spiritual satisfaction?

Epicurus distinguishes three types of desires:
• natural and necessary,
• natural, but unnecessary,
• vain and empty.

Our desire for food and shelter is natural and necessary. However, when we exceed natural boundaries, we produce… Unnecessary desires, such as desires for expensive food, housing, and clothing, are pointless. Although food is necessary, expensive food is not. In line with this, Epicurus advises and advocates for moderation.

Desires for power, wealth, and fame are futile. They are difficult to satisfy because no matter how much we possess in that regard, we always want more. They represent false beliefs about what we truly need. Therefore, we should avoid them.

If desired but not fulfilled, all unnecessary and futile desires create pain, and the craving for the objects of those desires does not cease. Their source lies in our illusions and fantasies, and if we fail to discern necessary from futile desires, we will struggle to free ourselves from their pressure. As Cicero says: Desires cannot find measure or limit, and as Epicurus says: If you live according to nature, you will never be poor, and if you live according to your imagination, you will never be rich.

Epicurus further advises that whoever contemplates these things clearly and confidently will be able to discern and every rejection of pleasure brings about a proper relationship with physical health and spiritual satisfaction, as these two things are the goal of a happy life.
Where can we find support for clear and certain discernment of one from the other?
In prudence, says Epicurus.
Our senses, from which sensory life arises, are the necessary doors through which the content of this world enters our inner life, everything we can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. But, by their nature, they are not sufficient for the knowledge of happiness which a human being can attain. Plotinus will say that the senses are messengers, and Intelligence is the king. When the enemy army is in front of the walls and threatens their collapse, whose move is decisive, the messenger’s or the king’s?
For Epicurus, as well as for Plato, prudence is the fundamental virtue from which all others emanate, and it consists of correct discernment of means and actions that lead us towards spiritual satisfaction, which in turn results in happiness, and which separates us from it. they distance and as a consequence create pain.

If she is our teacher, we can live in silence and extinguish the fire of all desires. Because desires are insatiable and ruin not only individuals but also entire families, and often destroy whole countries.

Prudence is the crown of all virtues and all virtues are its good allies.

She advises us to be moderate so that the basic necessities of life are enough for us.

Just a piece of bread and a glass of water can be the greatest pleasure for a hungry person.

She advises us to be determined in rejecting transient pleasures in order to free our soul and body from disturbances and to endure efforts that free us from even greater efforts. To act rightly and honestly, because in doing so life becomes more comfortable and satisfaction more complete.

The life of a righteous person is least disturbed by unrest, while the life of an unrighteous person is filled with the greatest unrest.

Many, deceived by transient pleasures and due to a lack of Being firm in choices, surrendering to pleasures and indulgences, and becoming slaves to passions, without considering the consequences. One should know how to enjoy those pleasures that do not result in pain. Spiritual satisfaction is achieved by renouncing many temporary pleasures.

Because virtues are closely intertwined with a comfortable life, and a comfortable life cannot be separated from them…

How to be happy?

We all strive to be happy and content. For seeking happiness in material goods and pleasures, Epictetus would say that it is seeking happiness in the wrong places, using the wrong means…

Therefore, it is necessary to pay all our attention to the things that help us achieve happiness; because if we have that, we have everything; if there is no happiness, all our efforts are directed towards achieving it.

Living modestly in Athens, in a house with a large garden, in the company of his friends, students, philosophers from the garden, as they were called, Epictetus gave unique guidelines for happiness, which we could summarize in a few points. Some basic advice: establishing inner peace means avoiding transient pleasures, having basic needs satisfied in life, and socializing with friends who share the same views on life.
Of all the things that wisdom creates for us to ensure lifelong happiness, the greatest thing is gaining friendship.
It is remembered that there was an inscription at the entrance to his garden: Stranger, you will be well here – the greatest good here is happiness.
To be happy means to be content.
Therefore, asserting that pleasure is both the end and the purpose of everything, we do not mean indulging in hedonistic enjoyment and other sensual pleasures… By pleasure, we mean the absence of physical pain and mental unrest.
According to Epicurus, spiritual satisfaction brings happiness because it brings about the absence of pain (aponia) and the absence of disturbance, passions, mental anguish, and desires (ataraxia) – ideals pursued by both Epicureans and Stoics.
Whoever is zai… What is happiness?
A wise man, Epikur, will say. He always keeps his desires within limits and is not afraid of death, which is why he always has more pleasure than pain. He is aware that the purpose of human life is not transient pleasures, but the spiritual ones that are found in our duties. The wise man lives without empty desires, that is, without those pleasures that nature does not require itself. He remembers the past with pleasure, seeks opportunities in the present, and calmly awaits the future. Fate bothers the wise man very little.
And just as when choosing a meal, he does not decide based on a larger portion, but on the better taste of the food, so he tries to enjoy the time that is the best, not the longest.
For the ancient sages, philosophy was the path to wisdom, and the philosopher was the one who, as the word itself says, loves (philos) wisdom (sophos) because he knows that he does not possess it, but he would like to have it and seeks it like a thirsty person seeks water.
The few scattered sayings of Epikur invite us to the same search. The virtues that we already possess, combined with prudence I will help us reject illusions that our senses offer as a path to happiness…
I invite people to seek lasting pleasures, rather than empty and meaningless qualities that carry very doubtful hopes of gain.
Out of three hundred works, only a few quotes scattered throughout the works of ancient writers have reached us, three letters on physics, celestial phenomena, and ethics (to Herodotus, Pythocles, and Menecaeus), transmitted by Diogenes Laertius, along with about forty maxims and some other fragments; these maxims, known as the Vatican Gnomologium, are kept in the Vatican. The most comprehensive teaching of Epicurus was transmitted by the Epicurean philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus, born 170 years after the philosopher’s death, in his work De Rerum Natura.