The idea that most people have of the Epicurean teaching is, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” The idea most people have of what an Epicurean is like, is the Petronius character in Quo Vadis.
Petronius lives for pleasure. He eats the finest delicacies, sips the finest wines, sniffs the most fragrant perfumes, surrounds himself with beautiful flowers and works of art, listens to beautiful music and has sex with beautiful slave women.
For fun, Petronius pretends to flatter the Emperor Nero while really ridiculing him. When Nero catches on, he calmly commits suicide, with style.
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It’s true that the philosopher Epicurus taught that pleasure is the highest good. But he said real pleasure comes from appreciating whatever it is you have. His idea was, “Eat plain bread and vegetables, drink plain water and be merry, for tomorrow you die.”
His idea was to make yourself bulletproof against unhappiness by not wanting things you can’t have and by not wanting things that really wouldn’t make you happy anyway.
There are three kinds of desires, he taught: (1) natural and necessary desires, such as food, shelter, etc.; (2) natural but unnecessary desires, such as for rich food, and (3) vain desires, such as for power, wealth or fame.
Courage, justice and moderation, the basic Greek virtues, are not valuable in themselves, according to Epicurus, but because they are necessary to happiness. Justice consists of neither harming other people nor allowing them to harm you. The best life is quiet and obscure.
Our present-day economy is based on precisely the kind of thinking that Epicurus wants to rescue us from. American consumers’ desire for possessions, pleasure and status keeps the economy going, but doesn’t make us happy. We can learn from Epicurus.
