THE BATTLE FOR THE GOAL OF LIFE

From the Epicurean Perspective

The Epicurean Position On Pleasure As The Goal of Life 

The goal of life is to live happily through the intelligent pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.  We know this to be the goal because we observe that every animal, as soon as it is born, seeks for pleasure, and delights in pleasure as the Chief Good, while it recoils from pain as the Chief Evil, and so far as possible avoids pain.  This every animal does, as long as it remains uncorrupted, at the prompting of Nature's own unbiased and honest verdict.  Hence there is no necessity for argument or discussion to prove that pleasure is desirable and pain to be avoided. These are facts that are perceived by the senses in the same way that we perceive that fire is hot, snow is white, and honey is sweet.  Further, we observe that if a man is stripped of sensation nothing remains.  From this it follows that Nature herself through sensation is the judge of that which is in accordance with or contrary to Nature.  Nature renders this judgment through the only faculties of sensation given to us for this choice – pleasure and pain – which provides the foundation of guidance for all actions of desire and of avoidance.  And because Nature provides only these two faculties of feeling – pain and pleasure – that it is useful to consider that the quantity or quality of one can be measured as the absence of the other.  Thus we can define the goal of life as pleasure in the greatest quantity and purity possible, which each person must measure individually under his or her own circumstances, comparing the pleasures which are attainable to that person against the cost in pain of attaining them.  The highest goal which we anyone can seek to achieve is to experience pleasurable living undiluted by the presence of any pains.

The term “pleasure” includes both mental and physical pleasures of innumerable kinds.  That which constitutes the experience of pleasure and pain is not open to mistake; where people go wrong is in not knowing what things are productive of pleasure and pain. Examples of physical pleasure include taste, sex, sound, and the pleasures of beautiful form, and about these Epicurus said that he did not know how to conceive the good without them.  An example of mental pleasure is recollection of good things from the past. Fools are tormented by the memory of former evils; wise men have the delight of renewing in grateful remembrance the blessings of the past.  Another example of mental pleasure is philosophy, in which pleasure accompanies growing knowledge; for pleasure does not follow learning; rather, learning and pleasure advance side by side.  Mental pleasures and pains arise out of bodily ones, but this does not mean that bodily feelings are necessarily more intense, since the body can feel only what is present to it at the moment, whereas the mind is also aware of the past and of the future. Thus intense mental pleasure or pain contributes more to our happiness or misery than a bodily pleasure or pain of equal duration.

Pleasure – the divine guide of life – is thus the alpha and omega of a blessed life, our first and kindred good. It is the starting-point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we always return, inasmuch as feeling is the rule by which we judge of every good thing.  And it is because pleasure is our first and native good that we do not choose every pleasure whatsoever, but we often pass over a pleasure when a greater annoyance ensues from choosing it.  For the same reason we consider certain pains superior to pleasures in those situations when submission to those pains brings us greater pleasures in result.  Thus while all pleasure is naturally akin to us and therefore good, not all pleasure should be chosen, just as all pain is an evil and yet not all pain is to be shunned. Because our goal is to maximize pleasure while also minimizing pain, sometimes we treat what we normally view as good as if it were evil, and what we normally view as evil as if it were  good.  It is by measuring one choice against another, and by looking at the conveniences and inconveniences that result, by which all actions in the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain must be judged.  Thus Epicurus advised all men to exercise themselves in these and related precepts day and night, both alone and with those who are like-minded; then never, either in waking or in dream, will they be disturbed, but they will live as gods among men. For men lose all semblance of mortality when they surround themselves with immortal blessings.

Table of Corruptions

(Arguments Against Pleasure as the Goal of Life)