/lit/ - Literature

“The greatest gift of righteousness is peace of mind”- Epicurus

The distinction Epicurus makes between kinetic vs static pleasures is the crown jewel of his brilliant analysis of pleasure, and no one should call themselves an Epicurean if they fail to understand this. Ataraxia, literally "unperturbedness", generally translated as "imperturbability", "equanimity", or "tranquillity", was for Epicurus the highest form of pleasure and life, and it was impossible for the person who lived solely for the sake of pleasure because they are never truly at peace. Prudence and chastity are built into Epicurus’s idea of the good life. That’s one thing I found wrong in this thread. Just like people who eat themselves into obesity, people are fucking themselves into misery. Acknowledge the tone of this anons post >>13299633
Despite how much “pleasure” they claim to be receiving in their life, does this individual seem like a genuinely happy person?
Look at their reasoning capability here >>13302940
>he can only know you fucked 50+ guys if you tell him
Does this sound like a person who can secure a happy life for themselves? Can you imagine this person ever reaching a state of equanimity, having to constantly put on a facade, hiding who they really are and what they really think from the person who they’ve chose to spend their life with? This person will never find real peace, and therefore pleasure, and therefore freedom. I find it unfortunate people read De Sade without understanding that he was in prison when he wrote those works that speak to your unrelenting life of passion. You are reading the Bastille speak, those are the thoughts and feelings of a prison cell. Epicurus invited women, slaves , and free men alike into his school because he believed, down to his metaphysics, that we were born to be free. Free from unjust requirements from without but also caprice from within. His school’s flourished from coast to coast for centuries. And when the Roman Empire crumbled and Christianity came those communes naturally turned into churches, thy remain so today, because the lives they lived then was essentially the same as that of the early christians. Peaceful living, simple pleasures, a life of knowledge towards the greater good of the community being the freedom of all people’s from all evils. Epicurus wasn’t an idiot.