/lit/ - Literature

>>5457834
Is spending your time on an anonymous imageboard everyday Epicurean?

>>5457883
>>5457834
was Epicurus Epicurean?

>>5457883
Are you kidding? The amount of pain this site gives me sometimes is absurd.

I think Tupac is Epicurean
>tfw picturing tupac rolling

What's the difference between hedonism and 'epicureanism'?

>mistaking greek philosophy school names for their modern common everyday meanings

>>5457962
Hedonism sounds dirty.

>>5457962
Hedonism is pure decadence and depravity while Epicureanism is all about them higher pleasures.

>>5457962

Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure / indulgence; in Epicureanism, the "pleasure" aimed at is primarily the freedom of both body and spirit from pain or disturbance.

Put crudely, a good hedonist might spend the night eating and drinking to excess, even if they know they may feel rotten in the morning; the good Epicurean will recognize that the physical pleasures so enjoyed come with a cost and will see that the ultimate good is better served by moderation.

>>5458023
But the smart hedonist will know how whether the pain of indulging in excessive eating and drinking will be worth the pain of the next day, and depending on his judgment won't do it.

>>5458041
pleasure*

>>5458041
Reasonable Hedonism is Epicureanism.

>>5458023
>>5458041
Right, which should leave the OP with his answer. That smoking is a pleasure that isn't worth the risks

>>5458069
>smoking is a pleasure that isn't worth the risks
Arbitrary nonsense

>>5458060
Where does it say that hedonism is short-sighted epicureanism?
Every definition of hedonism makes it sound like epicureanism as defined here.

>>5457834

no definitely not, it's like the opposite of epicurean, anything addictive is a big no, causes you more suffering than pleasure, but more than that, the amount of pleasure you get is counteracted even in the present by your nasty breath, waste of money, coughing, etc

>>5458041

Whereas the true Epicurean almost certainly wouldn't do it in either case, because even if one extreme (pain or illness from overindulgence) is balanced by another (pleasure of indulgence), the body and spirit / soul are still disturbed. The Epicurean aims at "ataraxia" (calmness, tranquility), to which extremes of pleasure are as inimical as those of pain.

>>5458113

Epicureanism is a subset of hedonism, with "pleasure" defined in a very specific way.

I don't get it, isn't death eudomania?
epicurianists should just kill themsevles BOOM you avoid all pain

fuckin busta ass philosophy smh

>>5458180
Why would we give up all the pleasures of this one life we have to live?

>>5458105
Cancer and emphysema? Glib objection.

>>5458240
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nilofer-merchant/sitting-is-the-smoking-of-our-generation_b_2506748.html

It is totally arbitrary to assign lesser importance to certain pleasures and comforts and greater importance to certain detrimental effects.

>>5458261
not particularly attached to that article by the way just picked one on the topic to illustrate the example

>>5458240
>Why would we give up all the pleasures of this one life we have to live?

Because a dead person can't feel pain - and that includes 'missing out' (i.e. being deprived) of all the good in life.

IMagine a epicurist just shoot the cunt in the back of his thought dome can't be bad for the motherfucker he gone

>>5458261
The addictive highs of smoking are not worth the risks of slow agonizing death by cancer and emphysema.
>sitting-is-the-smoking-of-our-generation
What? Is this about getting fat?

>>5458265
Ludicrous.

>>5457834
I personally don't like his views. He seems to tell you what to do instead of just writing it and making it convincing.

>>5458320
He show you a great way to live in harmony with the world around you.

Try Lucretius. He makes the case more poetically. I'm not sure what the better translation is.

>>5457962
Hedonism
>I'm going to talk to that girl and then ask her out for coffee because damn she fine
Epicureanism
>I won't talk to that woman because she might not like me or it might be painful or uncomfortable, I think I'll go back home and browse da chans, no pain there no matter how mean people are. Pleasuse4life

>>5458317
>What? Is this about getting fat?
No. Sitting down is the worst possible position for your body to spend prolonged periods of time in. It fucks with your posture obviously, but also internal organs. All in all it takes years off your life.
The comfort of sitting on your ass is not worth the the guarantee of a substantially shorter lifespan.

Arbitrary.

>Ludicrous
you're a faggot
Who is harmed by their own death? Who exists to contemplate and lament the pleasures they have given up? Who gets to regret killing themselves?

>>5457834

Smoking cigarettes is the least Epicurean thing I can think of. Epicurianism is all about achieving a state of tranquility in which you can cultivate yourself in order to experience of the simple pleasures finely, and cultivate some of the finer ones. The result is you live a life completely free of pain, full of ease and enjoyment. Smoking is addictive, disease-inducing, and sense-deadening.

>>5458265
A person who is in the state Epicurean seek to achieve isn't feeling pain either, but they are feeling pleasure. This state is more desirable, provided you grand the Epicurean premise that pain is an intrinsic bad and pleasure is an intrinsic good. Epicureans don't have a problem with death, though. They would probably tell you to kill yourself if you couldn't achieve the peace you needed.

>>5458373
How do I stop? ;_;

>>5459007
Maintain your appearance and hygiene
Carry a flask to drink before hand

I more or less see it as a form of generated waste or excess typical of Bataille's general economy. it's sensuosly pleasurable insofar as the taste of the smoke, the actual somatic practices involved of putting the cigarette to the mouth etc, but it's also aesthetic in its connotations. Of course by all rights there is no particularly good reason to smoke any more than there is to drink etc, there are god knows how many viable equivalents that don't harm the body.

really the only problem with smoking or drinking is when one gets thoroughly addicted to them, such that one is not deriving any heightened pleasure from them (instead you're just experiencing them as mundane consumption), and such that one is partaking of these substances in situations or times that are not formative in an aesthetic experience of any kind (i.e. banal everyday smoking and drinking).

>>5457922
no