Single Idea 1835

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / a. Nature of pleasure]

Full Idea

When we say that pleasure is the chief good, we do not mean debauchery, but freedom of the body from pain, and of the soul from confusion…. which requires sober contemplation.

Gist of Idea

True pleasure is not debauchery, but freedom from physical and mental pain

Source

Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus [c.291 BCE], 131), quoted by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 10.27

Book Reference

Diogenes Laertius: 'Diogenes Laertius', ed/tr. Yonge,C.D. [Henry G. Bohn 1853], p.471


A Reaction

I'm not clear how lack of pain and confusion counts as pleasure. Also the concepts of debauchery held by the puritan and the sybarite are wildly different.