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Single Idea 14059

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness ]

Full Idea

It is not drinking bouts or enjoying boys and women or consuming fish which produces the pleasant life, but sober calculation which searches out reasons for every choice, and drives out opinions which produce turmoil of the soul.

Gist of Idea

The best life is not sensuality, but rational choice and healthy opinion

Source

Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus [c.291 BCE], 132)

Book Ref

Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.31

A Reaction

This more or less sums up what I would call the philosophical life. Spontaneity is good, and some pleasures are killed by excessive thought, but on the whole actions are always better if good reasons are found, and error brings chaos.

The 16 ideas from 'Letter to Menoeceus'

14052 Begin philosophy when you are young, and keep going when you are old [Epicurus]
14053 It is absurd to fear the pain of death when you are not even facing it [Epicurus]
14054 Fearing death is absurd, because we are not present when it occurs [Epicurus]
14055 The wisdom that produces a good life also produces a good death [Epicurus]
1833 Pleasure is the first good in life [Epicurus]
14056 We only need pleasure when we have the pain of desire [Epicurus]
14057 All pleasures are good, but it is not always right to choose them [Epicurus]
1835 True pleasure is not debauchery, but freedom from physical and mental pain [Epicurus]
14058 Pleasure is the goal, but as lack of pain and calm mind, not as depraved or greedy pleasure [Epicurus]
14059 The best life is not sensuality, but rational choice and healthy opinion [Epicurus]
14060 Prudence is the greatest good, and more valuable than philosophy, because it produces virtue [Epicurus]
1836 Prudence is more valuable than philosophy, because it avoids confusions of the soul [Epicurus]
14061 Our own choices are autonomous, and the basis for praise and blame [Epicurus]
1837 We should not refer things to irresponsible necessity, but either to fortune or to our own will [Epicurus]
14062 Sooner follow mythology, than accept the 'fate' of natural philosophers [Epicurus]
14063 Sooner a good decision going wrong, than a bad one turning out for the good [Epicurus]