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Lesson 2.7: The Garden
11 Plays28 days ago
In the Garden, Epicurus taught that happiness is simpler than we think—and closer than we imagine.
Topics discussed:
- The Four-Part Cure—Epicurus’ compact prescription for a peaceful life
- Pleasure and the Good Life—Understanding katastematic vs. kinetic pleasures
- Empty Desires and Quiet Joys—How to escape the traps of social ambition and luxury
- Friendship, Death, and the Gods—Replacing fear with clarity and connection
- Living Like Epicurus—Why wine, a warm bath, and a few good friends might be all you need
For more information, visit theluxuryofvirtue.com.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Epicureanism's Four Truths
00:00:03
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Don't fear God. Don't worry about death. What is good is easy to get, and what is terrible is easy to endure.
00:00:15
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This is perhaps the pithiest way to express the four truths of Epicureanism, and that will be the focus of today's lesson.
Epicurus' Life and Establishment of the 'Garden'
00:00:26
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Now be careful.
00:00:28
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This is a much maligned school of thought. Right from its inception, other schools of philosophy critiques it, sometimes very viciously.
00:00:39
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And much like the atomistic philosophy of Democritus, Epicureanism was targeted during the Roman imperial era by Christians.
00:00:52
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But let's try to give this philosophy a fair shake and study it as perhaps a live hypothesis, right? Maybe a viable way of living So if we're going to tell the story of Epicureanism, we do have to start with Epicurus himself.
00:01:07
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Epicurus was born in 341 BCE. in the Greek island of Samos, that would be just east of Athens. If you were to get on a boat on the shore of Athens and just head east before you hit Turkey, you will land in Samos.
00:01:26
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Just so you know the historical context of Epicurus' day, he was a teenager during Alexander the Great's conquests of the known world. And it was during the Hellenistic Age that he migrates to Athens.
00:01:42
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You'll recall that the starting point for the Hellenistic Era is typically said to be Alexander the Great's death. So right around 323 that is when Epicurus moves to Athens.
Epicurean Community and Its Appeal
00:01:58
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And it is in Athens that he eventually opens up a school, more so in the outskirts of Athens. And in this property that he buys, which he calls the garden, he and his followers could live together and follow the precepts of his philosophy.
00:02:19
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In the garden, women and slaves are accepted as a matter of policy. and everyone participated on equal terms. This was, in other words, a very egalitarian community.
00:02:36
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This, by the way, is totally out of line with mainstream social norms at the time. Both in the Hellenistic world as well as in Rome, a few centuries after this time period,
00:02:49
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Society is extremely hierarchical. You don't even have meals with people of a social status that is lower than yours. And of course, the ancient world is very patriarchal.
00:03:02
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So the fact that women and slaves would eat and learn along with men was probably scandalous right from the get go. In fact, the inclusion of women led to all sorts of rumors that the garden was just a venue for, you know, continuous non-stop orgies and that kind of thing.
00:03:25
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As you will learn in this lesson, nothing could be further from the truth. If you wanted to join this community, you are not required to give up your private property, as is the case in Pythagorean communities.
00:03:41
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And you would get to learn a philosophy that has roots in various different thinkers from the past. Epicurus indeed formulated his views based on influences both from Democritus And Pyro.
00:03:58
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Pyro Avelis is someone that we covered in the last lesson. And given these Democritian and Pyronian influences, you will see that Epicurus stands against other philosophical schools of the time.
00:04:14
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in particular, Epicurus stands against the Early on in the history of Epicureanism, the philosophers of Plato's Academy were its bitter rivals.
00:04:25
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Later on in the history of Epicureanism, turns out that Stoicism is its main rival. So we will see these three schools go head to head a few times in the coming lessons.
00:04:41
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A couple of other factoids about the garden. Epicurus was revered by his followers as if he were divine. If that's a little weird to you, remember that in the ancient world, the distinction between human and divine was a little bit less complex.
00:04:58
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clearer than it is today. We've heard philosophers already in this course describe our human capacity for reason as being godly, right? So in many cases, just being ah very great person, very good person with a lot of self-control and able to do great things, that sort of awarded you divine status.
00:05:24
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And of course, in this time period, there's already people who claim to be gods. One person was Alexander the Great, but many kings in the Hellenistic world adopt the status of, you know, like a demigod at least.
00:05:41
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For example, in Egypt, kings were worshipped as deities. So don't be too off-put by this little factoid about Epicurus being revered. Instead, let me tell you about some things that might be appealing about joining the garden.
00:05:59
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Many converts were attracted by the prospect of personal happiness. Epicurus would teach you that you can be happy in this life. And you don't need to study philosophy for 50 years the way that Plato wants you to do.
00:06:15
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So many people wanted to go to the garden and live there to be happy. And in fact, it seemed to have worked for many people.
00:06:26
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We can say this because Epicureans almost never switched their allegiance to other philosophical systems. In other words, other schools sort of regularly lost students to the Epicureans.
00:06:41
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But once an Epicurean, you were likely to stay an Epicurean. There was something good and attractive and effective about this school.
00:06:55
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So let's get into it. Let's just say that you are tempted by the philosophy and you want to learn some more.
Overcoming Anxiety with Epicurean Truths
00:07:01
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Well, the nice thing about Epicureanism is that you can approach it at different levels.
00:07:08
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Let's just say that you don't want to get super deep into a philosophical system and learn how to defend it and all that. Epicurus says, hey, that's okay. My philosophy, says Epicurus, is for everyone.
00:07:24
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So if you want to just approach this school of thought at the most superficial level, you can still be happy. And so here is level one, let's call it. He never called it level one, right? But let's say this is the least theoretically dense take on Epicureanism.
00:07:43
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You want to join? Very simple. You want to be happy. The fundamental obstacle to happiness, says Epicurus, is anxiety.
00:07:58
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And this anxiety we often bring upon ourselves. In particular, it is our false beliefs that bring upon us anxiety.
00:08:10
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So what you do is you get rid of your false beliefs and you live like us here in the garden. This is how you can be happy. And this is how you get rid of your false beliefs.
00:08:23
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There are no divine beings which threaten you. There is no next life. What we actually need is easy to get.
00:08:34
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And what makes us suffer is easy to endure. These are the four basic truths of Epicureanism. if you live like us, you will live according to these truths.
00:08:47
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and you will be happy. Well, there you are. You hear this summary of what Epicureanism is, and you say to yourself, I like this.
00:08:58
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I want to know more. Okay, well then you want to go to level two. So you start moving into the garden and you start going to some of Epicureanism's lessons.
00:09:09
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What do you learn? Well, let's start with this. Let's talk about those things that Epicureanism stands against, right? These would be some of those false beliefs that you have to get rid of.
00:09:22
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And wouldn't you know, they happen to be things that other schools teach. So let's start with this one. It has to do with the power of reason.
00:09:33
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Neither Epicurus nor his many followers, nor I should add the ancient skeptics, both the academics and the Pyronians, right? So neither Epicurus nor the skeptics accepted this conception of human reason as having divine affiliations, right?
00:09:52
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In other words, they didn't accept this idea that reason has some special unique power to grant you access to the fundamental nature of reality.
00:10:04
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So these Epicureans are arguing against none other than Plato. Reason cannot grant us access to the forms. You will not, if you study philosophy for 50 years, suddenly be able to glimpse and and into the fundamental nature of reality.
00:10:25
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That's not something that reason can do. They also argue, the Epicureans, against Anaxagoras. There is no cosmic reason, right? The world isn't organized according to the thoughts of the divine mind, mind with a capital M. According to Epicurus, it's all atoms and void.
00:10:50
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That's it. So the best you can do with your reasoning abilities is to observe the world and try to make some cautious generalizations, right? Sure, try to learn from the world, but you're not going to discover ah sort of a God's eye view of reality. That's not possible. And don't even have that thought in your mind. What a waste of time.
00:11:17
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What a source of stress too. Instead, get that idea out of your head that reason is some kind of superpower and just try to learn enough so that you can keep yourself in a state of happiness because that's all that matters.
00:11:37
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That is one thing that the Epicureans stand against. This inflated notion of what reason is capable of doing They also stand against what we might dub the philosophical life.
00:11:54
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Unlike Plato and Aristotle and later on the Stoics, Epicurus didn't think that you needed full mastery of his philosophy to be happy.
00:12:07
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You also don't need to live the life of the mind to be happy. Really, by programming your life to be tuned to happiness, that's all you need, right? You don't need to sort of have this deep theoretical knowledge. That stuff is irrelevant.
00:12:23
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So you don't need to live this life steeped in philosophical argumentation and contemplation all the time. Maybe you like that too, right? So that's another thing that the Epicureans stand against.
00:12:37
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me give you one more and this one is a little controversial because, well, it's one of the reasons that Epicureanism was seen as suspicious by many people.
00:12:52
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It has to do with virtue. Now, let me just begin by saying this. Epicureans followed the virtues accepted by wider Greek society, right? They definitely wanted to develop a practical wisdom and temperance or moderation, whatever you want to call it, courage, justice, all those things. Those are good.
00:13:12
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But the thing that they disagreed about with other schools of thought is whether they are good for their own sake, right? Their complete goods, right?
Epicurean Views on Virtue and Pleasure
00:13:22
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or they're good only because of their byproducts.
00:13:27
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The Epicureans said that if virtue has any value at all, it's because it leads to pleasure. And pleasure, according to Epicurus, is the only intrinsic good, the only complete good, the only thing that's good for its own sake.
00:13:47
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This view, by the way, is called hedonism. This is in sharp conflict with what many other schools of philosophy teach. For example, Plato and the Stoics taught that virtue is good for its own sake.
00:14:01
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It's good to be good for the sake of goodness. But according to the Epicureans, being virtuous is only good because it allows you to live a stress-free life.
00:14:14
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So we'll get into that a little bit later. These are three things that Epicureans stand against which other schools of thought argue for. They have a very different take on the power of reason, the philosophical life, and why it is that we need to be virtuous.
00:14:32
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And apparently you like what you hear. You are intrigued. You've moved into the garden. You've been going to... the lectures that Epicurus holds, and you want more.
00:14:44
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You want to become a dedicated student. You are ready, in other words, for level three.
00:15:13
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Let's give you a more rigorous introduction to the philosophy of Epicurus. Let's call these the positive tenets of Epicureanism.
00:15:26
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Let's begin with this. We've already mentioned it, but pleasure is the only intrinsic good. Pleasure is the only thing that is good for its own sake. Now this might be intuitively obvious to you, but if we're getting deeper, we need an argument for this.
00:15:43
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And Epicurus provides one. And he believes that our desires are instructive in the discovery of the truth of hedonism. What do I mean by this?
00:15:56
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Well, think about the last time that you satisfied a desire. Maybe you had been craving a cookie and you say to yourself, okay, I deserve it. Let me go get a cookie. So you drive over to crumble cookie, you open the door and you just get hit by this wall of cookie exhaust fumes. And you smell the butter and the sugar and you buy your cookie and you can't even make it home. You get inside your car, you open up the box and you sink your teeth into that sweet buttery goodness.
00:16:30
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How good does that feel? That's pleasure, right? Whenever you satisfy a desire, you feel the delight of pleasure.
00:16:42
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These are naturally arising feelings of pleasure. That tells you something about the kind of organism that you are. You are the sort of compound. Remember, it's just atoms and void for Epicureans, just like the atomists, right? so you are the sort of organism based on a particular configuration of atoms, that when you satisfy your desires, you get some pleasure.
00:17:09
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That means that pleasure is a natural good for the kind of animal that you are. This doesn't mean that pleasure is the good in some, you know, platonic, otherworldly way.
00:17:25
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Pleasure is a good for human animals. And that's what we are. And so that's what matters.
00:17:34
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But it is socialization and philosophy, by the way, that alienates you from this intuitive truth. You get told that knowledge is good and truth is good and virtue is good. And maybe you even hear arguments for those positions.
00:17:53
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But really, those things are only good insofar as they make the human organism feel pleasure. That is ultimately the only real intrinsic good, pleasure.
00:18:08
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So that is the very first tenet of Epicureanism. And it leads us to the next topic of discussion.
Understanding Pleasure: Kinetic vs. Catastematic
00:18:15
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If you're going to base your entire philosophy on pleasure, you're going to have to do a careful analysis of what pleasure really is.
00:18:24
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so we're going to talk about a distinction that Epicurus makes between kinetic pleasure and catastrophic pleasure. Now, there's only one kind of pleasure, according to Epicurus.
00:18:40
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But there's two conditions that can lead to this singular conception of pleasure. In order to make this distinction, let me start with the concept of hedonic tone, or I'll sometimes call it affective tone.
00:18:57
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affective or affect this is a word i think i've mentioned this before but it's a word that scientists use to describe sort of a collection of things having to do with moods and emotions and feelings right so affect that one word captures all of that mood emotion and feeling so let's talk about hedonic tone or affective tone when you are awake there's always some background hedonic tone, this effective coloring to conscious awareness. Maybe the easiest way to see this is when it's negative.
00:19:37
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Think about the last time that you were hangry. I think you know what that means, right? You're very hungry and you're angry. You're hangry. Well, when you're in a condition like this, everything kind of just sucks.
00:19:52
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right Things that you do every day are just even more burdensome. And things that on another day you wouldn't even notice, they just kind of bother you extra, right? And nothing seems to work for some reason and your headphones won't sync to your phone because they suck.
00:20:09
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And you're mean for no reason. You know what I'm talking about, right? That is hedonic tone. That is negative hedonic tone. Your negative affect is kind of...
00:20:22
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Colors how you see reality and it all just isn't good And you better get fed soon. Otherwise, you're going to do something you regret That is hedonic tone. That's negative hedonic tone now that you have that idea in mind try to picture the positive version of that if When you're mad, they say you see red, right? You're looking at life through red glasses Well, then when you're in a positive hedonic state, you see the world through rose tinted glasses, right? Everything's kind of okay. Everything's nice and pleasant.
00:20:59
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And even if someone gives you some extra work to do, you're like, ah, you know, it's okay. They're good people, you know, and everything's just, it's fine. Everything's cool. Everything's gravy.
00:21:11
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That would be positive hedonic tone. And I hope that you're kind of getting that. You can experience both positive and negative hedonic tone, even if you're you know not experiencing any bodily movements, right? You're just sitting there.
00:21:30
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you can you can be angry and just sitting there, or you can be super blissed out and just sitting there, right? So you might not even be having any thoughts or what Epicurious calls mental movements.
00:21:43
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You can just be sitting there stewing in your own anger, but not really being angry at anything in particular. Sometimes it seems like you're angry at something or someone, but really you were already angry. You were already in a negative hedonic state and you kind of just get mad at something or someone because you need something to be mad at.
00:22:09
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But even if you're not moving or having any thoughts, you can already have this hedonic tone. Now, ideally, it's positive, right? You would want to live your whole life with a positive hedonic tone.
00:22:23
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Yes, that is catastrophic pleasure. That would be pleasure in its purest form, just a positive hedonic tone.
00:22:35
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Let me give you an example of this, right? Just imagine that you come home and you just finished a big project at school or at work and you plop down on the couch and you feel that sense of accomplishment and you know, your, don't know, your legacy is secure because that's how big of a deal this was and you have nothing to worry about for the rest of the day.
00:23:02
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and there's no pain in your body, you are relaxed, you are zen. Bask in that moment for a second, That is pure positive hedonic tone.
00:23:16
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Pure catastrophic pleasure, right? No thoughts, nothing to worry about, no pain, no stress, no anxiety.
00:23:27
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Just relaxation. Positive hedonic tone. That my friends is catastrophic pleasure. Now, of course, it is perfectly possible to experience this catastigmatic pleasure, the purest form of pleasure, while engaged in some activities.
00:23:51
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So when an activity leads to that positive hedonic state, we're going to call that kinetic pleasure. And examples of kinetic pleasure are pretty easy to come up with.
00:24:04
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As a matter of fact, it's probably what you typically think of when you think of pleasure. It's the pleasure brought on by bodily or mental movements, right? So let's talk about bodily movements first.
00:24:17
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If you are eating, all of us are happy when we're eating, right? Or you're playing your favorite board game or video game or whatever, or you're having sex. this These are pleasures that are brought on by bodily activities.
00:24:34
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symptoms by the way the pleasure is brought on more so by mental movements right by certain thoughts so maybe you're remembering a nice you know christmas that you had with your family two years ago or something like that you're not moving you're just thinking but you're getting put into that positive heonic state so pleasure brought on by bodily movements and thoughts these are both kinetic pleasure because's some kind of movement going on either it's mental movement
00:25:05
Speaker
or physical movement and they bring you towards a positive heonic state so these are the two conditions that bring you to a positive ponic state it could be just the chillin there by yourself no thoughts just relaxation that's catasigmatic pleasure that's pleasure in its purest form or it could be some kind of <unk> either physical or mental that takes you to a positive heonnic state
00:25:35
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and so that's a distinction that epicurus may well given this distinction epicurious makes the goal of a well-lived life to spend as much time as possible in a catastematic condition so why catastematictic and not kinetic well catasmatic pleasure as i already mentioned is the purist kind of pleasure it's just pure
00:26:06
Speaker
positive effective states right no pain totally free from disturbances no stress no anxiety pure pleasure right so that's why that's what you want to spend most of your time on moreover kinetic pleasure sometimes is mixed in with some negative things me give you an example here so think about something that you really enjoy doing some kinetic pleasure maybe in
00:26:37
Speaker
eating maybe it's playing mario cart maybe it's going for a drive whatever there's always a little bit of stress and maybe dissatisfaction or maybe anxiety built into all of those activities that i just mentioned when you're eating sometimes your food isn't as good as you were hoping it would be you're still happy maybe you you you just want more maybe there's some little bit
00:27:08
Speaker
of dissatisfaction and you're always sad when the meal is over or something like that right so there's a little bit of negative built into and inherently pleasurable activity like eating maybe you eat too much right so there's a little bit of negative negative built into it there's also negative and you know activities like but did i mention video games right mario cart or or board games or that kind of thing if you don't feel anxiety when you're playing mar cart eight
00:27:39
Speaker
i don't know that we've played the same game right there's just a little bit of stress built into it right games and sports all have a little bit of stress in there or let's just say that you like going for a drive on nice open roads well to get to the open road you gotta get out of the city in a place like los angeles that might take a while right so all of these kinetic pleasures have a little bit of negative built into them anxiety over that pleasure being over
00:28:10
Speaker
frustration maybe even the pain of intense desire whatever kinetic pleasures are mixed pleasures but catasmatic pleasure that's pure pleasure
00:28:26
Speaker
and so for that reason catasematic pleasure is the condition ah you should seek to be in the most amount of time in your life the good life just is spending as much time as possible in a state of catasamatic pleasure given this now we can discuss the role of anxiety in ah pecurean philosophy the primary obstacle to experiencing catascimatic pleasure now that you understand what it is
Achieving Happiness by Reducing Stress
00:29:01
Speaker
pure pleasure ah primary obstacle is what we called it earlier anxiety but now we can get more granular it's actually empty desires desires that are based on false beliefs because if you act upon these evil give yourself unnecessary stress and anxiety and some kind of emotional turmoil and thus you will reduce your catascimatic pleasure maybe
00:29:32
Speaker
put yourself into a negative state altogether let me begin with a kind of ridiculous example and then we'll make it a little more realistic but imagine that someone is hungry someone that you know and you know they're really hungry but all they want to eat is lobster they believe that the only thing that will satiate their hunger is this delicacy lobster almost reminds me of my nephew who for a certain period in his life
00:30:03
Speaker
when he was a kid obviously he would only eat chicken nuggets for some reason and so his mom would have to go find somewhere with chicken nuggets wherever they went that is that's a crazy false le right like there's plenty of food back can quite easily satiate your hunger it doesn't need to be chicken nuggets or lobster right and so this person with this false belief is creating unnecessary stress and anxiety in themselves
00:30:35
Speaker
by insisting that they only will eat lobster that gets expensive real quick right so how are you goingnna really pull that off and what if you're hungry and there's no lobster anywhere we're gonna just starve so this person is living based on a false belief and you can see that it's negatively affecting their capacity for enjoying catasmatic pleasure okay well let's move on now to a more realistic example think of someone who is just like super infatuated with their
00:31:09
Speaker
significant to so much so that they actually believe but they would die but at the company of the person they're infatuated with i think that you can easily tell that this kind of intensity of desire can only lead to you know longing and dissatisfaction and frustration and ahccustoming yourself to to you know
00:31:40
Speaker
needing more and more of this person it's actually bad for them they are stressing themselves out for no reason they're not going to really die if they go to work and leave their significant other alone at home for a little bit right so this is another example of a false belief that is negatively impacting our capacity to enjoy catismatic pleasure now think of all the false beliefs that you might have
00:32:11
Speaker
beliefs that aren't really true and all they're really doing is raising the bar for you enjoying a state of inner peace
00:32:24
Speaker
that's what you need to get rid of to be happy believes that unnecessarily rile you up and make it harder to live a happy life and let me do a sidebar here sometimes people ask me does this mean we can't enjoy lobster or some other decadent dessert whenever we want not at all not at all ah good epicurean will of course enjoy occasional treats
00:32:56
Speaker
but the key is to always keep it in perspective the highest good his catasmatic pleasure and so having chocolate souffle or lobster or whatever right sex with the person you're infatuated with those are just nice little variations of ways to get to catasmatic pleasure in other words your real focus should always be on catismatic pleasure and of course you can sprinkle in occasional treats
00:33:32
Speaker
but don't make your happiness contingent upon getting these decadent treats you have to be realistic and more often than not you have to be satisfied with things that are readily acquireable right a bowl of rice we meet your nutritional needs as much as lobster or perhaps i can put it more precisely by saying that what really negatively affect
00:34:04
Speaker
your um hedonic tone is hunger and you can just eat plain oatmeal to stave away hunger but it doesn't have to be lobster or beef wellington or whatever but if you can get one of these treats once in a while you should absolutely sneak it in there right if it's easy to get and it's not too costly and you're not going to get used to it go ahead and enjoy it
00:34:32
Speaker
okay let's move on here to another important aspect of being a good epicurean and i'm going to just label this affect management so obviously nowhere in andcurean philosophy where you find those particular words even translated into greek but this is basically what epicurreus was teaching ah you need a well-p plannedned routine for maintaining positive affect throughout your day mean that's basically why the garden was made
Daily Life in Epicurean Philosophy
00:35:05
Speaker
so they can build a society where everyone has this affect management routine right to keep themselves in a positive heonic state just think about how you plan your daily life most of us probably do it but to be honest in american society most people plan their day around how to make the most amount of money or how to be the most productive or how to get more followers on social media or what have you right
00:35:40
Speaker
but epicuus says what you should really do is plan your day so that you are and catasmatic pleasure as long as possible i kind of like this idea more and more as i'm getting older because ah least for me as i'm getting older i spend a lot more time planning my day so that i just avoid bad moods and negative feelings for example i put way more attention into making sure
00:36:13
Speaker
but i get the right amount of sleep when i was younger if i didn't sleep that's okay not anymore now i make sure i get the right amount of sleep i eat at appropriate times so that i never get angry i also kind of make more of an effort to stay away from people that suck so without really knowing it i've been working on affect management for the last couple of years and any case the point here is that you have to plan your day to fend off anxiety and stress
00:36:45
Speaker
as much as possible by the way this is kind of important some of the items that you include in your daily positive affect management program might be what i called earlier and mix pleasures right so mixed pleasures include a certain degree of pain and maybe even distress but the pain or distress will ultimately lead to more time in catascimatic pleasure later on
00:37:17
Speaker
so i'll give you an an easy example you have to go to the dentist and probably experience some pain and discomfort to keep your teeth and gums healthy and this is because if you don't do this you will probably be in a worse condition later on and be less able to enjoy catismatic pleasure if you don't know about you know gum disease and that kind of stuff it is extremely painful so there is no way you can be in catasmatic pleasure
00:37:50
Speaker
and have some of these really bad dental conditions later on so that's an easy example maybe here are two less obvious examples moderate exercise might be a good thing to do because we know that exercise boosts your mood a little bit right after you work out you feel a little bit better and you need to be healthy and fit as you move into old age because the healthier and fitter that you are
00:38:24
Speaker
the less pain you'll be in and the more mobile you will be and of course being mobile is important when you get older because social isolation is a real you know honestly it's a killer and so you have to stay pretty healthy and to this end moderate exercise is probably a good idea right and exercise is a mixed pleasure it's really not that nice um times right it's unpleasant if you are i don't know doing cardio for an hour
00:38:58
Speaker
and least i don't find a lot of fun in it but it's something that you do and endure a certain degree of pain to stay healthy let me give you one more example here of a mixed pleasure but maybe it's not so much a mixed pleasure but something that you have to program into your day to stay in catismatic pleasure longer so sometimes you get angry right and the easy thing to do is to just snap at whoever made you angry maybe it's your siblings right
00:39:30
Speaker
and they're just so annoying but you really shouldn't snap at people because that typically only leads to more conflict and more conflict would just further detract from the amount of time ah you can spend in catastematic pleasure but sometimes you have to bite your tongue and just not yell at people or not call them names or not whatever right and so it is important to program this into your day as well to
00:40:03
Speaker
you know if you know you're goingnna meet with someone that's gonna kind of irk you a little bit plan ahead for that and make sure that you you know do the thing whatever the thing is that will allow you to later on spend more time in a state of catasmatic pleasure the a are
00:40:31
Speaker
are are are so now that we are here in level three of epicurean philosophy i know that it gets a little more complicated right and so wass trying to think of a way that make it easier for you to think about it
00:41:03
Speaker
and here's what i came up with again obviously none of this can be found in any of the epicurean literature but hey man you're getting the rcm garcia version of things so how about this how about we make what we've learned about epicureanism fit into an app for your phone for your smartphone in other words let's build an app for building a positive affect program right for
00:41:36
Speaker
for building a routine that will keep you in a catasmatictic condition as long as possible each day so this app is kind of based on some diet apps that i've seen so of these dieting apps what they do is they have you you know fill in all your details right and then whatever your goal is they'll give you your macronurients that you can have for every day that week and depending on whether or not you lose or gain weight
00:42:09
Speaker
they'll sort of take away more macros or increase the macros or whatever right so more carbs more protein more fat less carbs less protein less fat whatever this is like kind of app that we're going to build for maintaining catastomatictic state throughout our day so what do we need to program into the app first of all every day there is certain need to haves right there are some
Imaginary App for a Balanced Life
00:42:40
Speaker
desires that arise naturally and basically it is necessary to meet them in order to avoid pain or discomfort so these are called by the way by epicureans natural and necessary desires and they include things like you know the need for food water sleep maybe the need for community maybe even sex might be in there these should be regularly programmed into your routine so as you're planning your day
00:43:11
Speaker
the first thing the app is going to do is hey you need to eat x amount of times you need a sleep x amount of hours you need this amount of water you need this amount of socializing let's program them in right now so we're gonna put those in right now and boom there they are those are your need to haveves okay that's about fifty percent of your day apparently cool we still need fillin activities for the rest of the day so what the app will have you do now
00:43:42
Speaker
is plug in all the things that you want to do and you can plug in whatever you want right plugin as much as you want and what the app will do is if anything that you plug in is based on a false belief in other words if europe trying to put in there some unprofitable activities from an epicurean point of view and the app will take them out so say no you can't do this you can't ah you can't drink two gallons of wine for lunch sorry that won't that won't cut it right so
00:44:15
Speaker
you plug in whatever you want and the app will take out whatever isn't good and so you go ahead and plug away here are the rules that the app will use to you know delete some of the activities that you wanted to do and these are rules that should be followed basically because they repel pain and discomfort and distress and the like right any kind of emotional turmoil they fend it off they tried to at least so these these are the rules okay do not overeat right so if you try to program in there
00:44:49
Speaker
i wanted to eat two whole pizzas by myself it'll say no and that's kind of an obvious one overreing doesn't feel good afterwards that' pretty much by definition not pleasurable let's move on to rule number two try to be healthy right exercise maintain proper hygiene that kind of stuff so if nowhere in your day do you have you know exercise or take a shower then maybe the app will say hey you should probably program those in there you know
00:45:21
Speaker
by the way you shouldn't let exercise become an unnatural desire i know some people personally who are sort of obsessed with working out maybe i was like this when i was younger i don't know but if they don't work out they're crabbing and they say that working out is your therapy ah don't do that that that's an empty desire for sure right i mean you you if you think that working out a therapy then you need actual therapy and maybe the app will tell you to do that right so don't treat working out
00:45:54
Speaker
as a source for releasing your aggression that aggression is probably rooted in some false belief what you should really do is get rid of the false beliefs
00:46:09
Speaker
some other rules that will help you sort out which activities you can fill in your day with ah be polite to people number three as i mentioned earlier when you are impolite to people when you're rude you actually just make things worse for yourself so if you were trying to program into your day ah be mean to my parents the app will probably tell you that you can't do that rule number four don't commit crimes committing crimes
00:46:41
Speaker
just causes anxiety about getting caught by the way if you are caught it's not goingnna be good for your catasmatic condition right you will probably be in a greater condition of distress and discomfort and so we can just say in general just be a good person because being bad leads to negative outcomes and of course these will undermine catasmatic p pleasure and so that's what this next part of the app does right you fill in your activities and the algorithm will block
00:47:16
Speaker
certain unprofitable activities and then by the end you have your day planned out so that most of it or as much of it as possible ah spent in a condition of catasmatic pleasure
00:47:31
Speaker
now you're well on your way to being a good epicurean but wait there's more in the app we will also program occasional treats these are not daily things but you can you know sprinkle them and throughout the month ah just say that you plan your whole month in the app what are some of these occasional treats well these are the objects of natural but nonary desires and i want to tell you about them because they really show you that
00:48:02
Speaker
and pecurreanism is not about nonstop pleasure really is more than you think ah quiet life right so what are some of these occasional treats that epicurus might recommend well maybe you can listen to music listen to music as an occasional treat this is so unlike the way most of us live our lives i know some people who need to be stimulated by music or a podcast and every waking moment of the day
00:48:33
Speaker
it seems like epicurious would say that's probably not a good idea to get yourself accustomed to non-stop stimulation in fact he would say it's a false belief to think that you need music constantly to be happy what about when you're phone dice then you will be stressed out for no good reason you don't really need a phone to be happy right so listening to music is an occasional treat
00:49:06
Speaker
according to epicurus kind of interesting right hanging out with friends i'm sure he means something like ah large social events not quite a party i don't think there's a lot of partying at the garden but hanging out with friends is something that you should sprinkle into your month for sure maybe once a week it can't be something that you do every day it can't be that your happiness your catasmatic condition is contingent upon you hanging out with all your friends
00:49:36
Speaker
every day that's too much of a burden really for everyone involved right here's another one you can program into your affect management routine enjoying a movie or a tv show this is another one of those things where it looks like you know it conflicts with the way that most people live their life now most people i know watch tv or some kind of program on ah streaming platform
00:50:08
Speaker
every day i don't think that epicurus would approve of this these are more so occasional treats right so you ought to be happier with a simpler life
00:50:23
Speaker
and most of us don't live simple lives anymore here's the last feature of the app that i want to talk about i would call this portion of the app in case of emergency right so if you are and severe pain or distress well epicurus has some techniques for you to take yourself out of that negative heonic state and move so into a positive heonic tone so here's one thing you can do if you are in a state of distress
Techniques for Maintaining a Positive State
00:50:55
Speaker
remember past pleasurable experiences apparently epicurious himself did this on his deathbed he recalled past conversations he had with good friends and you can do the same maybe you can recall that particularly pleasant christmas morning couple of years back or in my case i have a really nice memory with a good friend of mine but we climbed up a mountain in the middle of the afternoon and we took a guitar and a bottle of tequila
00:51:27
Speaker
and while i was playing a song he would be sipping on his tequila and while he was playing a song i would be sipping on my tequila and it was just you know a nice way to spend the afternoon and whenever i think about that i get nice you know feelings right so if i'm in a distressing situation i should invoke that memory and you know try to get back in this a little bit of ah catismatictic condition of course if you can you should engage in whatever enjoyable activities you can engage in that will put you in a good mood
00:52:03
Speaker
right the goal is of course to always if you slip into a negative eonic state to get out of it and get back into a catasmatictic condition and if all us fail you got nothing else that you can do epicurus has some phrases that you can sort of repeat to yourself as a kind of a mantra for example short if it's severe light if it's long this has to do with pain and basically it's saying that if it's very severe pain
00:52:36
Speaker
don't worry it's probably only goingnna be for a short amount of time that's sort of the nature of severe pain if it's really that serious and doesn't usually last too long or if it's like a light chronic pain well then sure that's goingnna be long that's what the definition of chronic pain is but it is light right it isn't as severe as you know ah sharp but pinching pain for example and so just kind of put it into context and say well at least it's light
00:53:09
Speaker
i know it's going to be a long pain but it's a light pan and and that makes it better so maybe repeating some mantras to yourself might be a good idea here so now that you have a general idea of what the app for being a good epicurean would look like want to make some general comment about epicureanism and i think are easier to see at this point first of all you can see that the epicurean life is not ah life of debauchery and sexual indulgence
00:53:43
Speaker
people would say these things about epicureans but these are distortions of the philosophy as already mentioned other schools of philosophy would bad mouth epicureanism and later on the christians specifically targeted it but you know this is not true in reality epicurean life is actually quite quiet it's a quiet life and here's a second comment that i want to make epicureanism is a great example of a spiritual practice that i mentioned on the lesson on plato
00:54:20
Speaker
called memorization and meditation epicurus had all these different sayings that would help you live according to the epicurean philosophy that he taught and so you as a new member of the garden had to memorize these and and sort of meditate on how you should live your life according to these and so that's why i brought in the app in today's day and age you don't have to memorize these you can just have an app that will help you plan your day according to epicurean philosophy
00:54:55
Speaker
but in the ancient world they had to memorize these things and think about how it is they should live their lives day in and day out in such a way that will ensure they have the most amount of time and a catasmatic condition right so you can see that memorization and meditation played a huge role and being a good epicurean and of course the app that i disgust doesn't actually exist
00:55:27
Speaker
so in a way if you want to be an epicurean you still will have to engage in the practice of memorization and meditation think about the things that epicure is taught and think about how you can apply them to your life
00:55:54
Speaker
a
00:56:02
Speaker
oh
00:56:06
Speaker
oh
00:56:18
Speaker
um
00:56:24
Speaker
i have one more level of epicureanism that i want to discuss and just say that you've been in the garden now for some time and you're pretty good a living according to the epicurean philosophy but you want to be a great epicurean what takes you to the next level what would take you to the place where you can actually even teach this to other people
Epicurean Theology and Its Evolution
00:56:54
Speaker
well
00:56:54
Speaker
let me give you four basic ideas here and that you'll have to teach to others if you want to let just say hold lectures of your own on epicurean philosophy and these will show you really highlight why it is that other schools of thought and even other non-philoropies just regular people were really suspicious of the epicureans right because the first one the first
00:57:26
Speaker
think ah you have to do to be a great epicurean is to reject the gods irreligion in other words is a key aspect of a great epi epicurean now what this meant changed over time when epicurus is around he seems to have believed or acknowledged the existence of the gods but just thought that you know they're perfect by definition
00:57:57
Speaker
and so if they are perfect that means that they're always in a state of catasmatic pleasure and that means they don't care about you they're not concerned with what you're doing they don't care whether or not you worship them you don't care about your bad deed they don't send thunder down on you when they're angry with you all of that according to epicurreus was just pure superstition over time though the epicurean after the days of epicurus
00:58:30
Speaker
seem to be a little bit more anti-theistic in other words they were a little more proactive in arguing against the gods themselves right so not quite atheism maybe not least i have not what i've covered but they were definitely a little more antagonistic than epicurus was for example by that time that we get to someone like lucretius he's a little more aggressive than epicurus either way from the very beginning epicurus believe that
00:59:02
Speaker
believe and the gods was a source of dress if you believed for example like countless people have throughout the millennia that god gets mad at you for things that you do and he sends storms on you you are causing stress upon yourself that is unnecessary because storms the epicurean taunt are not god's wrath it's just you know physical stuff doing its thing it's just atoms in the void
00:59:36
Speaker
colliding with each other randomly and it creates storms sometimes right has nothing to do with what god thinks about you and to believe that it does is a source of unnecessary stress so forget about the gods they're happy they're awesome they're over there maybe they don't even exist right if you are later epicurean so don't worry about them does it matter you just focus on stay in a catasmatic condition
01:00:09
Speaker
the next trait to a great epicurean is a fearlessness of death as i already mentioned epicureans were materialists in other words they believed that it was all atoms and void there are no non-physical souls like plato believed there is no reincarnation there is none of that the mind or the soul if you want to call it that is a temporary compound of atoms
01:00:42
Speaker
and they will not survive your death when you die you die that's it the phrase that epicurus taught goes something like this whenever we exist death is not present but when death is present we do not exist now some people feel a little nervous when they think about their nonexistence after they die but epicurus said hey you know you didn't worry about not existing before you were born
01:01:14
Speaker
it's the same thing after you die and don't worry you won't feel sorry for yourself you wantt people to say oh man i'm dead you're dead you're not having any thoughts whatsoever which is in a sense kind of nice no distress no anxiety so according to epicurus the realization that we are temporary compounds of atoms what that should really let you do is to live life to the fullest live your life with a full devotion to its pleasures
Values of Privacy and Friendship in Epicurean Life
01:01:46
Speaker
and don't let yourself be distracted by the thought that there's a limit to the enjoyment just enjoy it why you can another key aspect of a great epicurean is what i'm going to call quietism so the goal is to live unnoticed just you know live a completely private life there is no need for involvement in you know the public life in the public sphere there is no need for ambitions for
01:02:18
Speaker
making a mark and society what he's basically saying is you don't need to get into this rat race that everyone is in status wealth power all of that is noise you don't need that to be happy moreover if you were to try to acquire those things you will just expose yourself to the whims of the public and you will run more risks of harm
01:02:49
Speaker
and along the way you might pick up some false beliefs right some empty desires and all of that is bad for your catismatic condition think about it this way people that set out to distinguish themselves in the very least are bound to acquire enemies moreover they're likely to do a lot of things that involve struggle and stress and anxiety and you don't need any of that
01:03:22
Speaker
and pecurus has a line where he says there is no need for things that involve struggle and conflict there's two ways to think about this obviously some contemporary person listening to this an american listening to this might say but that's to just give up and it's not even to try right yeah i guess you can think about it that way um but at that point you'd have to defend that there is something more important than pleasure right and so you'd have to get into that argument with the epicureans
01:03:54
Speaker
but let me give you a different way of looking at it and maybe you'll see where epicurreus is coming from but think about how liberating this is right so you don't need to become an olympic athlete to be happy you don't need to be a billionaire you don't need to have a million followers on social media you don't need to marry a movie star you don't need a diet and work out until you have a six packck
01:04:26
Speaker
you don't need to start your own clothing brand you don't need to win the nobel prize you can be happy right now
01:04:36
Speaker
so you can spend your time going after wealth and status things that psychologists have showed won't actually make you any happier
01:04:49
Speaker
or you can start planning your life to spend as much time as possible in an actual state of pleasure so epicures would say the choice is yours one more trait of a great epicurean is a focus on friendship epicurus taught that friendship is the greatest resource one can have for obtaining and preserving continuous catasmatic pleasure so in your daily life there will be some degree of socialization
01:05:23
Speaker
what there won't be is daily parties but you need friends friends are good right friends are apparently the greatest source of catismatic pleasure and that's because with your friends you can share your interest you can engage in joint activities you can have lively conversations there' are also andassurance right you give each other an assurance of mutual assistance if you're sick your friend will drop off a care package
01:05:55
Speaker
if they had a really rough day you can go over there and be a shoulder for them to cry on right so you can help each other in this way and restore each other back to a catasmatic condition
01:06:10
Speaker
so i hope that you can see that there is something appealing about epi pecurean philosophy and many people have found it appealing since the movement began let me close off by saying a couple of things about epicurus death and his legacy he died in two seventy bce e we have here a quote from diogenes laertius he died of kidney stones after an illness of fourteen days
Epicurus' Influence on Free Will and Theology
01:06:42
Speaker
and that point he got into a bronze bath tub filled with warm water ask for unmixed wine and tossed it back he then bade his friends to remember his teachings and died the apparently a nice peaceful death and that's kind of what you want from epicurus right and it looks like he got his wish his movement that he began continued into the late two hundreds ce
01:07:14
Speaker
that's some five hundred years i would call that ah successful movement and his legacy lives on in the history of philosophy there's at least two important philosophical notions that can be attributed to pecureanism but first one has to do with what we might call the problem of free will it is an epicurean philosophy
01:07:46
Speaker
that we see the first expression of the problem of free will this idea that if everything that happens had to happen and this team incompatible with human free will ah be curious seems to have noticed this and this is why he actually added one little thing to the atomistic philosophy of democritus according to democritus it's all just
01:08:18
Speaker
atoms and void well epicurus added the notion of the swerve ah swerve is a random movement that kind of mixes things up a little bit and it is a swerve that allows us to have free will right this little bit of randomness makes it so that not everything that we do had to happen not everything that we do in other words is determined i have here a quote by a later epicurean
01:08:52
Speaker
lucretius and it shows how ahcurus inserted the notion of the swerve to make room for free will quote that the mind itself does not have an internal necessity in all its actions and that it is not forced as though in chains to suffer and endure that is what this tiny swerve of atoms occurring at no field timer place accomplishes
01:09:24
Speaker
so there it is ah pecurius the first person who recognized the problem of free will and offered a solution randomness now and never mind that it's not clear that randomness actually amounts to free will but it is an important stepping stone in understanding this issue and the history of philosophy and here is the other thing then is a legacy of epicureanism apparently in the writings of epicurus we can see an early account
01:09:57
Speaker
of the problem of evil what is the problem of evil well let me give you the quote first and then i'll tell you what the modern conception of the problem of evil is here is a quote god either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot or can but does not want to or neither wishes to nor can for both wants to and can
01:10:29
Speaker
and other words god could feel a couple of different ways about evil and epicurus is gonna describe the many ways that god might feel about able and what he might do about it so and me continue here with a quote if he wants to and cannot get rid of evil and he is weak and this is not applied to god if he can but does not want to get rid of evil
01:11:00
Speaker
then he is spiteful which is equally foreign to god's nature if he neither wants to nor kin he is both weak and spiteful and so not a god if he wants to unkin which is the only thing fitting for a god where then do bad things come from or why does he not eliminate them
01:11:29
Speaker
this line of reasoning would eventually in the hands of atheists generate an argument ah against god's existence if god really existed if this allpowerful allnowing all lovinging being really was there and there wouldn't be any evil in the world any unnecessary suffering but there obviously is unnecessary suffering
01:12:01
Speaker
and that must mean there is no god as you can see is quite a pickle right it's quite a forceful argument against god's existence
01:12:15
Speaker
and it has its roots and epicurean philosophy
01:12:21
Speaker
you can see then why when the philosophy of epicureanism comes into contact with christianity ah few centuries after epicures' death there was a bit of tension between the two systems of belief
01:12:42
Speaker
but that's a long way in the future right and pecurious dyes in two seventy bce e and at a time there were no christians yet
01:12:55
Speaker
the philosophers that the and pecureans we're doing intellectual battle with we're not the christian theologians it was the stoics
01:13:10
Speaker
and we turn to their philosophy next