PHILOSOPHY - Epicurus
Summary
TLDRAncient Greek philosopher Epicurus, born in 341 BC, focused on understanding happiness rather than goodness. Dispelling myths of his hedonistic lifestyle, he lived modestly, advocating for friendships over romantic relationships for emotional fulfillment. He challenged the pursuit of wealth and luxury, suggesting that true happiness comes from simplicity, meaningful work, and inner peace. Epicurus founded a community where members embraced these principles, leading to widespread Epicurean communities. His ideas influenced later thinkers like Karl Marx and offer a timeless lesson on reevaluating our understanding of happiness.
Takeaways
- 🎓 Epicurus, an Ancient Greek philosopher born in 341 BC, focused on understanding happiness rather than just goodness.
- 🏠 Despite rumors of debauchery, Epicurus lived a simple life with two cloaks and a diet of bread, olives, and occasional cheese.
- 👫 He valued friendships over romantic relationships, observing that friendships were often more stable and less troubled.
- 💼 Contrary to popular belief, Epicurus argued that happiness doesn't come from wealth but from meaningful work and helping others.
- 🏡 He questioned the pursuit of luxury, suggesting that the true desire behind it is a sense of calm and a clear mind.
- 🤔 Epicurus identified three common misconceptions about happiness: the need for romantic relationships, the importance of money, and the obsession with luxury.
- 🏡 He established a community where he and his friends lived together, emphasizing the importance of regular contact with friends.
- 🛌 The community members downshifted their lifestyles, choosing to work for themselves and focusing on activities that brought them joy and fulfillment.
- 🧘♂️ Epicurus and his followers sought inner calm through reflection, writing, reading, and meditation rather than external luxuries.
- 🌐 The Epicurean movement was widespread, with communities across the Mediterranean, and it influenced the formation of monasteries.
- 📚 Karl Marx's Ph.D. thesis was on Epicurus, and communism can be seen as a distorted version of Epicureanism, aiming for a collective but not necessarily a happy society.
Q & A
Who was Epicurus and when was he born?
-Epicurus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in 341 BC. He is known for his exploration of happiness and his teachings on how to achieve it.
What was the main focus of Epicurus' philosophy?
-Epicurus' philosophy was primarily focused on understanding what makes people happy, rather than just what makes them good.
What were the misconceptions about Epicurus' school?
-There were rumors that Epicurus' school hosted lavish feasts and orgies, but in reality, he and his followers led a sober life, studying happiness.
What did Epicurus own and what was his diet like?
-Epicurus owned only two cloaks and lived frugally on bread, olives, and occasionally cheese.
What was Epicurus' view on romantic relationships compared to friendships?
-Epicurus observed that romantic relationships were often marked by jealousy and bitterness, while friendships were more consistently kind and supportive.
How did Epicurus feel about the pursuit of money and its impact on happiness?
-Epicurus believed that the pursuit of money often involved negative sacrifices such as jealousy, backbiting, and long hours, and that true job satisfaction came from working independently or in small groups where one could help others.
What did Epicurus think was the real desire behind our obsession with luxury?
-Epicurus suggested that beneath our love for luxury, we are actually seeking a sense of calm and a pure, uncluttered mind.
According to Epicurus, what are the three essential things needed for happiness?
-Epicurus concluded that for happiness, one needs friends, the ability to work in a fulfilling manner, and the cultivation of inner calm.
How did Epicurus and his followers practice their philosophy of happiness?
-Epicurus and his followers lived together in a community, worked on their own terms, and focused on finding calm within their minds through reflection, writing, reading, and meditation.
What was the outcome of Epicurus' philosophy and how did it spread?
-Epicurus' philosophy was so successful that it led to the formation of Epicurean communities across the Mediterranean. At its peak, there were around four hundred thousand people living in these communities.
How did the Christian Church influence the Epicurean communities?
-The Christian Church eventually ended the Epicurean movement in the fifth century, converting many of the communities into monasteries.
What is the legacy of Epicurus' teachings according to the script?
-Epicurus' legacy is the insight that humans are often misguided in their pursuit of happiness, focusing on sex, money, and luxury, when true happiness may lie in simpler, more reflective practices.
Outlines
📚 Epicurus: Philosopher of Happiness
Epicurus, an Ancient Greek philosopher born in 341 BC, is renowned for his exploration into the concept of happiness. Contrary to popular misconceptions, his school was not a site of debauchery but a serious study of joy. Living modestly with only two cloaks and simple food, Epicurus refuted the common belief that romantic relationships, wealth, and luxury were the keys to happiness. Instead, he proposed that true happiness stems from friendships, meaningful work, and inner peace. He encouraged a life of simplicity, where one could find contentment in the company of friends, engaging in fulfilling work, and cultivating a tranquil mind.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Epicurus
💡Happiness
💡Consumer societies
💡Romance and sexual relationships
💡Friendships
💡Wealth
💡Luxury
💡Calm
💡Downshifting
💡Communes
💡Karl Marx
Highlights
Epicurus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in 341 BC, focused on understanding happiness.
Epicurus debunked rumors of debauchery, lived modestly with two cloaks, bread, olives, and occasional cheese.
He believed in the importance of friendship over romantic relationships for happiness.
Epicurus observed that friendships are generally more positive and less possessive than romantic relationships.
He suggested that we don't spend enough time with our friends to truly benefit from their presence.
Epicurus argued that the pursuit of money often involves significant sacrifices and negative behaviors.
He believed that work satisfaction comes from autonomy and helping others, not from wealth.
Epicurus identified a common misconception that luxury and material wealth equate to inner calm.
He questioned whether luxury actually contributes to a sense of tranquility.
Epicurus concluded that happiness requires only three things: friends, meaningful work, and inner peace.
He practiced what he preached by living with friends in a communal setting.
Epicurus and his community chose a simpler life, focusing on self-sufficiency and personal fulfillment.
The Epicurean movement spread widely, with communities across the Mediterranean.
At its peak, the movement had up to four hundred thousand members.
The Christian church eventually ended the movement, converting Epicurean communities into monasteries.
Karl Marx's Ph.D. thesis was on Epicurus, highlighting the influence of Epicureanism on his ideas.
Epicurus' legacy suggests that humans often misunderstand what truly brings happiness.
He encouraged reflection on what truly satisfies in life and the courage to live accordingly.
Epicurus envisioned a life of happiness with minimal possessions, good friends, and philosophical contemplation.
Transcripts
This is a philosopher who helps us think about money, capitalism, and our runaway consumer societies
Epicurus was an Ancient Greek born in 341 BC.
What made him famous was that he spent all his life trying to work out the largest puzzle there is:
what makes people happy?
Philosophers before him had discussed at length what could make people good
Epicurus preferred to look at what is fun
Unfortunately, the world was bitter and bitchy even then
and when people heard that Epicurus had set up a school to study happiness
the rumors went off the scale
There were tales that the school hosted ten course feasts, and orgies every night
Epicurus was said, by one critic, to have orgasmed 18 times in a single evening in a bed full of virgins
It wasn't true
Epicurus and his team were studying happiness, but they were doing it very soberly
The philosopher owned only two cloaks, and lived on bread, olives, and for a treat, an occasional slice of cheese
As for the bedroom, he merely responded demurely that he'd married philosophy
Having patiently studied happiness for many years
Epicurus came to a set of remarkable and revolutionary conclusions about what we actually need to be happy
He proposed that we typically make 3 mistakes when thinking about happiness:
Firstly, we think happiness means having romantic, sexual relationships
but Epicurus looked around and saw so many unhappy couples
their unions marred by jealousy, misunderstanding, cheating, and bitterness
at the same time, he observed how much nicer friendships are:
How people tend to be so decent and unpossessive with their friends
Friendship seemed to be where human nature was at its sweetest
The only problem Epicurus noted was that we don't see our friends enough
The next thing we ordinary think that we need to be happy is a lot of money
but we tend not properly to factually the unbelievable sacraficies we gotta have to make to get this money:
The jealousy, the backbiting, the long hours
What makes work really satisfying, Epicurus believed, ins't money
but it was able to work alone, or in small groups, like in a bakery, or boat repair shop
and when we feel we helping others
in our own, minor way improving the world
Isn't really large sums or status
that we want deep down
Its a sense of making a diference
and lastely
Epicurus observes how obsessive we are with luxury
especially involving houses and beautiful serene locations
but beneath our love of luxury there is really something else we trying to get out
What we want is a feeling of calm
We want our minds pure, free...
Not full of the normal boredom and chaos
But the great question is: Does luxury actually make us calm?
Epicurus wasn't so sure...
Having looked happiness in depth
Epicurus anounces a revolution reset of insights
That we really need only three things to be happy in this life
Firstly
You need your friends around
No sex, no orgy, just your mates
Enough of seen them only now and then
Its regularity of contact that counts
So he did that thing that most of us ocasionally dream of doing
but never actualy get around do
He bought a big house and start living with all his friends
Everyone had your own quarters and there was pleasant share areas too
There's always someone nice to talk to you in the kitchen
Secondly
Everyone downshifted
All the members of the comune stop working for other people
They took big pay cuts in return for doing their own stuff
some farming, some cooking, some potring or writing
And thirdly
Epicurus and his friends stop thinking you could be calm just by having a beautiful view to look out to
They devote themselfes to finding calm in their own minds
To spending time on their own, reflecting, writing stuff down, reading things, meditating
The experiment was so successful, the members of the comune so happy
the idea spread like wildfire
Epicurean communities open up all around the mediterranean
at height of the movement
there was four hundred thousand people living in comunes from Spain to Palestine
It was only the christian church that ending things in the fifth century
But in most of the respect to the community somehow
cause they converted all in to monasteries
what we know as monasteries are really just epicurean comunes
with a christian top soil
Another interesting fact: Karl Marx it's Ph.D thesis on Epicurus
and what we call communism, a gigantic
failed system
it's really a grown up, corrupted, not very successful version of epicureanism
The real Legacy of Epicurus is that human beings aren't very good make themselves happy
especially because they think it's so easy
We think we know, it's about sex, money, luxury
We just want to how to secure all this
but no, says Epicurus
Reflect on the moments that truly bring you happiness
and they are to do with this
Have the courage to change your life, in accordance with the moments that actually delivery satisfaction
You might end up living in a very different way
Out in the country with just some cheese, a couple of clothes, a few philosophy books and
some very good friends down the corridor
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