![]() ![]() Epicurus accepts this conclusion, endorsing a sophisticated hedonism that calls for foregoing some available pleasures for prospective gain. So even the hedonist must recognize that wisdom and self-control are valuable. ![]() Even if all we are trying to do is maximize pleasure, then we need to develop an ‘art of measurement’ – an intelligent strategy to ensure our choices really do give us more pleasure than pain in the long run. By taking this longterm perspective, Epicurus could defuse another argument against straightforward hedonism, suggested in Plato’s Protagoras. Or we might endure pain to avoid greater pain later on, as when we have a small filling done today to avoid major dental surgery in the future. Focusing too much on present pleasures might sometimes cause future pains, as when overeating gives you a stomach ache. The Cyrenaic advice was not to concern ourselves with the future, but Epicurus thought we should do exactly that. His rationale was that if we put a high value on expensive luxuries, or the fickle admiration of other people, then we are bound to suffer pain when these pleasures are unavailable. These natural pleasures are relatively easy to acquire. Instead, invoking the cradle argument, Epicurus encouraged the enjoyment of pleasures that are ‘natural’, like simple food and drink. Nor should we seek after honors, such as having statues erected in our name. Epicurus cautioned that he was not recommending a blind pursuit of sensory indulgence – the pleasure he had in mind was not of the sort that can be found in ‘boys, women, and fish’ (in other words, sex and culinary delicacies). As Aristotle says, such crass priorities seem more apt for cattle than humans. With their advice to seize available pleasures, the Cyrenaics were in danger of being dismissed as brutish. In developing his own brand of hedonism, Epicurus sought to block various objections that had been raised against pleasure as the highest good. But Epicurus thought that a tenable hedonism would take a broader view of life and include taking comfort in past pleasures and looking forward to the prospect of future ones. Here too there was a degree of agreement with Epicureanism, which also grounded knowledge in sense-perception. As a support for this focus on immediate pleasures, Aristippus developed a whole theory of knowledge prioritizing the way things currently seem to us. ![]() After all, I cannot enjoy my memory of an almond croissant the way I’m enjoying the one I am eating right now, and the prospect of a future croissant will always be uncertain. The Cyrenaics put all their emphasis on present pleasures: those we can have now. But they disagreed sharply when it came to the pursuit of that good. The Epicureans even agreed with Aristippus that pleasure is the sole natural good. This so-called ‘cradle argument’ would be used by other Hellenistic schools, with both Stoics and Epicureans agreeing that whatever we pursue by nature, that is, before we are corrupted by society, must indeed be good, as natural goals are ‘appropriate’ for us. He conceived pleasure as a ‘smooth’ movement in the person experiencing it, and pain as ‘rough’, and said we have an instinct to seek the smooth, as we can see from the behavior of newborn children. But it was his grandson, also named Aristippus, who made hedonist (pleasure-seeking) philosophy into the family business. Anecdotes have him, for instance, saying that there’s nothing wrong with going into a whorehouse, as long as you can get out again. Aristippus was notorious for his self-indulgence. The school’s teaching can be traced back to Aristippus, who hailed from Cyrene, in what’s now Libya (hence the school’s name). This is a shame because among those schools, it was the Cyrenaics who defended an understanding of the good life that many of us would find quite appealing: that it is natural to pursue pleasure, so that it makes sense to take pleasures as they become available. Their name remains obscure while those of other Hellenistic philosophical schools – the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics – have entered our everyday language. SUBSCRIBE NOW Philosophy Then The Pleasure Principle Peter Adamson takes pleasure in pondering ancient hedonism.
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