In Pursuit of Pleasure

by Epicurus, Panagiotis Stavropoulos (cover Illustration) (Illustrator), Cyril Bailey (translator) (Editor)

BILINGUAL EDITION Greek philosopher Epicurus defined philosophy as ‘ a daily business of speech and thought to secure happiness ’ . He believed happiness to be the goal of human life and thought it could be achieved by pursuing pleasure. However, the Epicurean philosophy was then and still is now often erroneously interpreted as promoting hedonism. Rather, Epicurus considered pleasure to be connected to virtue not excess or sensual self-indulgence. This volume contains Cyril Bailey’s masterly, classic translations of the most important surviving writing of Epicurus—the Letter to Menoeceus, the Principal Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings—and offers the contemporary reader a comprehensive overview of Epicurean ethics, his philosophy on what matters in life and how we should live.

112 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Epicurus (Greek: Ἐπίκουρος, Epikouros, "upon youth"; Samos, 341 BCE – Athens, 270 BCE; 72 years) was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by aponia, the absence of pain and fear, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and bad, that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared, that the gods do not reward or punish humans, that the universe is infinite and eternal, and that events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

His parents, Neocles and Chaerestrate, both Athenian citizens, had immigrated to the Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos about ten years before Epicurus' birth in February 341 BCE. As a boy he studied philosophy for four years under the Platonist teacher Pamphilus. At the age of 18 he went to Athens for his two-year term of military service. The playwright Menander served in the same age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers on Samos to Colophon. After the completion of his military service, Epicurus joined his family there. He studied under Nausiphanes, who followed the teachings of Democritus. In 311/310 BC Epicurus taught in Mytilene but caused strife and was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in 306 BC. There he founded The Garden, a school named for the garden he owned about halfway between the Stoa and the Academy that served as the school's meeting place.

Even though many of his teachings were heavily influenced by earlier thinkers, especially by Democritus, he differed in a significant way with Democritus on determinism. Epicurus would often deny this influence, denounce other philosophers as confused, and claim to be "self-taught".

Epicurus never married and had no known children. He suffered from kidney stones, to which he finally succumbed in 270 BCE at the age of 72, and despite the prolonged pain involved, he wrote to Idomeneus:

"I have written this letter to you on a happy day to me, which is also the last day of my life. For I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation, counterbalances all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me, and to philosophy."

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus

Reviews

[alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought Epicurus’ In Pursuit of Pleasure (bilingual: Greek/L & English/R) while in Delphi and read it aloud while sitting on a while. Very atmospheric, no? ;)
 
Pursuit includes: (1) Letter to Menoeceus; (2) Principal Doctrines; & (3) Vatican Collection. Translated by Cyril Bailey, it’s a tad arcane in sentence structure. Some quotes:
✍🏻“Let no one when young delay to study philosophy, nor when he is old grow weary of his study. For no one can come too early or too late to secure the health of his soul. And the man who says that the age for philosophy has either not yet come or has gone by is like the man who says that the age for happiness is not yet come to him, or has passed away. Wherefore both when young and old a man must study philosophy, that as he grows old he may be young in blessings through the grateful recollection of what has been, and that in youth he may be old as well, since he will know no fear of what is to come.”
🪦“Death is nothing to us; for that which is dissolved is without sensation; and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us.”
👯“Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, far the greatest is the possession of friendship.”
🥀“Every desire must be confronted with this question: what will happen to me, if the objection of my desire is accomplished and what if it is not?”
 

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

parece mais aristotélico do que platónico!!!! parecia que estava a ler a "ética a nicómaco" de Aristóteles. mais 1 estrela porque gostei do que disse sobre a morte ("death is nothing to us" + "it [dead] does not concern either the living or the dead")

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist."

[Olja · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...but when it is time for us to go, spitting contempt on life and on those who here vainly cling to it, we will leave life crying aloud in a glorious triumph-song that we have lived well!"

[Mads Floyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst I disagree with the precepts for the most part, it’s essential reading for any student of western philosophy.

[Catarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying, but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content."

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

'We must laugh and philosophize at the same time and do our household duties and employ our other faculties, and never cease proclaiming the sayings of the true philosophy.'

[Maia Mandel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me so much peace😌will keep this close by and read often:)