Epicureans avoid life by experiencing little pain and discomfort. Epicureans live their life with happiness and constantly seek pleasure. From a personal definition life contains a multiple of emotions: anxiety, stress, sad, angry, and happiness to name a few, and to be fully engrossed in life one must experience these emotions. With this in mind, epicureans only experience one of many emotions and never experience life as whole as they constantly please them selves, not caring about outsiders. As a result of constantly seeking pleasure, an epicurean may become egocentric and commanding (behavior that is unprofessional and hard to deal with) if their pleasure level is not met. An individual who follows the beliefs of epicureans will never encounter the troubles of life, stress or hardships within families that are all needed to fully experience life. Though, others may argue that to fully understand what if feels like to be in a state a pleasure one must experience all other emotions.
To the contrary, stoics believe that pleasure does not exist in life and nor does any other types of emotions. Stoics live their lives as if nothing phases them, nothing moves them to express emotions. These beliefs seems hard and sad for me to believe, as emotions are necessary in life to fully experience reality. Because emotions encompass life, inhibiting emotions therefore states that one avoids life all together. An stoic will not show emotion when their daughter/son gets married or when their pet dies. On the other hand, not experiencing emotion in a difficult situation such as being bullied or being involved in a fight may help an individual not be traumatized like an other individual may be.
With the above examples in mind, stoics avoid life at a higher level than epicureans, as stoics don't experience emotions rather epicureans experience at least one emotion, pleasure. Though both avoid life altogether but by different means
No Epicurean has a stress free life, free from sadness or anger. Remember, they actually have to give up things that provide only short term happiness. What Epicureans are trying to do is to minimize their exposure to these other kinds of emotions, placing happiness on a pedestal, as it were. Are you arguing that those other emotions--ones most of us see as negative--are just as worthy of being on the same pedestal as happiness? If so, you are a Stoic! At any rate, Epicureans must experience other emotions, so it's not really accurate to say they don't.
ReplyDeleteYour point about Stoics missing out on happiness also needs to be teased out a little more. Remember, a Stoic's life isn't necessarily devoid of happiness; the Stoic just chooses not to have it as a goal, believing that personal happiness is no more special than any other feeling.
Remember, what sustains a Stoic, makes life worth living as it were, is the belief that what happens in life as happens for a reason. Whether what happens in life makes me feel happy or sad isn't important. The mere fact that it happened makes it sacred. Thus, my own survival in light of what life throws at me, not my own happiness, is what I concern myself with. I demonstrate that I accept the rationality of life by not giving up, no matter how it makes me feel.
It all boils down to what do you see as a sounder core value: to endure as best you can or to be as happy as you can? Which should you follow (or do you follow a third)?