SEPT 18

6: SEP 18

Assigned

• Epicurus, Letter and PD (9)

In-class

• SW1 assigned.
• Some notes on Perpetua and Felicitas.

Hellenistic Hedonism: Epicurus -- Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrine

• Key Idea: Pleasure is the Good ("Alpha and Omega of a happy life." - Letter)

• Fundamental distinction between Katastematic pleasures and kinetic pleasure.

• Accepts reality of gods, but thinks it's human error to think that the gods bestow blessings and punishments. They're not thinking about you.

• Death is nothing to us. Arguments: good and evil dep on awareness, no terror in ceasing to live. Assess: "The wise person.... Also PD2

• natural desires vs. groundless desires, of the natural, some necessary some only natural. Of the necessary, some for happiness, curing disease, surviving. Direct yourself toward satisfying the natural necessary desires.

• "For the end of all our actions is to be free from pain and fear, and when once we have attained all this, the tempest of the soul is laid to rest" (The desire for pleasure is also a kind of pain.)

• Epicurus is telling us that while we think pleasure is endless stimulation, it is really found in satisfaction, which is a state of non-desire (rather than lack of desire).

• "They have the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it."

• "Plain fare gives as much pleasure as a costly diet." "When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean..."

• Small Group Discussion: Consider Epicurus' advice about pleasure in light of the hedonic treadmill, and the distinction between kinetic and katastematic pleasures. Should you literally accept that "water is as good as wine" and "plain fare gives as much pleasure as a costly diet" or, is Epicurus making a different point, or, should we just reinterpret him to allow for a few more kinetic pleasures?

• Tetra-pharmakos:

• 1. Don't fear gods.
• 2. Death is nothing. - note his arguments here (see above).
• 3. What is good is easy to get.
• 4. What is evil is easy to endure.

• PD 3: Limit of pleasure is removal of pain. Note how this could be true given a view of desire. (also, PD18.)

• PD 5: Relation of virtue to pleasure (wisdom to happiness!)

• PD 8: Pursuit of pleasure complicates your life.

• PD 18: close to adaptation. hedonic treadmill.

• PD 25: something akin to mindfulness.

• PD 27-8: priority of friendship. (This is a major type distinction for Epicurus. Does friendship habituate?)

2nd Thoughts on Epicurus

• As with Epictetus, Epicurus' advice on how to achieve sagehood regarding pleasure strikes us as extreme. And so it is. But what might be some enduring lessons from his thought?

• To be a good hedonist

1. Reason must be involved to evaluate pleasures and pleasure seeking behaviors. (Examples: food examples, affect forecasting failures are not limited to Hellenists!)

2. Simple pleasures savored can be superior to complex pleasures consumed without attention or at frequent intervals.

3. Negative mental states can ruin any pleasure. (For Epicurus: fear of the gods, for us: anxiety, stress.)

• Maybe some things that separate him from us:

1. Overgeneralizes the strategy of extinguishing desire. With control, connoisseurship is possible and desirable.

2. In a wealthy educated world, we might feel secure with higher levels of pleasurable activity.

3. We're not them.

SW1 Assessing Stoicism (800 words)

• Stage 1: Please write an 800 word maximum answer to the following question by Monday, September 23st, 11:59pm.

• Topic: We have been reading about and discussing stoicism, drawing on history (McMahon), a short original work by Epictetus, and more modern treatments by Holiday & Irvine. Give a very brief introduction to stoicism as you understand it then highlight Stoic ideas that you think are particularly problematic or insightful. Consider how stoics might respond to criticism. Does stoicism have a place in your philosophy of happiness and wisdom?

• Advice about collaboration: Collaboration is part of the academic process and the intellectual world that college courses are based on, so it is important to me that you have the possibility to collaborate. I encourage you to collaborate with other students, but only up to the point of sharing ideas, references to class notes, and your own notes, verbally. Collaboration is also a great way to make sure that a high average level of learning and development occurs in the class. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to NOT share text of draft answers or outlines of your answer. Keep it verbal. Generate your own examples.

• Prepare your answer and submit it in the following way. Please follow these instructions:

1. To assure anonymity, you must remove your name from the the "author name" that you may have provided when you set up your word processing application. For instructions on removing your name from an Word or Google document, [click here].
2. Format your answer in double spaced text, in a typical 12 point font, and using normal margins. Do not add spaces between paragraphs and indent the first line of each paragraph.
3. Do not put your name in the file or filename. You may put your student ID number in the file. Always put a word count in the file. Save your file in .docx format with the name: Stoicism.
4. To turn in your assignment, log into courses.alfino.org, click on the "1 - Points - SW1 - Assessing Stoicism" dropbox.

• Stage 2: Please evaluate four student answers and provide brief comments and a score. Review the Assignment Rubric for this exercise. We will be using the Flow and Content areas of the rubric for this assignment. Complete your evaluations and scoring by Thursday, September 26th, 11:59pm.

• To determine the papers you need to peer review, you will receive an email from me with your animal name and a list of animals in this assignment. Find your animal name on the list and review the next four animals, looping to the top of the list if necessary.

• Use this Google Form to evaluate four peer papers. Submit the form once for each review.

• Some papers may arrive late. If you are in line to review a missing paper, allow a day or two for it to show up. If it does not show up, go back to the list and review the next animal's paper, continuing until you get four reviews. Do not review more than four papers.

• Stage 3: I will grade and briefly comment on your writing using the peer scores as an initial ranking. Assuming the process works normally, most of my scores probably be within 1 point or so of the peer scores, plus or minus.

• Stage 4: Back-evaluation: After you receive your peer comments and my evaluation, take a few minutes to fill out this quick "back evaluation" rating form: [1]. Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino. You must do the back evaluation to receive credit for the whole assignment. Failing to give back-evaluations unfairly affects other classmates.

• Back evaluations are due TBD, 2024, midnight.