Sunday, February 14, 2010
Blog Post #5
Despite being similar in seeking avoidance of life, Stoics and Epicureans differ in their approaches to reach happiness. Epicureans live a very active lifestyle in always doing things for pleasure and making the most out of pleasurable opportunities because they believe nothing lasts forever. Their goal is to seek maximum pleasure and completely avoid pain in order to reach happiness. Although this seems like an ideal lifestyle, it is not a viable philosophy because it's impossible to avoid pain. Avoiding pain is like avoiding life because pain is a part of life. A Stoic would probably criticize an Epicurean for always living in the moment.. On the other hand, Stoics use happiness as a strategy for survival, which means that they are not likely to live in the moment, but wait until they're life is over to find happiness. They are willing to sit back and accept pain, unlike the Epicureans. Yet Stoics are still avoiding life because they believe whatever they do now doesn't really matter because they'll end up achieving happiness when they get to the afterlife. So essentially, it seems that both philosophies end up backfiring on the individuals themselves because making the most out of life's pleasures and avoiding pain isn't going to help one achieve happiness, nor is passively allowing whatever happen happen because in the end happiness will come in the afterlife. Neither philosophy is realistic. Epicureanism would only be fun for a short time but since you're avoiding pain, nothing will benefit from or learned. Stoicism is wasting your life being stolid and never experiencing the excitements of life. So basically, avoiding life isn't going bring you happiness.
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I agree with you when you said that both philosophies end up backfiring on the individuals. and these to ways of living are unrealistic. By waiting for happiness afterlife your not living your life and by avoiding pain you can't experience true happiness either.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where the idea of Stoics leading a passive life because they are waiting for an afterlife came from. Stoicism does not concern itself with an afterlife. Their god is reason and that god isn't going to do anything different in the next life than he would in this one. The question is how to live your life when you believe that everything that happens is for the best. One thing is for sure, merely being passive isn't their answer.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, a Stoic will always do his / her homework. Not doing so (being truly passive) would suggest what happens in life is random and meaningless, not rational and for a good reason. Stoics firmly believe that whatever life throws at them is meant to be, so they accept it--period. If a Stoic's teacher assigns 200 pages of Pre-Cal work, he'd do his best to finish it. Whether it gets done or not, however, isn't too important. It's more about the attitude toward doing the work. Don't confuse this acceptance with passivity.
i don't think that Epicureans try to go out and seek pleasure all day but i feel that they find pleasure in what life gives them. we discussed in class about how they believed that nature could provide everything which one needed or even wanted and that seems to say that you should find pleasure in what you have, not finding pleasure in what you want which could only end in pain (if that makes any sense).
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