Analyzing Epicurus's 'Letter To Menoeceus'

Epicurus believed the point of life is to accomplish happiness by pursuit of pleasure and evasion of pain and fear. In "Letter to Menoeceus" in Epicurus, The Art of Happiness, he notably contended that man ought to free himself of unreasonable pain emerging from unnecessary fear

The question of whether death on an expiry date poses a harm to the one who dies has important ontological relevance concerning how we relate to death and including how death causes harm to us. I will argue that what matters for us with respect to life is mental continuity, and that an expiration date is only harmful in that it fails to cohere with our irrational tendency to project our current mortality beyond our own existence. In this paper I will first examine what it means to be harmed and appeal to the Epicurean notion of death to investigate in what sense an individual can be harmed by being in a state of death. Next I will use Nagel’s objections to the Epicurean notion of harmless death to understand how we may be harmed by projecting feelings about our own mortality. Finally, I will appeal to Lucretius’ argument that it is irrational to fear death and demonstrate that death can only harm us by virtue of our own irrational psychological orientation towards death.

Epicurus writes, the argument that death is nothing to us, because when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death comes, we no longer exist. There are three reasonable previews to support his view, including: something is bad for someone as long as it must be bad for that person at specific time; Death cannot be bad for someone when they are dead because the person does not exist at that time; Death cannot be bad for someone before death actually come. Among these three reasonable previews, Epicurus draw his conclusion that because there is no time at which death is bad for someone, so death is not bad for anyone. I’m agree with that “Death is not bad for anyone”, because death can’t affect us since we are died. Although the objection is reasonable, I still think the Epicurus’s response is stronger.

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who established a school focused on a life of simplicity and moderation. His philosophy centered on what he deemed the great good which was pleasure. Plato, another Greek philosopher was the best-known follower of Socrates. Plato was the man that transcribed the teachings of Socrates and continued to use Socrates as a character in his philosophies through dialogues similar to how we had seen him before his death. In Plato’s Republic he has Socrates say, “those who make pleasure their good are in … perplexity; for they are compelled to admit that there are bad pleasures as well as good.” (Cpk 119 top) While in the Letter to Menoeceus Epicurus says, “Pleasure, we declare, is the beginning and the end of the happy life. We are endowed by nature to recognize pleasure as the greatest good.” (Cpk 140 middle) In this paper I will discuss why Epicurus thinks that pleasure is the greatest good, why Plato dissents, and finally argue what I believe to be the most reasonable answer.

In Epicurus’s argument, it is his responsibility to prove that death is not bad in every cases. As a result, if we want to refute him, we just need to find some cases to show death is

After reading the excerpt on Epicureanism, the statement, “Death is meaningless to the living because they are living, and meaningless to the dead... because they are dead” speaks of living in the moment. Death is a matter of life that happens to everyone at some point. Unfortunately, there is no possible way to escape death or else we would all be alive forever. Epicurus is saying people should not be so fixated on death to the point that it keeps them from living their life to the fullest. It doesn’t necessarily mean that death is “meaningless”, but rather Epicurus did not want worry about death prior to living. As far as, “meaningless to the dead, because they are dead”, the second part of this statement explains itself. Those that have

Epicurus was an empiricist meaning, he believed that knowledge comes from sense-experience: Everything , good or bad, is experienced through sensation of any outside factors with which we can physically encounter and any non physical factors such as our thoughts and consciousness in our minds and souls (?)(p 1). When the body dies, we therefore cannot experience any of the outside physical things through sensation. The soul is also corporeal(material) as according to epicurus metaphysics of atomism and physicalism it consists of tiny paticles and is spread all over the body . When the body

In order to obtain a meaningful life one has to ponder different philosophical thoughts to create a life of meaning. By building upon Buddhist beliefs suffering is necessary in order to obtain liberation from life and death. For Epicurus the thought process was that hedonism created a life worth living. Yet, this thought process creates an addictive cycle of thrill-seeking and a stronger

Epicurus was a philosopher who argued that death should not be feared on the basis that there is nothing (no substance or consciousness) in death to experience. He also states that life itself should not be fearful, since we no longer experience anything after we die there is nothing pending to fear when we cease to exist. "when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not

When people think about the possibility of death, pain is the most commonly thing that comes to their mind. For many people they have asked the question what is death to us. Some have stated that it is not something to fear because it is annihilation and no one can experience death. While other people have claimed that death is bad because it takes one from all the good in life. I believe death is something to be feared because it brings many bad experiences to people.

The illusion of immorality and the denial of death has been the corrosive acid in man’s mind since the formation of life. The Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus view that death is not to be feared has had an enormous impact on Western thought for over two thousand years. In his letter addressing

Epicurus discusses what he believes is a blessed life; all actions should be devoted to pleasure. He argues that all of our intentions and actions should be aimed and thoroughly thought out to what ultimately will bring the most happiness. He writes, “So we must exercise ourselves in the things which brings happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent,all our actions are directed towards attaining it.” (Epicurus, p.654) Epicurus’s idea of happiness is living a blessed life by being in a state where there is the absence fear and pain. One achieves living a life of no fear by not being scared of death, not because one might experience a painful death, but merely because after death we are essentially nothing. When one realizes that there are no “terrors” after death, they will live a life more enjoyable. A

Rosenbaum defends the epicurean view throughout his essay. Epicurus “argued that since death is neither good or bad for the person dead and since the fear of that which is not bad for one is groundless, it is unreasonable to fear death” (Benatar, 175). A person when dead is lifeless and therefore cannot feel anything. This

Epicurus, the founder of Epicureanism, saw death as a total extinction with no afterlife to ensue, he regarded the universe as infinite and eternal and as consisting only of space and atoms; where the soul or mind is

Epicurean philosophy and ethics describe a way of life which focuses on relaxation and moderation. Moderation is supposedly therapeutic for one’s excessive passions. Therefore, it is central to Epicurus’ proscription for humanity’s untreated sickness. Ancient texts which inform followers of Epicurus’ ideas include his ‘Principal Doctrines’, which contains forty dogmas to be integrated into one’s life to initiate the start of a positive transformation; aimed at becoming as great as Epicurus was thought to be. There are also plenty of lessons detailed in his ‘Letter to Menoeceus’, in which he tells his friend of Epicurean ethics as a way of life, this is written as a manual of sorts on how to live the good life. He sought to alleviate the anxieties of people and teach them how to become free to experience the true pleasures of life. Epicurean ethics give a clear and satisfactory direction for how one should live their life and is valuable even in a modern-day culture.