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Epicurean Ethics Essay

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Epicurean Ethics

In this paper I am going to deal with Epicurean ethics. More specifically, I am going to center around the nature of pleasure and its connection with desire-satisfaction. Throughout the paper I will argue, the only thing we desire for its own sake is pleasure. Thus it is best to keep our desires simple in order to achieve the greatest feeling of pleasure. I will accomplish this by first giving arguments for why the only thing we desire for its own sake is pleasure, as well as arguments for why it is best to keep our desires simple. I will then take a look at a number of objections and give some reasons as to why these objections are unconvincing.

Before I can begin with the argumentative side of the …show more content…

It seems as though we have a human nature to seek out things that benefit us personally. For example, say you and a friend are up for a promotion at your workplace. Your friend needs the promotion far more than you do, but you really want it. From natural instinct you will try and do your best and work your hardest in the next few weeks before the promotion decision. You are going to try and get the promotion because it is what you really want and it would bring you the greatest pleasure in the end.

Some skeptics of Epicurus would argue that a person in such a position should step down and let their friend, who really needs the promotion, the opportunity to receive the position. However, Epicurus would argue, according to his ethics that a person in this position would simply go for the promotion rather than feel morally obligated to back down. Though it might be unbeknownst to the person, they will push their needs of their friend aside in order to achieve what will make them truly happy. This is because we all solely seek the ultimate pleasure as the final goal of our actions.

We also seek pleasure because we hate to experience pain and do everything we can to avoid it. However, while we do everything that we can to avoid pain, we also might have to forgo what will bring one less pleasure in the short-term if doing so will ultimately lead us to greater pleasure in the long term. Taking a college calculus course is a

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