Epicurus and Epictetus - Essay Example

Epicurus and Epictetus Introduction Why is life important with death being a fact? Does shying away from the thought of death occurring deter this fact? The question begs, does one give up living when sentenced to death or do they stop living when told that they have terminal illnesses? In philosophy, there are classical theories that try to elaborate on the purpose of life although death is an eventuality. Some of the philosophers that attest to pleasure of living rather than fearing death are Camus, Epicurus, Epictetus, Nagel, Russell, and Walker. Essentially, these great scholars of philosophy had different consolation on the reasons for valuing and giving meaning to life (Pojman 530). Therefore, this essay will delve on two Greek philosophers, Epictetus and Epicurus, to try to understand their ideologies regarding the importance of living life without having to worry of the occurrence of death. 2. Epicurus According to ancient philosophy, Epicurus was an ancient philosopher that lived between two hundred and seventy one and three hundred and forty one B.C. He founded his school of philosophy in Athens where he spent most of his life. Epicurus was a philosopher who related the aspect of pleasure with good and the aspect of bad with pain concerning living. This concept became Hedonism, a Greek word meaning pleasure. For Epicurus, being sensuous and exalting life did not quantify for Epicureanism to form opinion on the views of living. However, Epicurus was of the belief that a pleasurable life came from having calm emotions through the appreciation of simple but beautiful pleasantries of life. These pleasures include good company of friends, a healthy diet, morally upright behavior, and good personal health. This meant that people were not to worry about death, but only had to concern themselves with pleasure and pain (Pojman 531). Therefore, Epicurus believed that death was not a feeling hence advising people not to be fearful of death. 2.1 Epicurus and the belief in God Ideally, this philosopher was a great believer in the doctrines of philosophy because to him philosophy was a constant factor in the life of any individual. Further, Epicurus felt that people needed to focus on the aspects of life that made them happy as part of living a fulfilled life. However, this philosopher had a queer belief in matters related to God and other gods, but acknowledged their existence. In essence, Epicurus believed that these higher deities received much accreditation for what they truly were not. For him, ill fate befell those that lived wicked lives and blessings followed those that did well hence questioning the credibility of gods being the source of either blessings or curses. 2.2 Epicurus and his argument on death Arguably, this philosopher advised people to believe that death was nothing to them because it was a way of depriving human beings off sensation. In this regard, the understanding of death as nothing of concern influenced living life enjoyably because one lived without needing to be immortal. According to this philosophy, Epicurus encouraged people not to live in anticipation of the pain that would come together with death because this feeling would make them cower towards living. The philosopher pointed out that death did not form a part of people while they were still living but became a part of them once they seized being in existence. It meant that death was not a concern for the living because they did not believe in the existence of death while the dead could not associate with the same since they no longer existed. In addition, Epicurus believed that a wise person needed not fear life nor death because life did not offend him neither did death appear evil. On the other hand, this philosophy punctured the belief that the young needed advice on how to live fulfilling lives while the aged needed advice on how to approach their sunset. This meant that everyone had a deep desire to continue living irrespective of his or her age because emphasis was on how to live and die peacefully. For instance, the future did not belong to any individual hence discouraging the abandonment of hope that the future may never come (Pojman 532). 2.3 Relationship between pain and pleasure from the philosophy According to this philosophy, people needed to guide their souls from fear or pain because they were the main causes of ill health. Therefore, it is critical for the blessed ones to seek pleasure rather than pain because this marks the start and the finish of a fulfilled life. Subsequently, pleasure gives birth to willful choice and avoidance of feelings that may not bring happiness in living. Ideally, Epicurus argues that people sometimes tend to let their pain supersede their pleasures while some pleasures may come out because of much endurance of pain (Pojman 533). Similarly, people need not take up all pleasures with the reasoning that they are good. 3. Epictetus On the other hand, Epictetus also gave contribution to philosophy on the importance of life although the publishing of his philosophies was by a pupil that was in his class (Pojman, 537). Ideally, Epictetus lived between fifty and one thirty A.D where slavery characterized the first stages of his life. Epictetus was a cripple that lived with humility and was a philanthropic individual mostly to his children. In essence, Epictetus embraced Stoicism that stated that human beings should leave their destiny to be according to God’s design and a wrapped gift. Epictetus was a scholar at Stoicism, which was a Greek philosophy school that later saw the adoption of the philosophy by the Roman Empire. Essentially, the belief of Stoics is that individuals should not fight their fate but should do as required hence bringing peace of mind. They were also for the idea that every human being had a spark of divination in them. Additionally, Stoics including Epictetus believed that all human beings are brothers and sisters living under the same God. 3.1 Epictetus belief in the concerns for human beings Epictetus believed that some things were not up to people to decide on them while others were up to people to do the same. In essence, the human body, physical assets, reputes, and work related matters were primarily upon people to decide. In contrast, desires by people, their thinking, and intention were not up to them. These things were free and natural while those that were not up to them were forbidding, foreign, and weak. Sequentially, people were not to complain about the outcome of things neither were they to blame anyone for the same (Pojman 538). Additionally, Epictetus also stated that an individual needed not have any enemies hence avoiding harm from coming their way. A vital quality in this philosophy was that one needed to be moderate in the attainment of things that were of greatness. This meant that some things had to come before others in order for one to achieve richness. Therefore, people had to determine which things were up to them and which were not hence regarding some things as matters of no importance. Moreover, the Stoic philosophy by Epictetus stated that one was not to seek for the happening of things or events, but had to wish for things to take their course for them to get on well with living their lives. Further, illness was a challenge that affected the body and not an impediment to ones will hence becoming a matter that was not up to human beings (Pojman 539). 3.2 Epictetus perception of death Epictetus reiterated that all maters pertaining to life were because of the mindset that an individual had where one would regard as either useful or not applicable. Therefore, being upset for humans was because of the ideas that people harbored in their minds that made things to appear the way they were. For instance, the idea that death is a horrible occurrence is what makes death appear horrible because death is not as terrible as people tend to think. Subsequently, shunning away of this way of thinking would enable one to make progress because it is pointless to live a lavish life that is full of anger and remorse. This yields the ability for an individual to have self-control because they would have power over their emotions and their ideas. In essence, the gift of life given to an individual through loved ones goes back to the giver through death, which becomes a non-concern for the bereaved individual because the loved ones were not their own but belonged to God. Therefore, it is pointless for individuals to blame others or themselves for the demise of loved ones because it is no ones fault. Interestingly, Epictetus stated that appearing stupid to things that were not of individual concern was a step towards progressive living because it was a sign of contentment. This meant that one needed to be ware of external factors and guard themselves against them rather than trusting oneself while being at peace with nature. Therefore, one could only take care of one aspect and not both at the same time (Pojman 540). In this regard, death was an unpleasant fact because no one could live forever as per the philosophy of Epictetus. Further, living beings were actors living according to the playwright of God hence people were to live as per their assigned role because they did not cast themselves in to the play of life. On the contrary, jealousy and envy have no place in the lives of individuals because the honor bestowed upon other people because they are not more blessed than others. 4. Personal Evaluation Epictetus and Epicurus did not have common views concerning the importance of life. In essence, Epictetus believed that life drew existence from God because it was a script where people were playing their casted roles. On the other hand, Epicurus believed in Hedonism that stated that individuals were to their center lives on pleasure and pain by not worrying themselves about death because death was not an emotion. In addition, his belief was that gods received accreditation for things like death, which not necessarily their doing. On the other hand, Epictetus stated under Stoicism philosophy that things like death were not to concern people, but rather they needed to focus on things that were free and natural. Therefore, death was not terrible but the thought of death being terrible was what made death horrible. Epicurus stated that living a life free from the craving immortality was what made life fulfilling and not the constant fear of how one will meet their death. Therefore, the philosophies by Epicurus and Epictetus were ways of communicating the importance of life and not fearing death because human beings are mortal beings. Works Cited Pojman, Louis. The Quest for Truth. London: Oxford University Press. 2006. Read More