Pleasure
For Epicurus, the very goal of life and the standard of the good; for the Stoics, a mere 'indifferent' to be set aside.
Pleasure (hēdonē) stood at the center of one of antiquity's great debates about the good life. Epicurus (341–270 BCE) made the absence of bodily pain and mental disturbance (ataraxia) the natural goal of life — a calm, modest pleasure, not indulgence. The earlier Cyrenaics prized momentary bodily pleasure, while Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics each ranked it far below virtue. The argument over pleasure's place in happiness echoes through later hedonist and ascetic traditions alike.
How it traveled
- RepublicAthens · -375explains
- PhilebusAthens · -355explains
- MemorabiliaAthens · -354explains
- HieroAthens · -354explains
- CyropaediaAthens · -354explains
- LawsAthens · -348explains
- RhetoricChalcis · -335explains
- Nicomachean EthicsChalcis · -322explains
- Eudemian EthicsChalcis · -322explains
- Magna MoraliaChalcis · -322explains
- De Rerum NaturaRome · -55explains
- de Finibus Bonorum et MalorumFormiae · -43explains
- Tusculanae DisputationesFormiae · -43explains
- Quaestiones ConvivalesChaeronea · 120explains
- Non Posse Suaviter Vivi Secundum EpicurumChaeronea · 120explains
- DeipnosophistaeNaucratis · 230explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240redefines
- Duties of the HeartZaragoza (Saragossa) · 1080
- Yalkut Shimoni on NachTiberias · 1250
- Sefer HaIkkarimSoria · 1425
- Akeidat YitzchakTarragona · 1490
- Reshit ChokhmahTzfat · 1575
- Ohr HaChammah on ZoharTzfat · 1620
- Likutei MoharanBreslov (Ukraine) · 1802
- Likutei HalakhotBreslov (Ukraine) · 1840
- Malbim on ProverbsBucharest · 1860
- Torah Temimah on TorahPinsk · 1904
- Legum Allegoriarum Libri I-III—explains
- Epistulae—explains
- De Vita Beata—explains
- DialexeisTyreredefines
- De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv)—explains
- Fragmenta MoraliaAthensexplains
- OrationesPrusaexplains
- De Somniis (lib. i-ii)—explains
- OdesRomeexplains
- Historical LibrarySyracuse (Sicily)explains
- De Posteritate Caini—explains
- De Agricultura—explains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
Key passages(20)
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
Ἠθικὰ προβλήματα [Sp.] · Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Ethica Nicomachea Paraphrasis (Pseudepigraphum Olim A Constantino Palaeocappa confectum et olim sub auctore Heliodoro Prusensi vel Andronico Rhodio vel Olympiodoro) · Anonymi In Aristotelis Ethica Nicomachea
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
Divisiones Aristoteleae · Pseudo-Aristotle