Menoeceus 131-132

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Translation

Thus when we say that pleasure is the goal, we do not mean the pleasure of debauchery or sensuality, despite whatever the ignorant, disagreeable, or malignant people believe. By pleasure, we mean this: freedom from pain in the body and freedom from turmoil in the soul. For it is not continuous drinking and revelry, the sexual enjoyment of women and boys, or feasting upon fish and fancy cuisine which result in a happy life. Sober reasoning is what is needed, which decides every choice and avoidance and liberates us from the false beliefs which are the greatest source of anxiety.

Analysis

Epicurus was always careful to distinguish his position on pleasure from that of the Cyrenaics, and to defend himself and his teaching from the frequent misunderstandings and accusations by competing philosophical schools, or simply the unenlightened hoi polloi. The Epicurean pleasure is decidedly not like the various and sundry pleasures of the profligate.

Pleasure (always in the singular, summary, all-encompassing) should not be confused with what the many consider as pleasures, i.e. the many, various, sensual delights. Epicurus also voices some suspicion by leaving the possibility open: some may misunderstand him due to their own intellectual limitations; others, maliciously, do understand what he meant, yet deliberately distort it, in order to assault it on grounds of immorality. (It was not uncommon, then as now, for competing schools of thought to set up each other's views as strawmen, then burn them down with logical and immediately palatable argumentation.)

True pleasure, argues Epicurus, is not made up of the sensuous delights of sex, or delicious foods, part and parcel of a lavish lifestyle; it is made up of rather more humble material gratification, by which the basic needs of the body are comfortably satisfied, plus crucially important peace of mind. The later stems from a sober reasoning regarding choices and avoidances, as discussed previously in Menoeceus 128-130. If that clear-minded reasoning is absent, all sorts of disturbance and anxiety ensue due to false beliefs.