Monday, February 8, 2010
Epicurean vs Stoic
As discussed in class an Epicurean finds happiness in the long term goals while a Stoic aims for more immediate happiness. I feel that it would be better to look at life from an Epicurean view point. I feel this mainly because if you try hard for a longterm goal then you will view your life as being happy later on. For example, if i were to wake up every morning and go to school to learn and get my highschool diploma and eventually go to collage, then I will most likely become somewhat succesful later in life. This will allow me to do what i want to do later and I will then be happy. When looking at this from a Stoic point of view, they may see them selves as doing what makes them happy every day leading to ultimate happiness. I personally dont think that this would lead to overall happiness because i like to look at things in the long term, and when looking at this philosophy in the long term i can see some flaws with it. If i did the things that make me happy everyday such as skiing, it is fairly expensive and it would soon drain my funds. Although skiing is a large part of my life eventually I would have to stop because i would not have the means to pay for it anymore. It is important to have a mixture of short term and long term happiness in life in order to achieve the ultimate goal of overall happiness.
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I like that you used more than one example to support your postion on epicurean philosophy; good use of detail in your answer. However, I think that you should have included some points about stoic philosophy, since half of the question addresses stoicism.
ReplyDeleteYou need to read the question a bit more carefully. Stoics do not concern themselves with personal happiness--merely longevity. They don't see winning the lottery as any better than a lightning storm wrecking their home.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that epicurians look at the long term, but only in a narrow way. They look at how to minimize pain in their life. That is their only long term goal.
What I wanted to know is if stoics have a point when they say that epicurians make a mistake in trying to live a life free from as much pain as possible.