Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Epicurean vs Stoic
Epicureans seek happiness in their lives as a whole, thinking about how their actions will affect them in the long run. Their ultimate goal is peace of mind. Stoics on the other hand seek more immediate happiness, focusing more on the here and now. They accept everything as it is, believing that everything that happens is for the best. Although I believe that the Stoic practice of accepting the universe as it is with no regrets and no fear of death is great, I believe that Epicureanism is the better philosophy. Although I would love to spend my time just hanging out with friends I don’t, instead I spend my time with schoolwork and extracurricular activities. I do this because although hanging out with friends would give me immediate happiness in the long run it would only do me harm. I would end up stressed out at 3 in the morning doing all my work last minute or I would simply do poorly in school. With bad grades and no extracurricular activities I would be unable to get into a good college. Without a college degree I would be unable to get a job that pays well and that I enjoy doing. Instead I do what my not be as much fun now so that in the future I can have a happy and fulfilling life.
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I believe that you captured the essence of the epicurean philosophy in your answer. You hit the major points of the stoic philosophy, but I think that reason is also an integral in how a stoic thinks; being that stoics believe that the principle of reason governs the world. I, also, really like the real life example that you gave to support epicurean philosophy; it was effective in proving your point.
ReplyDeleteI understand where you're coming from, and agree, but while it is true that getting a college degree will help you to get a job in the long run, you could also end up getting a job that sucks which would mean you may not be happy over a long period of time. So at what point do you say that its all worth it?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that Epicureanism works better and you are successful living life that way but I also agree with Ben Sch. when he talks about ending up with a boring job you hate. I think that Epicureanism is good but only when mixed with a little Stoicism because you should think about the future, but also enjoy the present. why cant you do both?
ReplyDeleteYou have a better grasp of what being a Stoic means, but you still confuse Stoicism with short term happiness. Stoics do not concern themselves with happiness.
ReplyDeleteA Stoic will always do his / her homework. Not doing so would suggest what happens in life is random and meaningless, not rational and for a good reason. Stoics firmly believe that whatever life throws at them is meant to be, so they accept it--period. If a Stoic's teacher assigns 200 pages of Pre-Cal work, they do he'd do his best to finish it. Whether it gets done or not, however, isn't too important. It's more about the attitude toward doing the work.
Stoics can and do have long term goals. However, they don't allow their happiness to be tied to the achievement of those goals. In fact, they don't hold a lot of stock in happiness at all--happiness comes and goes all the time, and it always will. This is the critical difference. They take each day as it comes. Now, which philosophy makes more sense to you?