Epicurean choices of attitudes and actions
Epicurus’s “Authorized Doctrines” (Kuriai Doxai) is practically a guide for the choice of attitudes toward the essential things in the art of living happily.
Epicurus drew a clear distinction between
- choosing a basic general attitude (diathesis) toward action in a given sphere and
- choosing to do or not to do a given thing within that field.
Thus Epicureans were trained to make these two choices.
They were trained, for example, to first choose what attitude they will assume towards, for instance, death, the gods, pleasure and pain, necessity, fortune, political life, food, fame and friendship.
The choice of a basic and general attitude, however, by no means abolished the necessity of making individual decisions.
The proper attitude toward pain, for instance, is to regard it as inherently evil and to be avoided; nevertheless, in the individual case the lesser pain, such as that of the surgeon’s knife, is endured for the sake of the greater good.
Again, the proper attitude toward food is to prefer a simple diet, but this does not preclude and even approves the occasional indulgence.
In a series of articles I will touch upon those topics that are considered as possible sources of stress and therefore can act as happiness blockers. By showing the attitude Epicurean practitioners applied over 800 years, I hope to help today’s happiness-seekers to escape from the most dangerous happiness-blocker: stress.
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