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Getting Smart about Pleasure
Epicurus took pleasure seriously, but his insight is that pleasure is something we’re simply not very
good at. We’re bad at thinking about it, and we’re bad at actually living pleasurable lives. Epicurus wants to change that.
He begins by making an important distinction. There are two kinds of pleasure, he says. The first kind is
kinetic pleasure, and the second kind is
static (sometimes called
katastematic, but let’s keep things simple!).
Kinetic pleasures destabilize or unsettle us. They unbalance us and throw us off course. An example might be the downward spiral of a film star on a drink and drugs binge. It’s not that there isn’t pleasure in binging. It is only that this is pleasure is destabilizing and leads to a great deal of pain.
Static pleasures, on the other hand, do not lead to further pain. They are simply pleasurable, without after-effects. Epicurus once wrote to a disciple, asking for him to “send me a small pot of cheese, so that I may be able to indulge myself whenever I wish.” This is not very rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s a good example of a static pleasure. Good food, shared with friends, out in the garden … this is a static, uncomplicated pleasure."
Epicurus was a philosopher who was into pleasure in a big way. He claimed that no pleasure in itself was a bad thing. Happiness, for Epicurus, is about maximizing pleasure. And that is all.
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