The Epicurean Life

When I first heard about Epicureanism, I had thought of it as an ideology of those who lived only to serve their own self interest. Instead the philosophy simply allows people to follow some of their basic natural instincts to enjoy something like a good meal, but does not promote complete materialism. It focuses much more on rational thinking than I had previously thought. 

I began my first day of my Epicurean week by traveling to a couple of different parts of campus to see the different parts of nature present in each of them. Doing so helped me to recognize the beauty present on the campus that I often would not spend any time seeing or thinking about, though the thoughts about death in Epicureanism are not enough different from my own ideas on death to cause any deep reflection. When thinking about why I tended to have certain actions I recognized that much of what I did tended to be more about avoiding pain than it was about pursuing pleasure, which, while not all that unexpected, was not something that I had really thought about. When recognizing the things that I did that were not comfortable I did not feel as though I had accomplished much, as these things were all things that I was required to do no matter how much I enjoyed them. While I agree with some of the Epicurean ideas on truth, a lack of background on something can cause your perception to be objectively less correct on a variety of issues, so recognizing your own perception as the truth without question can lead one astray. I often have a very all or nothing approach towards pain and pleasure, for example either having a large dessert or no dessert at all. The concept of the Golden Mean does perhaps result in a more pleasurable average, but it requires more self control than I expect myself to have on some activities. The Epicurean philosophy of attempting to have the least amount of pain in your life in the long run is a philosophy that I try to live by in general, and, if I was able to be perfectly behaved, it is a philosophy that I would live by completely for the rest of my life.

I found the Epicurean week of living philosophically to be easier than the Stoic week, but I did not feel as accomplished by the end. The Stoic ideologies required me to make a larger number of sacrifices in order to try to better myself, which I think makes more sense for me in a situation like this. On the other hand, if I had to pick one of these philosophies to live by for the rest of my life I would easily choose Epicureanism, as it makes far more sense to me. Strictly looking at the principles of Epicureanism, I follow most Epicurean philosophies in my everyday life already, so such a change would not be particularly major, which is also why such a change does not feel particularly impactful or rewarding to me.