Stoics vs. Epicureans

A convenient opponent is always handy. It holds true in today’s polarized political landscape, it holds true in the realm of ideas too. The ancients knew it also hence the lasting arguments between the Stoics and their then most outspoken rivals, the Epicureans.

There were a few axes of disagreement between them. One was about the constitution of the world itself. The Stoics were deemed “the dogmatists,” i.e., they believed in the purposeful nature of a harmonious universe, while the Epicureans believed it was all a haphazard play of random chance. Another meaningful difference was about their respective position in regards to pleasure.

The misunderstood philosophers of the garden

I have no intention here to defend the Philosophers of the Garden, yet it is a major misunderstanding to stereotype them as “hedonists” in the commonplace meaning of the term. Did they espouse pleasure? Yes, they did. Yet, it had little to do with “chasing pleasure” that is all too common in the modern world.

For the Epicureans pleasure was indeed the highest good, but it was understood mostly as the absence of pain. Bit of a twist, isn’t it? They didn’t seek positive, let alone “unnatural” or “excess” pleasure. What they sought was the peace of mind found in a life without suffering or disturbance. “Be content with little,” said Marcus Aurelius, and this speaks perfectly to the Epicurean ideal. For them, the mentioned “little” was tantamount to the absence of pain, suffering and displeasure.

Degrees of pleasure

Once we frame it this way, we can see quite a surprising link between the rivaling schools. We often imagine the Epicureans as down-to-earth pleasure seekers, while in reality they were quite focused on a highly frugal (one may say ascetic) ideal of life. Withdrawal from social commitments and political duties, focus on the simplest forms of life – that’s quite a different story than what we usually think of them.

At the end of the day “pleasure” is not a term that explains a lot. And this is true with the Stoics too. While Epicureanism is stereotyped as a pursuit of pleasure, Stoicism is deemed an avoidance of it. The Stoics are often seen as rigid figures, withdrawn from the ordinary pleasures and joys of life. In Stoicism virtue itself is the highest good – the only good indeed. Pleasure is a risky business, something to be held at arm’s length.

From junk pleasures to higher pleasures

But let’s now introduce gradation of pleasures. It might be short-term pleasurable to do crack cocaine and eat junk food, there is no denying that. Yet it is – in a specific sense of the term – more pleasurable to not do drugs and live a healthy lifestyle. Doing the former might bring more “immediate,” cheap (and dangerous) pleasure, while doing the latter for a more sustained, healthier form of it. If we want to treat “pleasure” as a serious concept, we need to allow different levels, or “grades” of it. There is a ladder here: junk pleasures at the bottom, healthy lifestyle higher, healthy relationships higher still, and so on.

Can’t we now add on just one more step to the ladder and put the Stoics on top? Nurturing virtue, maximizing our agency, smart steadfastness, devotion to making the best choices available all-things-considered – can’t we describe it as the purest, the highest pleasure of all? It works with me! And based on my extensive experience in teaching Stoicism, it works with others too.

Some may say it’s semantics, but there is a more profound matter at stake. Discussing philosophy, we use terms like “pleasure”, “virtue”, or “nature” as if they had some universal and universally agreed-upon meaning in themselves. We use them as tokens and bargaining chips in our arguments. But the truth is the interpretations vary a lot. When we talk about “living according to nature” (Stoicism) or “seeking pleasure” (Epicureanism) without specifying what we mean, we miss more than we explain. I will even say that the more we focus on the actual meaning and message we want to pass through, the more loose we can be with our vocabulary.

Is it really that counterintuitive to say that a Stoic life is the most pleasurable of all? Well, to me it isn’t! Life calculated and “integrated” in a Stoic manner may truly be the most satisfying of all. Can’t we just call it a pleasure? Semantics. But we don’t have to give in to the crude, carnal, and mundane meaning of what pleasure is.

Dr. Piotr Stankiewicz, Ph.D., is a writer and philosopher, and promoter of reformed Stoicism. He authored Manual of Reformed Stoicism, and Does Happiness Write Blank Pages?

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