Theme: The Epicurean pleasure principle versus the African moral dimension.
Introduction
Pleasure seems an interesting dimension of life worthy pursuit. The question is what is pleasure? Pleasure is defined differently, to some it is the absence of pain, to others it is satisfying the biological and emotional needs, to some, it is an extravagance issue and some associate it with hedonism eat for tomorrow you shall die (Norman 2015:9). For Epicurus, pleasure is doing things in moderation, consumption, introspection, companionship, self-control, temperance, calmness and lack of sensual luxury, free from the fear of gods and death (Gaarder, 1995:112).Given this backdrop; it is in the best interest of this paper to discuss ho Epicurean pleasure …show more content…
It teaches that one should withdrawal from the community and joins a bunch of friends. For him friends help one to have a desired pleasure. This is a bit different with the Africans way of doing things. Most Africans are communitarians. When it comes to pleasure generally “pleasure is not pleasure until it is shared (Mangena, 2012: 8) by a community. In other words pleasure outside a community is regarded as unethical, individualistic and an anomaly. Thus we have the saying, from John S Mbiti: “I am because we are, since we are therefore I am” (Mangena, 2012:10). The weakness with this African and Epicurean pleasure principle is that the community or a few friends might agree on a principle which is altogether unhelpful.
6. The strengths of epicurean pleasure principle
1. He is correct to observe that pursuing materialism should be abandoned because it leads to misery than pleasure just as in our modern world where the extreme preaching of prosperity gospel has a materialistic thrust.
2. In making an observation that moderation is the principle of pleasure is a brilliant remark because common sense tell us that extremity of anything brings about problems e.g. too much eating, too much drinking, too much sex, and too much fame.
3. The three categories of pleasure are phenomenal because they help individuals to do things in
Introduction
Pleasure seems an interesting dimension of life worthy pursuit. The question is what is pleasure? Pleasure is defined differently, to some it is the absence of pain, to others it is satisfying the biological and emotional needs, to some, it is an extravagance issue and some associate it with hedonism eat for tomorrow you shall die (Norman 2015:9). For Epicurus, pleasure is doing things in moderation, consumption, introspection, companionship, self-control, temperance, calmness and lack of sensual luxury, free from the fear of gods and death (Gaarder, 1995:112).Given this backdrop; it is in the best interest of this paper to discuss ho Epicurean pleasure …show more content…
It teaches that one should withdrawal from the community and joins a bunch of friends. For him friends help one to have a desired pleasure. This is a bit different with the Africans way of doing things. Most Africans are communitarians. When it comes to pleasure generally “pleasure is not pleasure until it is shared (Mangena, 2012: 8) by a community. In other words pleasure outside a community is regarded as unethical, individualistic and an anomaly. Thus we have the saying, from John S Mbiti: “I am because we are, since we are therefore I am” (Mangena, 2012:10). The weakness with this African and Epicurean pleasure principle is that the community or a few friends might agree on a principle which is altogether unhelpful.
6. The strengths of epicurean pleasure principle
1. He is correct to observe that pursuing materialism should be abandoned because it leads to misery than pleasure just as in our modern world where the extreme preaching of prosperity gospel has a materialistic thrust.
2. In making an observation that moderation is the principle of pleasure is a brilliant remark because common sense tell us that extremity of anything brings about problems e.g. too much eating, too much drinking, too much sex, and too much fame.
3. The three categories of pleasure are phenomenal because they help individuals to do things in