What is the good life? Many philosophers believe that they know what a good life is, what it consists of and how the good life can be reached. Lucretius, a Roman philosopher who followed the idea of Epicureanism, believed that simple pleasures and avoiding pain is happiness which leads to the good life opposed to Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who followed the idea of Stoicism, believed that one should never desire or seek pleasure whatsoever. Although Epicureanism may sound similar to Epictetus, the founder of this system of philosophy was actually Epicurus, who was Lucretius' role model. His philosophy "proposed that the ultimate goal of human life was happiness, and that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a
…show more content…
Lucretius and Epicureanism believes in freedom and free will. If we are released from all fears, for example, the gods and death, and just analyze life we are being lead to a life of happiness. For many people, they a fearful of death, but "death is nothing to us and no concern of ours, since the nature of the mind is now held to be mortal" (Lucretius 45). This means that we should not fear death because we have no conscious when we are dead. This case is very similar to before we were born. This relates to everyday society because people are very fearful of many things, one is being hurt. If pain is still occurring in our life, we are not achieving a happy or good …show more content…
They may not agree with each other, but that's the whole point of philosophy. Imagine if each philosopher agreed with each other then there wouldn't be a point to the whole subject. Yes, sex is our way, as humans, to reproduce and create offspring, but not everyone needs to have sex. Sexual desires are considered natural, but unnecessary. For example, Catholic priests and nuns do not have sex because their relationship is with God. As well as people that follow Catholicism, believe in abstinence which is the belief of not having sex before marriage. What if that person never gets married? Then they never have sex. How does anyone know what's to become of us after death? No one has risen from the dead to tell us what their experience was like or what is on the other side of life. Scientifically speaking, yes, we are unconscious, but who's to say that there is no afterlife like heaven, hell, or reincarnation. It's necessarily we avoid pain, but we try not to get hurt as much as possible, not avoid pain all together. Simply because if we were to avoid pain all together, we wouldn't know what it's like to be happy and to appreciate what we have. Pain comes with happiness, and vice versa. For that, I believe that Lucretius is the philosopher that is most relevant to our day and
Lucretius and Epicureanism believes in freedom and free will. If we are released from all fears, for example, the gods and death, and just analyze life we are being lead to a life of happiness. For many people, they a fearful of death, but "death is nothing to us and no concern of ours, since the nature of the mind is now held to be mortal" (Lucretius 45). This means that we should not fear death because we have no conscious when we are dead. This case is very similar to before we were born. This relates to everyday society because people are very fearful of many things, one is being hurt. If pain is still occurring in our life, we are not achieving a happy or good …show more content…
They may not agree with each other, but that's the whole point of philosophy. Imagine if each philosopher agreed with each other then there wouldn't be a point to the whole subject. Yes, sex is our way, as humans, to reproduce and create offspring, but not everyone needs to have sex. Sexual desires are considered natural, but unnecessary. For example, Catholic priests and nuns do not have sex because their relationship is with God. As well as people that follow Catholicism, believe in abstinence which is the belief of not having sex before marriage. What if that person never gets married? Then they never have sex. How does anyone know what's to become of us after death? No one has risen from the dead to tell us what their experience was like or what is on the other side of life. Scientifically speaking, yes, we are unconscious, but who's to say that there is no afterlife like heaven, hell, or reincarnation. It's necessarily we avoid pain, but we try not to get hurt as much as possible, not avoid pain all together. Simply because if we were to avoid pain all together, we wouldn't know what it's like to be happy and to appreciate what we have. Pain comes with happiness, and vice versa. For that, I believe that Lucretius is the philosopher that is most relevant to our day and