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Epicurus taught that pleasure meant avoiding pain through simple living with friends, no politics or stress. But the speaker argues that chasing an easy life makes you weak because hardship is where wisdom comes from.
Epicurus taught that pleasure meant avoiding pain through simple living with friends, no politics or stress. But the speaker argues that chasing an easy life makes you weak because hardship is where wisdom comes from.
Now I want to use two different teachings of philosophy that actually exacerbates the problem of not being able to find lessons in hardships or wasted time. You see, you have two camps. You have the Stoics and then you have the Epicureans. Now I'm positive most of you know what Stoics were, but a large portion of you probably never heard of the other camp that I just said. The Epicureans were followers of a Greek philosopher, Epicurus, and the big difference between them and the Stoics is this: they believe that pleasure is the highest good, basically hedonistic living, but not wild partying. Epicurus defined pleasure as absence of pain and peace of mind. They also avoided hardship and pain. They believed the smart life was one of ease, avoiding politics, avoiding stress, and seeking comfort. They also had a materialistic worldview. They thought everything was at most an avoid with no divine punishment or afterlife. They were really big on simple living. They weren't about luxury excess, more It's like living quietly with close friends, enjoying simple food, and avoiding drama. And while that sounds amazing and we'd probably all want that, we all know when that becomes the main focus of existence, we become weak. And this is the very pivotal moment in which people start to see hardship as something they want to avoid rather than it being something that just gave them raw material for wisdom.
