Epicurus
John Stuart Mill - 1806-1873
- english utilitarian - strong advocate for women's rights
Epicurus on women
- likely taught women - women could also benefit from the study of philosophy and attain ataraxia
Epicurus (341-270 BCE)
- started philosophical therapeutic community, the garden - life of community: memorization, confession, informing, ecstatic cries, clapping, reverencing, adoration
Epicurean Ethics: Importance of understanding the difference between (2 things)
1. natural and unnatural (empty) desires 2. necessary and unnecessary natural desires
Romans thought ___________ were Epicureans
Christians
Highest state available to human beings - absence of distress, tranquility (like Buddhism)
ataraxia
Epicurus denied the existence of an........death was the end of awareness, the end of pleasure and pain and should not be feared
eternal soul
Ataraxia is the.........
goal of life; a life undisturbed
Utilitarians such as Bentham and Mill argued against..............
laws criminalizing consensual adult sexual relationships, including same sex relationships - such relationships did not meet the standard of harm necessary for the state to intervene and restrict free action
Empty desires are both...........
natural and unnatural - also called socially constructed desires (ex: desire for wifi)
Unnecessary desires......
natural to the body, but not necessary to life (desire for sex)
Our experiences of pleasure and pain is shaped by.......
our desires
The best strategy towards happiness is.............of desires
simplification (we need to eat, but not filet mignon)
Harm principle
that individual liberty can only be restricted when the action of that individual poses harm to others
Basic to Epicurean ethics is that human beings share........
the capacity to experience pleasure and pain - pleasure is good; pain is bad
Epicurus saw no reason for humans to fear __________ or fear their wrath and blessings
the gods; he believed the gods would not involve themselves in such behavior
Necessary desires........
those desires necessary to life (hunger, thirst) - if we don't act on them, we will die
Influential modern moral theory is........
utilitarianism
Moral principle of utilitarianism (principle of utility)
we strive to bring about the greatest good (pleasure over pain) for the greatest number