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