In this fifth post in the Epicureanism 101 series, we’ll take a moment to sketch out one key difference between Epicureanism and rival Hellenistic schools of philosophy.
The Hellenistic period stretched roughly from the rise of Alexander’s empire to the death of Cicero and the Roman Republic. Its influence continued through the first couple of centuries of the Roman Empire. And from this period came many key philosophical schools, including not only the Epicureans, but also the Stoics and Skeptics, as well as the Cyrenaics and the continued influence of Plato and Aristotle.
Most relevant to this post, the schools sharply differ in how they treat virtues.
So, let’s talk about virtues for a bit.
Virtues and Eudaimonia
The Hellenistic schools focused on eudaimonia, meaning that their ethical theories focused on what brings happiness or flourishing in life. Virtue enters the picture, therefore, in relation to happiness or flourishing. In short, it amounts to a set of character traits or dispositions to act in a certain manner. And the Hellenistic schools focused, in particular, on the virtues of practical wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.
For Aristotelians and Stoics, virtue stands out as the key part of their theories about how to attain eudaimonia. Aristotle theorized that we achieve flourishing in life by performing rational actions well. And we get to that point by carefully cultivating the virtues. Virtues – particularly the ones I listed above – help us live in a political community. And insofar as humans are naturally political animals, virtues thereby form a key way to fulfill our role as humans.
But, at least for Aristotle, virtue isn’t the entire story. In addition to cultivating virtue, we also need access the basic goods in life. Aristotle flatly denied that we can live a good life while also enduring terrible hardship.
The Stoics, by contrast, place virtue in an even more central role than it held for the Aristotelians. For the Stoic, virtue forms nearly the entire story about flourishing in life. On the Stoic view, we should live in accordance with nature. And virtue is the only path in accordance with nature that is always good. That places it in a central role in our flourishing.
Epicureans the Instrumental Value of Virtue
So, that gives us some sense of what Epicurean rivals held. Both the Aristotelian and the Stoic hold that virtue is intrinsically valuable. They stand in accordance with our nature as humans. Virtues are good in themselves rather than good because of something they gain for us.
Readers might recall from an earlier post in the Epicureanism 101 series (The Nature of Pleasure) that Epicurus proposes a different route to eudamonia. Epicureans are hedonists, meaning that pleasure is the way to go about achieving flourishing in life. Furthermore, the Epicurean holds that it is static pleasures, i.e., a state of absence of mental and physical pain, that’s the true path to eudaimonia. While pleasure stands out as intrinsically valuable, virtues do not. At least, not on their own.
Does this mean that the Epicurean ignores virtue? Does the Epicurean advise us not to cultivate virtues?
Not at all.
In fact, Epicurus advises us to act virtuously in order to achieve the right sort of pleasure. He places key emphasis on the virtue of practical wisdom or prudence, which amounts to the ability or disposition to make sound judgments. We use practical wisdom to, among other things, decide how to prioritize and order ways of achieving pleasure.
In saying that Epicureans value virtue because it helps us achieve pleasure, we’re saying that virtue is instrumentally valuable for the Epicurean. The Epicurean acts virtuously not because of the virtues themselves, but rather because of the role they play in helping us achieve the thing that is intrinsically valuable, i.e., pleasure. Virtues serve as an instrument to achieve pleasure, and thereby help us along the path to eudaimonia.
Virtue and the Hellenistic Schools
While some might think this means Epicureans discount the importance of virtue, that charge is rather unfair. Both Epicurus and many later Epicureans make clear that virtue is incredibly important to living a good Epicurean life.
Just not in the way the Aristotelians and Stoics think.
P.S. – Epicureanism 101
Here’s a link to the first four posts in the Epicureanism 101 series:
1. Types of Desires
2. The Nature of Pleasure
3. Fear of Death
4. Science and Ethics
