In the first post of the Epicureanism 101 series, we talked about Epicurus’s division between types of desires. He divides between necessary, unnecessary, and unnatural desires to provide us a guide to focus our behavior.

But focus it toward what? That’s the question we answer in today’s post.

For the Epicurean, we aim for pleasure! That is to say that pleasure, for the Epicurean, is our final end or goal. It’s how we achieve eudaimonia.

So, in this post, I’ll say a bit about pleasure.

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It’s been more than 10 years since I finished my dissertation and published my first book. Both centered on the notion of practices. Hitting that round number pushed me to think back to that work and its significance to me – both to my intellectual development and my personal life.

Like much of the work I’ve done as an activist or in my career, it was all pretty heterodox for its time and place. I got my education at a very traditional analytic philosophy department, while my work cut across the lesser appreciated analytic and even continental (!) traditions.

But I bear no grudges there. I’ve never minded heterodoxy. And I’ve greatly appreciated my education both then and now.

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