Epicurus's Happiness & Descartes' Methodical Doubt

Epicurus on Achieving Happiness

According to Epicurus, happiness can be achieved through two complementary approaches: a negative path focused on eliminating suffering, and a positive path centered on cultivating pleasures.

The Negative Path: Eliminating Pain and Fear

This approach involves avoiding physical pain and ridding oneself of unfounded fears. Epicurus identified common fears and argued why they are irrational:

• Fear of the Gods: There is no need to fear the gods. Either they do not exist, or if they do, their transcendent nature means they are not concerned with human affairs and do not intervene in our lives.
• Fear of Death: Death should not be feared. When we are alive, death is not present; when death arrives, we no longer exist to experience it. Thus, death is nothing to us.
• Fear of Fate: One should not be anxious about fate. While natural laws govern the universe, worrying about an unchangeable destiny is futile and detracts from present well-being.

The Positive Path: Cultivating Wise Pleasures

This path involves actively seeking and enjoying pleasures, but only those that are wise and contribute to long-term well-being (ataraxia - tranquility, and aponia - absence of pain). Epicurean pleasures should be:

1. Natural and Necessary: Prioritize pleasures that are natural (e.g., satisfying hunger with simple food, enjoying companionship, appreciating music, walking). Desires for artificial or excessive things like fame, power, or great wealth are often seen as sources of turmoil because they are insatiable and unnatural.
2. Moderate: Pleasures should be enjoyed in moderation. Overindulgence or disordered desires can lead to dependence, pain, and a loss of self-mastery, ultimately undermining happiness.
3. Individually Understood: Each person must cultivate self-awareness to understand which pleasures are truly beneficial for them. Epicurus did not prescribe a rigid, universal set of rules, recognizing individual differences.
4. Shared with Friends: Friendship is crucial for happiness. Sharing pleasures and experiences with trusted friends enhances well-being. Epicurus valued community and mutual support, not radical individualism.

Descartes: The Quest for Certainty via Methodical Doubt

René Descartes is a pivotal figure in modern philosophy, known for his emphasis on finding truth from a foundational, indubitable starting point. This involved rejecting any belief based merely on authority or tradition, employing a systematic process known as "Methodical Doubt."

The Aim of Methodical Doubt

Methodical Doubt is Descartes' strategy for discovering absolute certainty by systematically doubting everything that could possibly be false. He clarified that this radical skepticism was a tool for philosophical inquiry into knowledge, not a guide for everyday moral action, for which he proposed a provisional morality.

Descartes' Provisional Morality

While engaging in his epistemological quest, Descartes adopted a temporary moral guide with three main maxims:

1. Obey Local Norms: Adhere to the laws, customs, and religious practices of one's society, choosing the most moderate and commonly accepted opinions.
2. Be Resolute in Action: Once a course of action is decided upon, pursue it with consistency and firmness, even if the underlying reasons are not perfectly certain.
3. Master Oneself, Not Fortune: Strive to change one's own desires and expectations rather than attempting to alter the external world, accepting what is beyond personal control.

The Stages of Methodical Doubt

Descartes detailed the progression of his doubt, notably in his Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy:

• Doubt of Sensory Information: He began by doubting the reliability of the senses, noting that they can deceive us (e.g., a distant square tower might appear round).
• Doubt of the External World's Existence: Descartes extended this doubt to the very existence of the physical world, considering that experiences like dreaming could mean that our perceptions are not rooted in an external reality but are mere mental fabrications.
• Initial Trust in Mathematical Truths: He considered mathematical and logical truths (e.g., "2+2=4," geometric principles) as more certain, seemingly independent of sensory experience or the existence of an external world.
• The "Evil Genius" Hypothesis: To push doubt to its absolute limit, Descartes hypothesized the existence of a supremely powerful and malicious "evil genius" or deceiver, capable of systematically deluding him even about the most fundamental mathematical or logical certainties.
• The Discovery of the First Certainty: This process of radical doubt ultimately led Descartes to his first indubitable truth: the certainty of his own existence as a thinking being. The provided text states he "discovers the first reality he has been searching for," which famously culminates in the principle "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am).