Report and reflection: Write an – approx. 750 or more word response to the following 3-part prompt (make sure to do the steps in order).
1) How does this weeks reading (eicurusreading posted int the weekly work area) relate to psychology? (open ended)
2) Why do you think, I the instructor, started assigning this reading to my students in April of 2020?
3) What did you find most meaningful in this reading?
Note: In your journal I would like you to explain, describe, discuss with detail, thoughtfulness,and perhapsnuance. (You may even includehumourif you see fit.)
Hint:In your reportand reflection- I'd liketo see you discussthe matter and your findings in relationship to a) relevant material from the textbook, b) your beliefs and feelingsabout yourself, and c)your lived experience.
https://learn.senecacollege.ca/bbcswebdav/pid-11286725-dt-content-rid-60269388_2/xid-60269388_2
The Consolations of Philosophy ALAIN DE BOTTON PA N THBO N BOOKS . NEW YORK Copyright C woo by Ahin de Botton Ali rights reserved under Intemational and Pan-Amuican Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New Yock, and in Canada by Random House ofCanada Limit(!d, Toronto. Origina.lly published in Creat Britain by Hamish Hamilton, a division of P(!nguin Books Ltd., London. Pantheon Books and colophon are registered rrademarks of Random House, Inc. Pennissions acknowledgments appear on pagc:s 256-58. Libcary ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O(! Bonon, Alam. The consolations ofphi1osophy I Alam de Botton . p. an. ISIN 0-679-44276-6 I . Philosophical counseling. l. Tide. 1)1595.5.043 U)OO IOI-dOI 99-052188 www.panmeonbooks.com Printed in the United States of Am(!rica First American Edition 111,e chapfer fitle appellrs 0 11 page 43 iII fhe original. I Consolation for Not Having Enough Money 2 An anomaly among an often pleasure-hating and austere fratemiry, there was one philosopher who seemed to understand and want ro help. 'I don't know how I shall conceive of the good: he wrote, 'if I tak.e away the pleasures ofraste. uI take away sexual pleasure. ii r take away the pleasure Df hearing. and ii I take away the sweet emotions that are caused by the sighr ofbeautiful forms. > Epicurus was bom in .341 Be on the verdant ísland of Sarnas, a few miles off the coase of\Vestem Asia Minor. He took early tO phílo- sophy, traveIling &om the age of fourteen to hear Iessons trom the Platonist Pamphilus and the atomic philosopher Nausiphanes. Sut he found he could not agree with much of what they taught and by bis late twenties had decided to arrange bis thoughts into bis own philosophy oflife. He was said to have wriuen 300 books on almost everything, including On !.ove, On Music, OnJust Dealing, On H.man Lifo (in four books) and On Natu" (in thirty·seven books), though by a catastrophic series Df mishaps. almost ali were lost over the cenruries, leaving his philosophy to be' reconstructed from a few surviving fragments and the testimony ofIater Epicureans. What immediately distinguished his philosophy was an emphasis on the importance of sensual pleasure: 'Pleasure is the beginning and the goal of a happy life: assened Epicurus, confirming what many had long thought but philosophy had rarely accepted. The philosopher confessed his love of excellent food: 'The beginning and root of every good is the pleasure of che stomach. Even wis- dom and cu1rure must be referred to this.' Philosophy properly perfonned was to be nothing Jess than a guide to pleasure: The man who alleges that he is Doe yee ready for philosophy or that 50 CotUolation for Not Having Enough Monty the time for it has passed him by. is like the man who says that he is either too young or too old for happiness. Few phi1osophers had ever made such frank admissions of their interest in a pleasurable lifestyle. It shocked many. especially when they heard that Epicurus had arrracted the supporr of some wealthy people, first in Lampsacus in the Dardanelles, and then in Athens. and had used their money to set up a philosophical estah- lishment to promote happiness. The school admined both men and women. and encouraged them tO live and study pleasure together. The idea ofwhat was going on inside the school appeared at once titillating and morally reprehensible. There were frequent leaks trom disgruntled Epicureans detailing activities between lecrures. Timocrates. the brother of Epicurus's assodare Metrodorus, spread a rumour ehat Epicurus had to vomit twice a day because he ate so much. And Diotimus the Stoie took the unkind step of publishing fifty lewd letters which he said had been written by Epicuros when he'd been drunk and sexually frenzied. Despire these critidsms, Epicurus's teachings continued tO attract support. They spread across the Mediterranean world; schools for pleasure were founded in Syria, Judaea, Egypt, Italy and Gaul; and the philosophy remained influential for the next 500 yea"" on1y 51 The Coruolations ofPhilosophy gradually to be extinguished by the hostility of forbidding bar- barians and Christians during lhe decline of lhe Roman Empire in the West. Even men, Epicurus's name entered many languages in adjectival form as a tribute to his interests (Oxford English Dictionary: 'Epicurean: devoted to the pursuit of pleasure; hence, luxurious, sensual, gluttonous'). I 11,e Jlwlerial below appellrs 011 pages 53 lIIul 54 iII lhe original. I 3 The consistency ofthe associations provoked by Epicurus's philos- ophy throughout the ages, from Diotimus the Stoic to the editOrs of Epicurean Life, testifies to the way in which, once the word 'pIea- sure' has been mentioned, it seems obvious what is entailed. 'What do I need for a happy Iifer is far from a challenging question when money is no objecto At the heart of Epicureanism is the thought that we are as bad at intuitívely answering 'What will make me happy?' as 'What will make me healthy?' The answer which most rapidly comes to mind is liable to be as faulty. Qur souIs do not spell out their u"Oubles more clearly than our bodies, and our intuitive diagnoses are rarely any more accurate. 5' Consolation for Not Having Enough Money Ir is because they understand bodily maladies better than we can thar we seek doctors. We should tum to philosophers for the sarne reason when our sou1 is unwell - and judge them according to a similar eriterion : Just as medicine confers no benefit if it does nor drive away physi- cal illness, so phi1osophy is useless if ir does oor drive away the suffering of the mind. The task of philosophy was, for Epicurus, to help us interpret our indistinct pulses af disrress and desire and thereby save us from mistaken schemes for happiness. We were to cease acting on first impulses, and instead investigate the rationality of our desires according to a method of questioning dose to that used by Socrates in evaluating ethical definitions over a hundred years earlier. And by providing what might at times feellike counter-inruitive diag- noses of our ailments, philosophy would - Epicurus promised - guide us to superior cures and true happiness. Epicurus 341 BC-2.70 Be 55 4 Those who had heard the rumours must have been surprised to discover the real tastes of the philosopher of pleasure. There was no grand house. The food was simple, Epicurus drank water raeher ehan wine, and was happy wieh a dinner of bread, vegeta- bles and a palrnful of olives. 'Send me a pat of cheese, so ehat I may have a feasl whenever I like: he asked a friend. Such were the tastes of a man who had described pleasure as the purpose of life. He had flot meant to deceive. His devotion to pleasure was far greater than even the orgy accusers could have imagined. It was just that after rational analysis, he had come to some striking con- clusions about what actually rnade life pleasurable - and fortu- nately for those lacking a large incorne, it seemed that the essential ingredients of pleasure, however elusive, were not very expensive. Happiness, an Epicurean acquisition list 1. Friendship On returning to Aehens in 306 Be aI the age of thiJty-five, Epicurus settled on an unusual domestic arrangernent. He located a large house a few miles from the centre of Athens, in the Melite district between tbe market-place and the harbour at Piraeus, and moved in wieh a group of friends . He was joined by Metrodorus and his sister, the mathematician Polyaenus, Hermarchus, Leonteus and bis wife Themista, and a merchant called Idomeneus (who soon married Metrodorus's sister). There was enough space in tbe house Consolation for Not Having En01l.gh Money for the mends to have their own quaners, and there were common rooms for meals and conversarions. Epicurus observed that: Of ali the things that wisdom provides to help one tive one's entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is lhe possession of friendship. Such was his attachment to congenial company, Epicurus recom- mended that one tty never to eat alone: Sefore you eat or drink anything, consider carefully who you eat or drink with rather tban what you eat or drink.: for feeding witbout a fricnd is the Ufe of a lion or a wolf. The household ofEpicurus resembled a large family, but ehere was seeming1y no sullenness nor sense of confinement, on1y sympathy and gentleness. We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no rneaning until someone can understand, white to be surrounded by mends is constantly to have our identity con- finned; eheir knowledge and care for us have ehe pawer to pull us from our numbness. ln small comments, many of them teasing, they reveal they know our foibles and accept mem and so, in rum, accept that we have a place in the world. We can ask them 'Isn't he frlghtening1' or 'Do you ever feel that ... 1' and be undersrood, rather than encounter the puzzled 'No, notparticu1arly' - which can make us feel , even when in company, as lonely as polar exploreIS. True friends do not evaluate us according to worldly criteria, it is the core self they are interested in; like ideal parents, their love for us remains unaffected by our appearance or position in tbe social hierarchy, and so we have no qualms in dressing in old cloehes and revealing mat we have made Iittle money tbis year. The desire for riches should perhaps not always be understood as a simple hunger for a luxurious life, a more impoI1ant motive might be the wish to be appreciated and treated nicely. We may seek a forrune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would oeherwise look straight through uso Epicurus, discerning 57 TIIe COIUolAliOlU ofPhilosophy our underlying need, recognized that a handful of troe friends could deliver