epicurean framework
A quadrant approach to Epicurean thinking.
Some thinkers are so ahead of their time they baffle the age they are in. They inspire great men to carve their sayings into stone walls at marketplaces for the people passing to understand and be inspired. Their words are saved by religious organizations even though they said gods did not care about people nor should they if they were right and powerful. Epicurus was simple but his ideas were grand and often misquoted. Epicurus lived around 300 years before Jesus Christ and 870 before The Prophet Muhammad thus famine, plagues, war, slavery and maladies were common. Clean water was not available, so wine was frequently used to store liquid and cheese was a novelty. Money was recently in circulation in then Greece and trade in luxury goods was starting.
I read these three books on Epicurus Living for Pleasure, The Hedonicon and Epicurus and the Pleasant Life and can say that I have adapted Epicurus framework to assess idea's and perhaps place them on a spectrum from natural and necessary which are good in an Epicurean view to unnatural and unnecessary which are not evil by themselves but the pursuit and wielding the idea or tool like a weapon, or icon could be. Pain was certainly evil and anxiety about pain would be a terrible idea since pain itself was generally a brief and endurable event.
Epicurus felt seeking pleasure and avoiding pain was the highest good or pursuit in life. He did not feel people were particularly good at assessing what was pleasurable or good in life. In the simplest sense, Epicurus thought that desires that were self-evident to a baby were both natural and necessary and that food, water and shelter were natural and necessary. Using relatedness, the warmth of a mother’s breast could provide all the natural and necessary desires. Pain was uncomfortable and to be avoided thus a baby would cry seeking pleasure.
The three quadrants Epicurus describes at length are natural and necessary, natural but unnecessary and unnatural and unnecessary. Emily Austin chooses to simplify the quadrants using natural desires (natural, necessary), extravagant desires (natural, unnecessary) and corrosive desires (unnatural, unnecessary) which is great and much easier to read but neglects the (unnatural, necessary) quadrant of a model. During Epicurus’ time were fewer and perhaps optional. Based on living in 2025, I would recommend understanding the (unnatural, necessary) I will call them “unnoticed desires” to stay out of jail by obeying enough laws, paying taxes and understanding culture and government. These are not natural in the biological or hard science sense but they are “prudent desires” if you want to live an unnoticed life, which in my reading Epicurus would have liked.
Metering our attention between natural desires(natural, necessary) and prudent desires(unnatural, necessary) will keep us out of trouble with friends, businesses, the police, and governments.
The rare treat of fine wine or fancy cheese shared with good friends are natural but unnecessary desire and creates amazing memories that were made and could carry us through tough times or pain. Here great memories and solid relationships are built with rare indulgences being paramount. I roomed with a mate one summer who figured this out before I did. I inquired if he wanted a sandwich and he said “Yes” being a good friend I asked, “what would like on your sandwich?” He replied “Anything.” He was hungry and both the generosity of me making the sandwich and my novel selection of composition he was looking forward to. He understood implicitly that any sandwich he did not make tasted better, and we would comment on the novel choices if we would have used different ingredients or why but that was 23 years ago and I am fond of the impromptu lunches we made each other.
Corrosive desires (unnatural, unnecessary) would be limitless items that you can never have enough of a framework for addiction unsatiable things, food, sex, drugs, money, power and fame could all go on a spectrum from natural amounts to unnatural amounts. Thus I find the quadrant framework thinking very helpful. The books were excellent in exposing me to the argument and opposing thought leaders in historical times.
Feel free to think about Epicurus' ideas or use his thinking as a framework to prepare the mind.