On Happiness: Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines

Summary

On Happiness is the modern title commonly given to a short collection of Epicurus's ethical writings. Epicurus himself wrote no work with that name; the library edition gathers the two texts usually printed under it: the Letter to Menoeceus, in which he summarizes his teaching on the good life for a young follower, and the Principal Doctrines, or Sovran Maxims, forty short sayings that served as a catechism for his school. Both survive only because the third-century biographer Diogenes Laertius quoted them in full in Book X of his Lives of Eminent Philosophers. The translation is by Robert Drew Hicks, published in the Loeb Classical Library in 1925. The Letter to Menoeceus begins by urging that philosophy is for all ages, because no one is too young or too old for the health of the soul. Epicurus then lays out the 'fourfold remedy' that his followers memorized: the gods are blessed and immortal and do not trouble themselves with us, so we need not fear them; death is nothing to us, because where death is, we are not; the good is easy to obtain; and pain is easy to endure. He distinguishes natural and necessary desires from vain ones, and he insists that by pleasure he does not mean the pleasures of the profligate, but the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. Plain bread and water give the highest pleasure to the hungry, and prudence is the greatest good, from which all the virtues spring. The Principal Doctrines repeat and extend these themes, adding teaching on justice as a contract not to harm or be harmed, and on friendship as the greatest of the means to happiness. For classical Christian students the text is important as a clear statement of a pagan alternative to Christian hope. The early church saw Epicureans as atheists in practice, Paul debated them at Athens (Acts 17:18), and their denial of providence, judgment and resurrection directly opposes the Gospel. Yet Epicurus's teaching on simple living, friendship and the folly of greed offers points of contact. Students should read him carefully and charitably before answering him.

Top Lessons

• The fear of death

  Epicurus argues death is nothing to us. Christians answer that death is an enemy defeated by Christ.

• Simple living

  Epicurus teaches that natural desires are easily satisfied and vain desires are endless.

• Friendship

  He calls friendship the most important means to happiness.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Epicurus presented philosophy as medicine for the soul; his teaching on pain and the fear of death is a classic early form of therapeutic philosophy.

• Letter to Menoeceus

  The fourfold remedy against fear of gods and death.

• Principal Doctrines 4

  Continuous pain does not last long in the flesh.