Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life by Emily Austin is one of the latest books propagating Epicurean philosophy as an answer to modern philosophical questioning. It is non-academic, written in a style that is friendly and easy to follow, and most modern Epicureans who have read the book seem to have a positive opinion of the book, as do I.

One of the ideas I appreciate (because this is such a prominent problem today) is her treatment of anxiety and how it relates to taraxis / perturbation. Epicurean philosophy helps us to diagnose (by signs) hindrances to happiness, and to tackle them rather than be avoidant. Epicureans do not use philosophy to escape nature, but to thrive in it and live pleasantly. This book discusses the many issues that are tackled directly by Epicurean therapeutics, and how Epicurus and the other Epicurean Guides act as life-coaches, helping us to address all the important philosophical projects related to our happiness.

Paraphrasing the Kyriai Doxai

One didactic method utilized by Philodemus of Gadara (most famously, in the Tetrapharmakos) is the practice of paraphrasing the Kyriai Doxai. This is different from repeating them, and is a way of memorizing them and gaining full cognitive assimilation of them.

One valid criticism of the Tetrapharmakos is that it risks oversimplifying the first four of the Principal Doctrines. But the truth is that we have no reason to supposed that the Tetrapharmakos ever meant to replace in-depth study of the first four, or to diminish the importance of the other 36 of the Kyriai Doxai. On the contrary, I believe that Philodemus is teaching us the method of paraphrasing, using the Tetrapharmakos as an example that we can apply to the other Kyriai Doxai. This is a point that Philodemus himself insists on in Scroll 1005. In fact, the most brilliant extant work by Philodemus is an extensive elaboration of the second of the Four Cures, which takes up an entire book titled Peri Thanatos (On Death), where he lists in detail all the pragmatic repercussions of the second Principal Doctrine.

Having cleared this out, let us delve into how Emily Austin uses the Philodeman technique of paraphrasing a Doxa in order to better cognitively assimilate it. In this case, she paraphrases Principal Doctrine 29 (“the hierarchy of desires”), which says:

Among desires, some are natural and necessary, some are natural and unnecessary, and some are unnatural and unnecessary (arising instead from groundless opinion).

Austin re-labels the three categories as natural (natural and necessary), extravagant (natural, unnecessary) and corrosive (neither natural nor necessary) desires. She uses this terminology throughout the book. I believe this technique of paraphrasing works well, and is a great way for Kyriai Doxai to adapt and become native to our modern, English language discourse.

Reading and Writing Epicurus

Austin argues that in addition to studying the Epicurean sources, the student should also write his own epitomes and essays of Epicurean philosophy, rehashing and expressing Epicurean ideas in her own vernacular. This is one way of practicing Vatican Saying 41, which instructs us to “utter out loud” the words of true philosophy, rather than merely be a passive recipient of them.

In my experience, gathering our thoughts after we have spent time becoming experts in some aspect of EP by writing down what we’ve learned, as if this was our final homework, is one of the best ways to demonstrate that we have assimilated what we are learning, and also a great way of potentially benefiting our Epicurean friends. When we articulate what we have learned, we have proof of profiting from our didactic process.

Therefore, this practice of reading and writing about Epicurus and his teachings is a great auto-didactic method. It was used in the days of the founders, who encouraged their pupils to keep outlines and summaries of the teachings. Much later, in Roman times, the Epicurean Guide Philodemus of Gadara instructed his own students to keep an outline of the doctrines on wealth. This demonstrates that the reading-and-writing method has been used to help students become experts in both the general points of the philosophy, and in the specific aspects.

Meleta on Friendship

I found the following quote thought-provoking. It adds practical observations to our meleta on PD 27, on the importance of friendship, that are helpful in our choices and rejections. Perhaps some of my readers can add their own criteria to this list.

Using Epicurean standards, we might locate beneficial friendships and weed out harmful relationships along the following lines:

• If someone makes us insecure bout our intellect, taste, status, or attractiveness, jump ship.
• If someone abandons us or others in crisis, they cannot be trusted.
• If we do not like who we become around someone (e.g., we become petty, mean, judgmental, gossipy, or status-conscious), the relationship does not benefit us.

Our friends should not measure us by the metrics of corrosive desires, give us the sense they will abandon us when we become inconvenient, or bring out the worst in us.

Conclusion

Overall, this book is a great new addition to the modern study of Epicurus, and makes a great gift to a friend that we wish to introduce to the practice of Epicurean philosophy.

Further Reading:
Living for Pleasure: an Epicurean guide to life, by Emily A Austin