Just realized i never did this. Here's my outline.
The general summary of Epicureanism i have is that living pleasantly is the absolute goal, and all other things virtue, epistemology, and physics is completely subject to this. With living pleasantly being the most important and only genuine good, that is, it is the only thing worth pursuing and we naturally pursue it, here's my takeaway from Epicurus on how to live pleasantly.
On How to live Pleasantly.
- Cultivate loving relationships, the feeling of being loved and cared for is more important than even food or water, with Friendship being most central. And the best way to cultivate this is by the virtues of being loving, understanding, generous, friendly, just, and being able to be completely honest about yourself by staying away from vice and finding like-minded people, and sharing your genuine interests with your friends, if you can't be honest with them, it's not a good relationship either because of you or them, and you should either change your habits to be able to be more honest, or get rid of a relationship which brings more problems than it's worth.
- Remember that your body and mind genuinely gets used to almost any diet or lifestyle after a short while and does not "need" fancy luxury every afternoon, and is cheapened by more indulgence, not less. Trust in your ability of hedonic adaption and remember it, both to enjoy luxury more by enjoying things when they come, and not risking harm over trivial luxuries through obesity, anxiety over money, etc.
- One must continually remember and reread the truth of how easily a good life is acquired and revere it, feel it in your bones, to avoid ruminating thoughts and empty fears.
- Cultivate gratitude for past and present goods, and a calm hope for future ones. I am only 23 years old but as sadistic as it may sound, i sometimes think about how many didn't even make it to be one year old or 10 to feel more gratitude for the 23 years I've had and hopefully more, I like the Lucretius line about getting joy at seeing those stranded at sea, not out of malice, but out of knowing our own current pleasures. More importantly...
- Don't catastrophize and avoid rumination on the future like the devil, don't do doom scrolling. Cicero quotes Epicurus as saying that filling ourselves up with anxiety is just filling ourselves up with a present evil which may never come and waste energy on pursuing current pleasures and i think he would agree it chiefly causes neglect of good habits, thought he doesn't say it. Tusculan Disputations III.15.32. Usener 444
- Remember that wisdom requires action as well as knowledge, so actually implement your knowledge, It's useless to know things are right if you don't implement them out of sloth or fear, this helped give me the kick in the but i needed to lose weight and outreach more to my friends and brothers. (Went from 20 pounds away to class three obesity to nine pounds away from healthy weight now). I I also learned of a lovely quote from Polyeaneus thank to Hiram Crespo's blog "Habits are born of small things, but bad habits gain vigor through our neglect.
- Believe strongly that your life is decided by your actions and disposition, and don't believe or blame a terrible life on necessity or luck, which rarely makes a life miserable compared to our own choices. In short, belief in free will is obvious to our own senses and important for living happily.
- Don't feel fear about the gods (who at best don't care about what you do), death (which is nothing to us and distracts from today), or pain (which is not as bad as we think when it comes and the worst evil is usually all the anxiety before it comes)
- I follow the idealist interpretation on Epicurean gods and both believe it's what Epicurus taught and my own view that i implement in daily life, i personally like imagining gods made of star dust and dancing around in the universe.
- I am a psychological hedonist and i believe Epicurus was as well.
(Possibly) Modern updates.
- I am skeptical that the wise man can always be happy, I certainly think the wise man can always deal with misfortune better than fools so it's still worth pursuing, but reading about cases like Blanche Monnier makes me think that they're are hard limits to what the mind can endure. Perhaps someone can maintain happiness in these condition but I'm skeptical.
- I tend to think money matters more than Epicurus may think, and isn't as completely anxious as he may think it is, in large part due to emergency expenses that life throws at us and a sense of freedom to do our own things. I absolutely agree with him that fame and power are largely not as helpful as advertised and usually harmful and love of just money itself and not security that comes with it is very harmful, but because of health concerns, insurance, student loans, or car payments, i think money is genuinely quite important, perhaps more than Epicurus lets on. This could just be a difference in definition of "poverty", or difficulties in modern life versus the ancient world due to insurance and cars, since i largely agree with Philodemus "On Property Management".
- I think a feeling of self-esteem, a good deal of mental stimulation, and feeling of doing something worthwhile is a natural and necessary desires, sadly just because of how humans are hardwired to feel anxious if we don't have this. Not sure Epicurus would disagree with this. I imagine it's a bit of a modern problem.
- I am personally a bit of bible nerd to learn more about how absurd it is whenever i feel mystified or afraid of hell. And think knowledge of scriptures claims may be necessary for happiness and not just natural science.
- Like most, i am more positive about love and children than past Epicureans, so long as we agree to only pursue someone who we would actively want as a friend as well as a romantic partner. Along with delight of seeing children grow up. For the record i follow Emily A. Austin in think Epicurus is more against "obsessive lust" than "love" in our language and is fine with good romantic partners but does not tolerate obsessive lust with toxic partners.
Favorite medium?
Frances Wright long discussion of the virtues in chapter 10.
Vatican Sayings 35, 46, 52, 54-55.
The description of the wise man in the Letter to Menoeceus. I believe picturing the life we most want and the types of life we avoid by wisdom is extremely beneficial and Philodemus himself recommends it.
The movie "Soul" by Pixar.
Hope you guys enjoy!