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  • I think it is important to re-state that the mind is a type of body, and that the satisfactions of the mind are, themselves, pleasures of the body. Regardless of any schema designed to organize the different pleasures into categories, all pleasures are pleasures of the body, require some type of energetic motion to instigate, and some of those active bodily pleasures are felt by the mental organ instead of the visual, auditory, chemical, kinesthetic, or thermal organs. I am very suspicious of th…
  • I thought it might be helpful to compile a list of pleasures and then try to group them accordingly. This is by no means an authoritative list, and we may find plenty of areas of overlap or disagreement: Katastematic Pleasures: Understanding that neither God nor Death are to be feared (KD 1, 2) Reassurance that all pain is temporary and severe pain is brief (KD 3) Acceptance that heavenly events are non-sentient physical phenomena (KD 11) Dispelling ignorance and suspicion through a dedicated st…
  • (Quote from Cassius) Aye, there's the rub. In general, my katastematic list includes pleasures that are enjoyed through the volitional activities of the mind (calculation, meditation, reflection, etc.) whereas my kinetic list includes pleasures that can be enjoyed without intellectual analysis and correction (hearing the sounds of birds in nature, being warmed by the sun, etc.). I am personally associating katastematic pleasures with "pleasures of the mind" and kinetic pleasures with "pleasures …
  • An excerpt from “Epicureans, Earlier Atomists, and Cyrenaics” by Stefano Maso: “According to Epicurus this is happiness, technically the katastematic pleasure: the well-established condition or state of the body in which pleasure does not change (On the Goal, fr. 22.3 Arrighetti). [...] It is crucial to note that natural but non-necessary desires are based on the varying of the perceptual experience. These various forms of desire are precisely what enable Epicurus to develop a conception of plea…
  • An excerpt from “Epicureans on Pleasure, Desire, and Happiness” by B. A. Rider: “Epicurus’ second important distinction between types of pleasure was more original and challenging, and its interpretation remains controversial. Epicurus evidently distinguished between kinetic pleasures—those involving some kind of “movement [kinesis]”—and katastematic (or static) pleasures (from “katastema” referring to a condition of equilibrium)— those arising from the healthy state of the body and mind, free f…
  • I am gravitating toward privileging the idea that "Epicurean texts mention both mental and bodily kinetic pleasures, and mental and bodily katastematic pleasures", which creates more of a spectrum than a strict duality: Kata Kinêsin HêdonêKatastêmatikê HêdonêBodily AponiaMental Ataraxia Others seem to argue for a horizontal division: Kata KinêsinKatastêmatikêHêdonê Others advance this into a vertical hierarchy: 1.Katastêmatikê Hêdonê 2.Kata Kinêsin Hêdonê Others seem to propose an equivalency be…
  • De Witt seems to think that this distinction (between "static" and "kinetic" pleasure) was profound: (Quote) So, for De Witt, Kinetic pleasure is a rolling stone and Katastematic pleasure is a mossy stone?
  • To answer the original question, ABSOLUTELY, pigs feel the guiding relief of stable pleasure that is the enjoyment of having had one's natural needs satisfied. That statement goes for other animals as well, and not just the "intelligent" ones. Pleasure and pain seems to me to be a language of life. Katastematic pleasure is not limited to the intellect of philosophers. Pure pleasure is accessible to all lifeforms that operate according to the barometer of pleasure and pain. I have a feeling that …
  • An excerpt from “The Fixation of Satisfaction: Epicurus and Peirce on the Goal” by David B. Suits: "The difference between kinetic and katastematic pleasure is mentioned without elaboration in Diogenes Laertius X.136. 'Kinetic' implies motion or change. Thus, kinetic pleasures are pleasurable changes. It is not that whenever there are changes, we take pleasure in them; rather, there is a kind of pleasure–kinetic pleasure–one of whose characteristics is that we experience a change of state. Whene…