Welcome Dubitator314

Thanks Cassius. I am a co-leader of a Stoic group. In the course of time I became interested in their rival philosophy, Epicureanism. Not everything Epicurus said resonates with me, but the overall hedonistic claim that we all pursue pleasure and avoid pain seemed commonsensical. I once made the point in the group that we were all studying Stoicism because we thought that doing so would reduce mental pain in our lives. That it would lead to tranquility. In short, if we were honest with ourselves, in my opinion, we would admit that living virtuously was a means to an end. The end being to reduce pain and increase pleasure in life.

Since then I've been slowly reading more about hedonism. Right now I'm reading The Birth of Hedonism: The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life by Kurt Lampe.

Welcome Dubitator314! too discovered Epicurus through Stoicism, via Cicero. It bothered me that many modern Stoics basically discard large parts of their philosophy (physics and logic, specifically) as irrelevant in today's world. The philosophy of Epicurus seems to me to be a well integrated system. And, as you say, pleasure is a more sensible goal than virtue: virtue being a means to an end. Also atomism, to me, is much more sensible and relevant than providence.

Writing a personal outline was extremely helpful for me to begin to more fully understand and appreciate the philosophy. If you haven't done it, you might check out the Personal Outline section of the forum at: Personal Outlines of Epicurean Philosophy

for examples.

Welcome Dubitator314!

Dubitator314 welcome to the group. I wrote a review of Lanpe s book : http://societyofepicurus.com/cyrenaic-reasonings/