Choice & Avoidance: towards a better translation for avoidance

I would like to present for discussion a perspective and (mostly) a choice of words, which seems helpful to me. I do not yet know of an Epicurean source for this idea (there might be one; I'm still new here), but I currently consider it to be compatible (with Epicurean philosophy) and helpful (to me and maybe a subset of Epicureans). Okay; here we go:

Premises & initial chain of thought:

1. We agree that only two feelings exist.
2. Regarding any one thing in life, one either moves-towards, moves-away-from or stays-at.
3. That makes two directions (move-to & move-from) and one absence-of-direction.
4. Two feelings times three (non-)directions makes six possible combinations.
5. To move-from pleasure, move-to pain or stay-in pain are not things I should do; let's ignore them in this post.
6. For the sake of this idea, movement/activity/doing includes thinking and similar cognitive action.

This leaves three combinations:

1. To stay-in pleasure. This experience doesn't tend to last long, and it is an absence-of-direction. This means: I can desire it and pursue it, but I cannot do it, because not-doing cannot be done. It can only be engineered to come about, but once it begins, the doing has to stop for the not-doing to be present. Note: not-doing does not mean not-experiencing; we always experience, but passively experiencing a pleasure while neither thinking nor moving is not an activity – it is a passivity. It is not a behaviour, but a (momentary) absence of behaviour.
2. Moving-from pain. I have begun to call this action "to avoid", to call the process "avoidance" and the behaviour "avoiding".
3. Moving-to pleasure. I have begun to call this action "to play", to call the process "play" and the behaviour "playing".

Numbers 2 & 3 are what I care about in this post. It was very helpful to categorise everything I feel into pleasure and pain. However, to categorise everything I do by using the semantic relation of "movement/direction + reference-feeling" was too indirect and cumbersome: the "pursuit of pleasure" only does half the trick for me.

However, using special words (to play/to avoid) to encapsulate the same meaning in a single, direct linguistic entity made it much easier to shift myself. It seems quite useful to me to categorise my behaviours into avoidance and play, to think of everything I do as either avoiding or playing.

Playing can involve trading some pain for more pleasure. During hide and seek the effort of finding a good hiding place or of having to count to 100 is offset by the expectance and experience of fun. During adult life the pain of working is offset by the expectance and experience of things which money will buy. This reduces the harmful effect certain connotations of "to work" have on me.

"To avoid" adds some helpful connotations to "moving-from pain", which I would otherwise miss out on: I don't want to avoid everything, don't want to shy away from life, go back under my rock and wait to die – but I also don't want to end up back in Stoic territory of embracing pain. The word "avoidance" seems to hit that sweet spot in the middle, where I know that it's not something to build my life around, but I also know it is healthy to do with regards to pointless pains (those which won't yield net pleasure).

Do direct words for these two activities already exist? Other than describing or paraphrasing them, because it seems to really hold on to the concept during the course of each day I need an immediate verb/noun. Thank you

1. PS: I think the reason why "movement/direction + reference-feeling" as in "pursuit of pleasure" only partially works for me, is because in the city that is my mind the neighbourhood where feelings live and the one where activities reside are still debating the terms of their Good Friday Agreement. Having special words for these two activities with bilaterally agreed-upon definitions appears to facilitate mutual understanding.

2. PS: Upon further reflection, an additional aspect seems important: The Stoic's dichotomy is between work (virtue) and play (vice). By subsuming (sensible) work into play and adding avoidance, the frame shifts and the dichotomy is no longer vice-virtue but pleasure-pain, as it should be. I used to think in terms of "work and play" so much that having equally simple, direct words to reflect the correct foundation (pleasure & pain) was important.

Quote from Kalosyni

to go back to the extant texts […] discussing language usage

Yes, to sum up and rephrase virtually my entire original post:

Is there a single verb or noun synonymous with "pursuit of pleasure" either in English, Latin or (Ancient) Greek? Is there such a single verb or noun for "avoidance and prevention of pain"?

That's really all I'm wondering about at this time. Things somehow got rather wordy for such a simple question, and maybe this thread belongs into Translation Issues (General) even though I also wonder about English? I should have thought more about my intention behind this thread. Sorry about that…

Quote from Cassius

This isn't likely to be satisfactory, but I am tempted to suggest that we might sort of parallel the view that DeWitt suggested - that "life" rather than "pleasure" was Epicurus' greatest good. We might observe that from an Epicurean perspective the meaning of "pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain" comes down to a proper perspective on the verb "to live!"

I agree, but it's not quite what I meant; I can see where I was unclear now. Allow me rephrase, please:

I am looking for a total of two and only two verbs. Verb #1 shall be synonymous to "pursuit of pleasure" in the Epicurean sense (which means it shall allow for work which yields net pleasure). Verb #2 shall be synonymous to "avoidance & prevention of pain", also in the Epicurean sense. Neither #1 nor #2 shall be a multi-word construct, a paraphrase or fragment of a sentence, such as those which they are to be synonymous with already would be in their own right. In addition, I am looking for a total of two and only two nouns to that same effect.

My play/avoid set of words helps me as a tool for practical everyday life (which is how I ended up in this subforum). With it, I manage to avoid slipping from the correct "pleasure & pain" view back into a wrong "virtue & vice" view, because it forces me to stop thinking in terms of "work versus play". Having two direct words (not paraphrases) helps me stay in the Epicurean mindset with much more consistency and strength.

So…do any such words exist yet? Did I reinvent the wheel? I don't speak Latin or (Ancient) Greek

Quote from Cassius

I am reminded of that Latin poem by Catullus which contains "Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus..."

[…]

I'm easily reminded of it cause I've never gotten it out of my mind after seeing this:

That's an wonderful poem and a great rendition of it – thank you for them both!

Quote from Cassius

sort of synonyms for "enjoy"

That's not quite it…? To ensure I don't still talk at cross purposes, here is what I'm looking for, expressed using a spontaneous analogy:

I'm a swimmer in the ocean. At any one time I am either swimming towards a life buoy or I am swimming away from a shark. I call life buoys "pleasure". I call sharks "pain". They are my reference points, which makes them important, and so I have a special word for each. But I do not have a special word for "currently swimming to a life buoy" (I hence called it: to play). I also do not have a special word for "currently swimming away from a shark" (I hence called it: to avoid).

At the same time, another type of swimmer exhibits a total disregard for sharks and life buoys. Instead, their aim is to always swim towards the sun. They call the sun "virtue" and swimming towards it they call "to work". Every other direction they call "vice", and swimming not-towards-the-sun they call "to play". As such, they do have a special word for both their two reference points and their two directions of swimming in relation to these reference points.

I also want two more special words, one for each of my two directions of swimming!

I promise I'm not being deliberately obtuse here! It's just that words are my units of meaning and I need them so I can make sense of the world… 🌻

Quote from Don

unless you're redefining "play."

I was very much doing that, yes.

Quote from Don

We can choose to undergo pain IF it will lead to future greater pleasure.

I meant all six (non-)movements in "the way it would make sense in an Epicurean frame (and not a Cyrenaic)". So "move-to pleasure" was meant as "pursuit of pleasure" which may very well entail blood, sweat and tears, as you've correctly pointed out. However, to be in pursuit of pain (I called it: move-to pain), is just not something I should be engaged in. Likewise, to move away from pleasure (for no good reason!) is also something I shouldn't be engaged in.

Maybe I should have just used the word "pursuit" instead of "movement" from the start…

Quote from Don

the through-line is being able to experience a pleasurable state in as many activities as possible if one feels no pain

Yes, but: Even when I am safe, fed, warm, clean, sheltered, rich, and loved and currently lie in the best bed ever built, I will soon be in pain unless I do something, because after a few hours max, my joints and spine will beg for movement by sending me pain. I will have to at least twist and turn (or ask to be turned) to return to the static pleasure of being perfectly comfortable all around – and even if I were floating in a salt water pool to make my joints/spine happy forever, eventually I'd have to get out because I'll start to shrivel or simply because nature calls! (I've been immobilised in the past, and it stuck with me how very many minute mental and physical processes are involved in what is casually condensed into "I lie in bed and do nothing". It stuck how much activity this "nothing" actually still contains, and also how exhausting, later even excruciating that activity can become.)

From that I learned that I have to maintain pleasure, that maintenance will interrupt the state of "not doing or thinking anything while experiencing perfect pleasure"; this interruption is what I meant by "stay-in pleasure doesn't last long". It may be that I enjoy the maintenance task (eg: enjoy turning around in bed), but then I would classify that as "pursuit of pleasure", "move-to pleasure", "[redefined] play" or – now that you told me: Hairesis or Pheugo (depending on the specific situation and also state of mind)

Quote from Don

φεύγω (pheugo) as "flee/escape" always struck me as more immediate, more urgent, than "avoiding"

I wasn't aware of the original Pheugo meaning. It is indeed much more immediate. While to flee/escape sounds too immediate to me in modern English, "evade" offers a middle-ground, is also active and with agency. If I need a modern English word I might prefer that now. Otherwise, I shall like the Greek words as you described them:

Quote from Don

I'd go back to αἵρεσις (hairesis) and φεύγω (pheugo). αἵρεσις can mean the taking of a town in a battle; choice or election of magistrates. Liddell & Scott write that its opposite is some senses is κλῆρος (kleros) which is the casting of lots. So it's the difference between making an informed choice (αἵρεσις) or making a decision by flipping a coin (κλῆρος). φεύγω can be thought of as people fleeing that town that's being taken in a battle; they're escaping from their fate; they have agency in fleeing the situation. The opposite of that word is διώκω (dioko) which is defined as pursue, chase, in war or hunting; pursue an object, seek after; or even drive or chase away.

Both αἵρεσις (hairesis) and φεύγω (pheugo), to me, convey agency in whatever direction one heads. It is not a passive activity, but one taken with vigor and purpose.

With this description, Hairesis and Pheugo appear like what I was looking for! They still feel a bit unfamiliar, because there's no perfect 1-1 translation to English, but that's good, because I'm quite certain English simply lacks the two words as I seek them! (Also, I never thought this is what "choice" was in the sources)

Thank you very much, Don!

Quote from Godfrey

I'm leaning toward "choosing and fleeing" (or choice and avoidance)

After having been professionally schooled on Greek now I can see the "choosing" in a more agreeable light, but I still sort-of reject it in modern English. A lot still has to happen between choice and action, and we may even make impossible choices. As such, would not "commitment" be better? When I lay in bed and began to be hurting, reaching the choice to turn has always required very little, but solidifying the commitment to now actually do turn myself was hard. At times, it needed a while of pain to move me from choice to commitment. After commitment, the action began without much hold-up.

Quote from Don

φεύγω can be thought of as people fleeing that town that's being taken in a battle; they're escaping from their fate; they have agency in fleeing the situation. The opposite of that word is διώκω (dioko) which is defined as pursue, chase, in war or hunting; pursue an object, seek after; or even drive or chase away.

Both αἵρεσις (hairesis) and φεύγω (pheugo), to me, convey agency in whatever direction one heads. It is not a passive activity, but one taken with vigor and purpose.

Pheugo only takes agency in actively-leaving-where-I-was, but it does not take agency in going-somewhere-specific, correct? Pheugo is an "anywhere but here" action (as opposed to a "toward somewhere specific" action)?

Offering the antonyms of each helped me much:
"deliberate choice/commitment" vs "leave to chance"
"flight from/evade (avoid)" vs "chase of/after".

Quote from Godfrey

What’s important is grasping the wider concepts, the shorthand and outlines are really just reminders of the bigger picture.

I agree, and also having shorthands adds value in its own right (otherwise we might be speaking in Toki Pona right now). In my mind, a concept that has no name remains elusive, hard to reflect on, and hard to operate from; it remains a phantom. I have better words now, I am happy

Thank you all for being so patient with me

I like that metaphor

Fleeing from fear is conductive of the good life in an "anywhere but here" kind of way: "(Almost) anything is better than burning alive."

Choice of a new house with sprinklers is equally conductive of the good life, but in a "to somewhere specific" kind of way: "Many things might be good; this is the specific good which I choose for myself."

PS: I have just now acquired the Cambridge Greek Lexicon (Diggle, 2021) and looked up the words, which was illuminating. I don't think I'll ever learn Ancient Greek or Latin due to time constraints/life priorities, but looking up special words is both fun and helpful!

The only downside of Epicurean philosophy appears to be the growth rate of one's bookshelf

According to the Cambridge Greek Lexicon, both αἵρεσις (hairesis) and φεύγω (pheugo) have a whole range of translations to modern English. After reading the dictionary entries of both words and the adjacent related words, both seemed to me as having three branches of meaning; to be clear: I made those branches of meaning up according to my personal mental structuring of the many possible translations.

In the case of hairesis, there appear to be three branches of meaning: political, military, and reign.

• The political branch ranges from choice in a vote to being a partisan.
• The military branch ranges from overcome all the way to destroy.
• The reign one ranges from figuratively a singer taking up a song or someone capturing another's mind (by choice, not by chance!) all the way to intellectual mastery of skills and physical capture and control of humans.

In the case of pheugo, there also appear to be three branches of meaning: political, physical, and social.

• The political branch ranges from slipping up in terms of what is (in)permissible to say to being driven into and living in exile.
• The physical branch ranges from fish causing other fish to flee to the escape of humans from immediate danger.
• The social one ranges from shrinking from shunning to the taking of refuge in a legal defence.

In addition, it seems like pretty much each of these meanings can be employed figuratively, which causes a little tree of meanings to grow from both words