The beginning and the root of all good is the pleasure of the stomach.

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The beginning and the root of all good is the pleasure of the stomach.


The above is an Epicurean quote, although from "uncertain sources," that I think and feel arrives at the most fundamental nature of human existence, our hunt for nourishment, for survival. Everything else is second or third to this, even philosophy and art. All philosophy and art crumble into ash once there is nothing to eat, when hunger in the stomach begins to growl. This is a topic that is largely overlooked in philosophy, as if it were unimportant or uninteresting. How interesting does this subject become once severe hunger and worse starvation rears its ugly head? In extreme cases, even supposedly civilized persons lost in the wild will eat each other once the skeleton of starvation arrives. Nothing else matters, but survival, and the stomach knows this instinctively without the need of science, philosophy, or art... No wonder that the science and art of cooking is said to be the "Necessary Art" not only for Survival, but also for...Pleasure.

Comments 1

June 6, 2026 at 6:56 PM

I don't know that it's a direct quote from anyone but I think we've regularly stated on the forum that neither pleasure nor pain nor good nor evil have any meaning except to the living. If you don't eat and drink you won't be living for very long, and regardless of any other implications I think that this statement can be justified on those grounds. Certainly there are many pleasures that do not directly involve the stomach, but in the end all of them do indirectly because without it we won't continue to live.

There's no real need in my view to look for any deeper or more hidden meaning than that. And certainly it does not mean that the specific pleasures of good food or good drink are the only kinds of pleasures that are really necessary and therefore that we should be content with having those alone.

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