Epicurus on Wealth and Happiness

Epicurus of Samos

The chapter on Not Having Enough Money, from Alain de Botton's Consolations of Philosophy, starts by whetting the reader's appetite with an advertiser's relish for luxurious imagery: a Georgian town house; a private jet; a sumptuous bathroom, and so on. All the height of good taste, and all but dreams for most people's budgets. A philosophy of life that included pleasure and wealth would surely be the height of popularity; and, indeed, there is just such a philosophy. Epicurus was born in 341 BC on the fertile island of Samos and after some years of study he became dissatisfied by the generally austere and other-worldly philosophies he encountered. By the age of 29 he decided to set down his own thoughts. The chief characteristic of Epicureanism was that a good life was founded upon sensual pleasures - and by sensual is meant the pleasures of all the senses: the taste of a good meal; the sight of aesthetic forms; an exchange of friendly conversation; and, yes, this includes sexual pleasures.

Even at the time, over 2000 years ago, this was a shock to Athenian society who had a mental picture of the Socratic philosopher inhabiting the realm of ideas and largely oblivious to the corporeal needs and desires of most of humanity. It also comes as no surprise that Epicurus soon surrounded himself with wealthy patrons, desirous to wine and dine at the table of their philosopher of pleasure. He eventually established what is best described as a commune on the outskirts of Athens, where both men and women could devote themselves to the pursuit of happiness.

However, it would be a grave error to confuse Epicurus with Dionysus (the god of wine and fertility). Before rushing headlong into a life of sybaritic gratification it would be wise to read Epicurus beyond the headlines. To be successful in the pursuit of happiness one needs to have a thorough understanding of what is true happy. In the case of Epicurus, such pleasures were actually simple and inexpensive.

Real Friends

“Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one's entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship.” Epicurus stressed that dining in good company was even more important than what was on the menu. That true friends relate to each other at a deeper level than mere casual acquaintances, and are always there for each other. A handful of true friends could not be purchased with any amount of money and power.

Personal Freedom

The Epicurean commune also removed itself from the economic and political life of Athens, being as self-sufficient as they could. They forsook wealth for simplicity, and placed their freedom to be happy above the desire for status at the service of another. They measured their wealth in terms of happiness rather than in gold.

Freedom of Thought

This third necessary ingredient is in the great tradition of Greek philosophy; that only the analysed life is truly worth living. The ability to think clearly and openly was the best way to resolve both the smallest domestic problems to the largest questions of life. Having the freedom to think clearly and the friends to discuss issues openly, it would be more likely to lead to a resolution rather than having thoughts swirl around inside our solitary troubled mind.

What is necessary and natural

Epicurus divided desires into three categories. He placed freedom, friendship and thinking into what was both natural and necessary – adding here the obvious physical necessities such as food and shelter. Those things that were considered natural but not necessary were luxuries such as a fine house, sumptuous meals and exotic holidays. In the last category Epicurus placed fame and power as desires that are neither natural nor necessary.

Money and Happiness

We are now in a position to see clearly the relationship the Epicureans had with money. Money is both natural and necessary in order to further those desires that are natural and necessary. If your life is already fulfilled and pleasurable then earning the extra money needed to finance those luxuries may not be necessary but is not harmful either. However, if the aim of accumulating wealth is in order to fulfil desires in the second or third categories, without first having satisfied those in the first, then our life is liable to remain unfulfilled and unhappy. For Epicurus, happiness is the absence of either physical pain or mental suffering - he is not interested in an ostentatious show of joy, but rather the inner tranquillity that comes from leading a good life.

A State of Mind

Happiness is a state of mind and throwing money at the problem is not a solution. Epicurus sees that much consumer behaviour is a displacement reaction, with a tragic lack of awareness of the real desires we are trying to fulfil. We buy that sports car, when what we really want is freedom; we throw a lavish party, when what we really desire are some close friends; we take an expensive holiday, when what we really need is time for quiet contemplation. Even as far back as ancient Greece, Epicurus pointed the finger of blame for this psychological blindness to the 'idle opinions' of the masses, fed by the corporate desire to increase profits by stimulating a material vision of the good life, whilst ignoring our true needs – friendship cannot be bought wholesale, repackaged and sold at a profit.

Advertising Space

Some 400 years after Epicurus, a huge stone colonnade 80 metres long and 4 metres high was erected in the market-place of Oinoanda, a town in south-western Asia Minor. On it were inscribed sayings from Epicurean philosophy on the dangers of seeking true happiness in material possessions. This advertising space was sponsored by one of the town's wealthiest citizens as an expression of his joy in having discovered the philosophy of pleasure. Alain de Botton seems to think that a modern Epicurean advertising campaign would likely cause global economic collapse. This may be more telling about how fragile our consumer driven economies really are, however, as one of the Oinoanda slogans read,”Real value is generated not by theatres and baths and perfumes and ointments ... but by natural science.”

Discussing Epicurean science and their general world view would stray too far from our focus on our financial health. However, Epicurus does suggest a scientific thought experiment to help us analyse our desires and thereby distinguish between our real needs and our apparent desires.

Five Steps to Genuine Happiness

1. Imagine your current desire projected into the future. For example, you want an expensive holiday villa.

2. Now imagine that your desire does not actually lead to the expected happiness. For example, the villa is fantastic but you don't have a close companion, or alternatively, going camping could be more pleasurable if in the company of the right person.

3. If you find such cases that do not lead to happiness then the original object of desire was neither natural nor necessary and therefore will ultimately not lead to the hoped for pleasure.

4. By such analysis the original desire should be recast to take into account any exceptions just found. In our example, it becomes clearer that whether staying at an expensive villa or a more modest destination, true pleasure comes from sharing the experience with the right person.

5. Your true needs should now be clearer than your impulsive initial desire. In the language of Epicurus, having established your natural and necessary desires you are also in a better position to judge whether you can really afford the villa or the camping in the full knowledge that neither is the real source of happiness.

It is best to set down in writing the whole process so that the mind does not play tricks on itself. The whole analysis essentially starts with an object or objective of desire and then adds things thatwould make it more pleasurable and subtracts things that make it less. By doing so it is possible that the original object disappears entirely, replaced by something that is both more important and less expensive.

To twist a famous saying; you can't always get what you want, but you can get everything that you truly need.