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- The Pursuit of Pleasure
Welcome to The Stoa Letter, the newsletter on Stoic theory and practice.
🏛️ Theory
When people think about hedonist philosophers, they often go to the Epicureans. The Epicureans taught that the purpose of life was to pursue pleasure – but that this was best done by finding tranquility, fostering friendships, and experiencing the simple pleasures of life. They don’t fit the caricature of the hedonist.
The Cyrenaic philosophers do. Like the Epicureans, they believed that the pursuit of happiness meant the pursuit of pleasure – but unlike them, they found their pleasure in intense sensory experiences. In fact, they believed that happiness just was a life full of extraordinary moments of pleasure. Its founder Aristippus will give you a sense of the philosophy:
When Dionysius inquired what was the reason that philosophers go to rich men's houses, while rich men no longer visit philosophers, his reply was that "the one know what they need while the other do not."
When he was reproached by Plato for his extravagance, he inquired, "Do you think Dionysius a good man?" and the reply being in the affirmative, "And yet," said he, "he lives more extravagantly than I do. So that there is nothing to hinder a man living extravagantly and well."
One day, as he entered the house of a courtesan, one of the lads with him blushed, whereupon he remarked, "It is not going in that is dangerous, but being unable to go out.”
When someone brought his son as a pupil, he asked a fee of 500 drachmae. The father objected, "For that sum I can buy a slave." "Then do so," was the reply, "and you will have two."
He said that he did not take money from his friends for his own use, but to teach them upon what objects their money should be spent.
In these stories, we find the core of the philosophy. For the Cyreniacs, life is about experiencing pleasure in the present, with skilled self-control but without shame or regret. It’s about consistently and selfishly having fun – but being clear eyed about what that requires. Aristippus spent one part of his life developing the philosophical discipline required, the next in the court of a tyrant building the wealth needed, to live like a proper hedonist.
Now, Stoics are not hedonists. Pleasure in itself isn’t good. But Seneca reminds us of the importance of learning from opposing schools. He would have appreciated the consistency and skill required to live like a Cyreniac. It’s important that like the other ancient Greeks the Cyreniacs taught philosophy as a skill. Perhaps they just pointed at the wrong end.
Being asked what he had gained from philosophy, he replied, "The ability to feel at ease in any society.”
🎯 Action
Reflect on what, if anything, you can learn from Aristippus and the Cyreniacs.
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🔗 Links
🎧️ Listen to Michael and I discuss Aristippus here:
📗 Check out Beyond Stoicism if you’re interested in learning more about the Cyrenaics. You’ll find other philosophies summarized there too, like Epicureanism, Cynicism, and more.
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📘 The classic place to go for learning about Aristippus is Diogenes Laertius’s Lives. Available for free online!
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