more control over mental than over physical pleasures. "Virtue, unless it means "prudence in
the pursuit of pleasure," is an empty name. Justice, for example, consists in so acting as not to
have occasion to fear other men's resentment--a view which leads to a doctrine of the origin of
society not unlike the theory of the Social Contract.
Epicurus disagrees with some of his hedonist predecessors in distinguishing between active and
passive pleasures, or dynamic and static pleasures. Dynamic pleasures consist in the attainment
of a desired end, the previous desire having been accompanied by pain. Static pleasures consist
in a state of equilibrium, which results from the existence of the kind of state of affairs that
would be desired if it were absent. I think one may say that the satisfying of hunger, while it is
in progress, is a dynamic pleasure, but the state of quiescence which supervenes when hunger is
completely satisfied is a static pleasure. Of these two kinds, Epicurus holds it more prudent to
pursue the second, since it is unalloyed, and does not depend upon the existence of pain as a
stimulus to desire. When the body is in a state of equilibrium, there is no pain; we should,
therefore, aim at equilibrium and the quiet pleasures rather than at more violent joys. Epicurus,
it seems, would wish, if it were possible, to be always in the state of having eaten moderately,
never in that of voracious desire to eat.
He is thus led, in practice, to regarding absence of pain, rather than presence of pleasure, as the
wise man's goal. * The stomach may be at the root of things, but the pains of stomach ache
outweigh the pleasures of gluttony; accordingly Epicurus lived on bread, with a little cheese on
feast days. Such desires as those for wealth and honour are futile, because they make a man
restless when he might be contented. "The greatest good of all is prudence: it is a more precious
thing even than philosophy." Philosophy, as he understood it, was a practical system designed
to secure a happy life; it required only common sense, not logic or mathematics or any of the
elaborate training prescribed by Plato. He urges his young disciple and friend Pythocles to "flee
from every form of culture." It was a natural consequence of his principles that he advised
abstinence from public life, for in proportion as a man achieves power he increases the number
of those who
* (For Epicurus) "Absence of pain is in itself pleasure, indeed in his ultimate analysis the
truest pleasure." Bailey, op. cit., p. 249.