Epicurus Letter READING

Question 1

view of death

Answer 1

• Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us
  ○ Makes mortality of like enjoyable
  ○ Takes away the yearning after immortality
• Death=no possibility to be good nor evil
• Foolish: the man who says fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because the possibility of it happening is painful.

○ Only the expectation of death is painful
* Death is nothing to us: when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not

Question 2

what does the wise man do

Answer 2

○ They seek to enjoy the time which is most pleasant and not only which is longest

Question 3

what is the first and kindred good

Answer 3

• Pleasure is our first and kindred good
• We don’t choose every pleasure, if bad comes from it
• Sometimes consider pains superior to pleasure when it gives us greater pleasure in the end
• It is by measuring pains against pleasures that all these matters must be judged

Question 4

what is pleasure

Answer 4

the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul
Sober reasoning

Question 5

importance of prudence (acting with care for the future)

Answer 5

a more precious thing from even philosophy
○ From it springs all the other virtues