Are You Morally Ineficient, You Are Insufficiently Masochistic?

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Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who died well before Christianity. He thought there was no afterlife and that denying ourselves things for reward or punishment was pernicious. Epicureus' School of Thought acknowledges we're not all good at being hedonists. It's really hard, but to figure out what is going to cause us to feel deeply gratified in the long run requires wisdom.

The Greek philosopher Epicurus made a rather bold claim over two thousand years ago. The key to life, he said, was simple: pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Around this maxim he developed a school of philosophy, Epicureanism, which promised its adherents that if they took care of their basic needs, surrounded themselves with trustworthy friends, and developed a basic understanding of science, they would be happy. But is it really that simple? Can the advice of someone born 2,363 years ago still hold true? To answer these questions, we turned to Emily Austin, professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University and author of the delightful new book "Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life.”

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