The Attraction of Happiness in Action Is a Science of Means, Not of Ends

The proposition man's unique aim is to attain happiness is tautological. Epicurean ataraxia is that state of perfect happiness and contentment at which all human activity aims, without ever wholly attaining it. The theological, mystical and other schools of a heteronymous ethic did not shake the core of epicureanism because they could not raise any other objection than its neglect of the higher and nobler pleasures. On instincts and impulses, one does not further the comprehension of the fundamental problem of human action by the methods of instinct sociology.