Should you feel bad about pursuing pleasure? Many philosophers say you should at least be circumspect about it. There was one, however, who saw maximising pleasure as the goal of life: Epicurus. Sam Dresser explains how the ancient Greek thinker can help you find the good in the pleasurable – though Epicurean hedonism is no sure way to overcome the pain of excess.
About I Hope This Helps
A wise man once said: ‘Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.’ Sam Dresser emphatically agrees. In Aeon’s first original web series, he uses arcane philosophical theories to help solve your personal problems. For more advice from Sam, take a look at our originals video channel.
videoChildhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
videoSports and games
Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park
13 minutes
videoPersonality
A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law
5 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Leading 1950s thinkers on the search for happiness in trying times
29 minutes
videoSports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
videoSpirituality
Through rituals of prayer, a monk cultivates a quietly radical concept of freedom
4 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes
videoArt
A puppeteer makes sense of an overwhelming world by shrinking it down to size
5 minutes