Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book X (Epicurus), containing the Letter to Menoeceus
The Letter to Menoeceus is preserved in Diogenes Laertius's Lives of Eminent Philosophers, and it is the compact statement of Epicurus's ethics. Its argument is that pleasure is the highest good and that most people misunderstand what follows from that. The pleasure he means is the absence of physical pain and mental disturbance rather than indulgence, and the route to it runs through managing desire rather than satisfying it: distinguishing desires that are natural and necessary from those that are neither, and abandoning the second kind. The letter also contains the arguments about fear, including the reasoning that death is nothing to the one who dies, aimed at removing the anxieties that spoil the present. Friendship and virtuous living are treated as practical requirements for a pleasant life rather than as separate obligations. It is an ancient philosophical text, cited here for its account of desire rather than as evidence about behaviour.
The Letter to Menoeceus is preserved in Diogenes Laertius's Lives of Eminent Philosophers, and it is the compact statement of Epicurus's ethics. Its argument is that pleasure is the highest good and that most people misunderstand what follows from that. The pleasure he means is the absence of physical pain and mental disturbance rather than indulgence, and the route to it runs through managing desire rather than satisfying it: distinguishing desires that are natural and necessary from those that are neither, and abandoning the second kind. The letter also contains the arguments about fear, including the reasoning that death is nothing to the one who dies, aimed at removing the anxieties that spoil the present. Friendship and virtuous living are treated as practical requirements for a pleasant life rather than as separate obligations. It is an ancient philosophical text, cited here for its account of desire rather than as evidence about behaviour.
Written from the public record for the text.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus. Pleasure defined as the absence of pain.
Where we use it
- 2,500 Years, One Good Study, Why We Exist / Endure
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.