Epicurean Ethics: Pleasure as the Ultimate Good

Virtue, according to Torquatus, is a means to the greater good of pleasure, not an intrinsic moral value.

### Epicurean Ethics: Pleasure as the Ultimate Good
* 🏛 In Cicero's "On the Ends," Torquatus represents the Epicurean ethical position, asserting that **pleasure is not just a good, but the highest good, the Summum Bonum, and the final end that should motivate us**.
* 🦉 Torquatus faces a challenge from his interlocutor, who argues that his noble ancestors performed great deeds that seem to go beyond **mere pleasure and pain**. They engaged in virtuous actions that were not always pleasurable, such as **sacrificing themselves for their country**.
* 🎖 Torquatus responds by claiming that all virtuous actions can be explained in terms of **producing or safeguarding pleasures** and **preventing or avoiding pains**. He argues that his ancestors sought honor and esteem as a means to **greater security**, ruling out certain pains, and guaranteeing certain **pleasures**.
* 🎭 According to Torquatus, when we engage in virtuous actions, we are either **foregoing present pleasures for greater future pleasures** or **enduring present pains to avoid greater future pains**.
* He claims that all virtues tend to produce pleasures in some way, and criticizes those who consider virtue to be the chief good, such as the Stoics and Aristotelians, as being **misled and failing to understand what nature requires of them**.
* Torquatus suggests that pursuing virtue solely for its own sake may be to misunderstand human nature, and argues that virtues should be **productive of pleasure and ward off pains**.
* 🛡 He discusses the four cardinal virtues—**wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage**—and attempts to provide Epicurean arguments for why each of them produces **greater pleasure than pain** for the person who develops and deploys that virtue.

hi, this is Dr. Gregory Sadler. I'm a professor of philosophy and the president and founder of an educational consulting company called Reason IO, where we put philosophy into practice. I've studied and taught philosophy for over 20 years, and I find that many people run into difficulties reading classic philosophical texts. Sometimes it's the way things are said or how the text is structured, but the concepts themselves are not always that complicated, and that's where I come in to help students and lifelong learners. I've been producing longer lecture videos and posting them to YouTube. Many viewers say they find them useful. What you're currently watching is part of a new series of shorter videos, each of them focused on one core concept from an important philosophical text. I hope you find it useful as well. In On the Ends, Cicero has Torquatus represent the Epicurean position in ethics. And Epicureans are hedonists. They hold that pleasure is not just a good, but the good. It is the highest good, the Summum Bonum, and it is the final end.

thing that should be motivating us, and indeed does motivate us according to them, whether we realize it or not, and everything else is to be understood in light of pleasure or in light of pain, its opposite, which is the final evil, the worst evil, the end of bad things. Everything else is bad in relation to pain or the loss or lack of pleasures. Now, Torquatus is in an interesting position here, and his interlocutor points this out. As opposed to, say, Epicurus himself, who was, you know, a philosopher living in a garden that he selected for himself with some friends who he had to enjoy a common life and enjoy philosophy with over the course of his life. Torquatus is coming from a noble family. He's coming from a family that has done important deeds in the history of Rome prior to this dialogue. So, this raises the problem, his interlocutor says, you know, think about your great ancestors. They didn't just evaluate things in terms of their pleasure and pain, or else they wouldn't

have done the great things that they did. They wouldn't have engaged in noble deeds. And so, the question here is, since he has ancestors who have displayed not just a little bit of virtue, but great moral virtue, is why did they engage in this virtuous action? Now, why are we talking about virtue here? Virtue, for the other philosophies that were out there, provided an example of something that you could say, this does reduce to pleasure and vice. It's offi ce that doesn't just reduce to pain. To engage in virtuous activity is not always pleasant for oneself. As a matter of fact, it may be quite unpleasant sacrificing your life for your country. Isn't that something that would be painful fighting against the enemy itself? I mean, you might didn't really enjoy fighting for a little while, but I think a lot of fighting back then was not quite so fun. Maybe virtue is about something different. And Turk wata says no, no, no. I can explain all of this. So the question is, why did these ancestors do the things

they did. Why did they engage in these virtuous, noble, you know, deeds that would, would attain them and a moral reputation? Then we can even talk about today. So he tells us that here we go, I'm not gonna be bribed by your flattery of my family. What's the explanation you put on their actions? Why did they charge an armed enemy? Why did they treat their children cruelly without a thought for their own interest in advantage, what even while the animals don't act that way? So what was the motive? He says if they had a motive for these glorious exploits, it was not a love of virtue in and for itself. Virtue is not something desirable in and for itself from an Epicurean position or standpoint. What was it that they were doing then? Why were they engaging in these deeds that would earn them glory and earn some sort of advantage to Rome? He says, Consider my ancestor who rested the neck, let this is why Torquatus right from his his foe the tork he saved himself from death but he.

braved great danger yes before the eyes of an army so he wouldn't have just done this in a bar fight or done this you know willy-nilly some other place. He did it in specific circumstances why in front of the army what was he trying to win. He says honor and esteem and why does he want those here's where we get to a distinctively epicurean position. Torquatus says well honor and esteem are the strongest security that you can have in life so he was really doing something dangerous to produce a state of greater security for himself. What about others one of them sentenced his own son to death and he says well he better have had some good reason for doing that because if he didn't that I'm sorry to be the descendant of somebody who's so savage. But if his purpose was by inflicting some pain upon himself to establish his authority as a commander and to tighten the reins of discipline then his action aimed at ensuring the safety of his own fellow citizens upon.

which he knew his own dependents so again a matter of security, a matter of some sort of greater good being brought about, a matter of ruling out certain pains, and guaranteeing certain pleasures by engaging in those actions. Now, the way that Torquatus is going to talk about this in general could apply to the rest of us when we engage in virtuous actions. What we're doing is one of two things, perhaps both at the same time. We are foregoing pleasures in the present for greater pleasures in the future, or we are enduring pains in the presence so that we can avoid greater pains in the future. So, if for example, we're being generous to somebody who we see in poverty, perhaps we that will get some sort of greater reward for that, or perhaps what it is that we really want is to be looked at as somebody who gets to be generous, and that we that we value more than the money or resources that we provide them with. And we can go on and on and on with other sorts of examples of this.

so Torquatus says the famous examples of my relatives don't really prove that virtue is something good in and of itself. Something that has intrinsic moral value. The moral value that virtue really does have, and he thinks that it does have moral value, derives from how it helps us to produce or to safeguard pleasures and to prevent or to avoid pains. We take a little bit of pain or even a great amount of pain to avoid much greater pain later on or indeed to attain pleasures for ourselves. We forego certain pleasures to avoid greater pains or to attain greater pleasures for ourselves in the future or perhaps even in the present. So he goes on and he tells us that all of the pleasures tend to produce Verte. All the virtues tend to produce pleasures in one way. He also goes on, he says, I understand there's a lot of people out there who are mistaken about the moral status of virtue. They think that virtue is the good. The Stoics would be a prime example of this but Aristotelian also in a certain way.

plaintiffs would be making that the good as well so if that's really the case then pleasure and pain would be rather incidental but for the Epicureans it's the opposite of that he says those who put the chief good in pleasure the Summum bonum the best good are being fooled they're captive they are they're being seduced by a name by a verbal expression this virtue business anything else that we want to call it being upright being a good person more importantly he says they fail to understand what it is that nature requires of them and so there is an intimation here this is that to pursue virtue solely for its own sake might be to misunderstand human nature and to get the virtues wrong to not really engage in the virtues but only something that would be let's call it a facsimile of it virtues ought to be productive of pleasure and to ward off pains and he will discuss the four cardinal virtues each of them in particular and those are wisdom justice

temperance and courage, and try to provide some arguments on an Epicurean basis for why each of them is going to produce greater pleasure than pain for the person who develops and who deploys that virtue. So for the Epicureans, according to Torquatus, virtue can be seen as a good, but it's merely a means to the greater good of pleasure.

Cicero, on the Ends bk 1 | Pleasure, Pain, and Moral Virtue | Philosophy Core Concepts

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Gregory B. Sadler

Understanding Epicurean Ethics in Cicero's "On the Ends"

Gregory Sadler, a philosophy professor, is creating short educational videos focusing on core concepts from philosophical texts.

In this video, he discusses Torquatus representing the Epicurean ethical position in Cicero's "On the Ends," emphasizing pleasure as the highest good and the motivation for human action.

Torquatus' unique background as opposed to Epicurus himself is also highlighted, raising interesting questions about pleasure and ethics.

The Motive Behind Ancestors' Virtuous Actions

Turk Wata questions why his ancestors engaged in virtuous actions, arguing that it was not out of a love for virtue itself.

He challenges the idea that virtue is inherently desirable and examines the motives behind their noble deeds, suggesting that they were driven by the pursuit of glory and advantage rather than intrinsic virtue.

The Epicurean Perspective on Risk and Virtuous Actions

Torquatus braved great danger in front of the army to win honor and esteem, which he believed were crucial for security in life.

He justified another's decision to sentence his own son to death as a means of establishing authority and ensuring the safety of fellow citizens.

The Epicurean philosophy suggests that virtuous actions involve foregoing present pleasures for greater future pleasures or enduring present pains to avoid greater pains in the future, which can be applied to the actions of ordinary individuals.

Torquatus's View on the Moral Value of Virtue

Torquatus argues that virtue's moral value comes from producing/safeguarding pleasures and preventing/avoiding pains.

He criticizes those who believe virtue is the chief good, stating that it should instead aim to create pleasure and avoid pain.

Torquatus also emphasizes the importance of understanding and pursuing virtue in a way that aligns with human nature, discussing the four cardinal virtues.

The Epicurean Perspective on Virtue and Pleasure

Virtue, such as temperance and courage, is considered good by Epicureans as it leads to greater pleasure than pain.

The development and deployment of these virtues can result in the overall increase of pleasure for the individual, aligning with the Epicurean belief that virtue is a means to the greater good of pleasure.