epicurus - principal-749, książki, Philosphy
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EpicurusPrincipal DoctrinesCopyright 1995, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). See end notefor details on copyright and editing conventions. Epicurus's"Principal Doctrines" are preserved in Diogenes Laertius'sLives of Eminent Philosophers. The following is from RobertDrew Hicks's 1925 translation. This is a working draft;please report errors.[1 ]* * * *1. A happy and eternal being has no trouble himself andbrings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is exemptfrom movements of anger and partiality, for every suchmovement implies weakness2. Death is nothing to us; for the body, when it hasbeen resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and thatwhich has no feeling is nothing to us.3. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in theremoval of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as itis uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mindor of both together.4. Continuous pain does not last long in the body; onthe contrary, pain, if extreme, is present a short time, andeven that degree of pain which barely outweighs pleasure inthe body does not last for many days together. Illnesses oflong duration even permit of an excess of pleasure over painin the body.5. It is impossible to live a pleasant life withoutliving wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible tolive wisely and well and justly without living pleasantly.Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance,the person is not able to live wisely, though he lives welland justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasantlife.6. In order to obtain security from other people anymeans whatever of procuring this was a natural good.7. Some people have sought to become famous andrenowned, thinking that thus they would make themselvessecure against their fellow-humans. If, then, the life ofsuch persons really was secure, they attained natural good;if, however, it was insecure, they have not attained the endwhich by nature's own prompting they originally sought.8. No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things whichproduce certain pleasures entail annoyances many timesgreater than the pleasures themselves.9. If all pleasure had been capable of accumulation, --if this had gone on not only be recurrences in time, but allover the frame or, at any rate, over the principal parts ofhuman nature, there would never have been any differencebetween one pleasure and another, as in fact there is.10. If the objects which are productive of pleasures toprofligate persons really freed them from fears of the mind,-- the fears, I mean, inspired by celestial and atmosphericphenomena, the fear of death, the fear of pain; if, further,they taught them to limit their desires, we should neverhave any fault to find with such persons, for they wouldthen be filled with pleasures to overflowing on all sidesand would be exempt from all pain, whether of body or mind,that is, from all evil.11. If we had never been molested by alarms atcelestial and atmospheric phenomena, nor by the misgivingthat death somehow affects us, nor by neglect of the properlimits of pains and desires, we should have had no need tostudy natural science.12. It would be impossible to banish fear on matters ofthe highest importance, if a person did not know the natureof the whole universe, but lived in dread of what thelegends tell us. Hence without the study of nature there wasno enjoyment of unmixed pleasures.13. There would be no advantage in providing securityagainst our fellow humans, so long as we were alarmed byoccurrences over our heads or beneath the earth or ingeneral by whatever happens in the boundless universe.14. When tolerable security against our fellow humansis attained, then on a basis of power sufficient to affordsupports and of material prosperity arises in most genuineform the security of a quiet private life withdrawn from themultitude.15. Nature's wealth at once has its bounds and is easyto procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to aninfinite distance.16. Fortune but seldom interferes with the wise person;his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and willbe, directed by reason throughout the course of his life.17. The just person enjoys. the greatest peace of mind,while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude.18. Pleasure in the body admits no increase when oncethe pain of want has been removed; after that it only admitsof variation. The limit of pleasure in the mind, however, isreached when we reflect on the things themselves and theircongeners which cause the mind the greatest alarms.19. Unlimited time and limited time afford an equalamount of pleasure, if we measure the limits of thatpleasure by reason.20. The body receives as unlimited the limits ofpleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But themind, grasping in thought what the end and limit of the bodyis, and banishing the terrors of futurity, procures acomplete and perfect life, and has no longer any need ofunlimited time. Nevertheless it does not shun pleasure, andeven in the hour of death, when ushered out of existence bycircumstances, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the bestlife.21. He who understands the limits of life knows howeasy it is to procure enough to remove the pain of want andmake the whole of life complete and perfect. Hence he has nolonger any need of things which are not to be won save bylabor and conflict.22. We must take into account as the end all thatreally exists and all clear evidence of sense to which werefer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full ofuncertainty and confusion.23. If you fight against all your sensations, you willhave no standard to which to refer, and thus no means ofjudging even those judgments which you pronounce false.24. If you reject absolutely any single sensationwithout stopping to discriminate with respect to that whichawaits confirmation between matter of opinion and that whichis already present, whether in sensation or in feelings orin any immediate perception of the mind, you will throw intoconfusion even the rest of your sensations by yourgroundless belief and so you will be rejecting the standardof truth altogether. If in your ideas based upon opinion youhastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as wellas that which does not, you will not escape error, as youwill be maintaining complete ambiguity whenever it is a caseof judging between right and wrong opinion.25. If you do not on every separate occasion refer eachof your actions to the end prescribed by nature, but insteadof this in the act of choice or avoidance swerve aside tosome other end, your acts will not be consistent with yourtheories.26. All such desires as lead to no pain when theyremain ungratified are unnecessary, and the longing iseasily got rid of, when the thing desired is difficult toprocure or when the desires seem likely to produce harm.27. Of all the means which are procured by wisdom toensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far themost important is the acquisition of friends.28. The same conviction which inspires confidence thatnothing we have to fear is eternal or even of long duration,also enables us to see that even in our limited conditionsof life nothing enhances our security so much as friendship.29. Of our desires some are natural and necessaryothers are natural, but not necessary; others, again, areneither natural nor necessary, but are due to illusoryopinion.30. Those natural desires which entail no pain when notgratified, though their objects are vehemently pursued, arealso due to illusory opinion; and when they are not got ridof, it is not because of their own nature, but because ofthe person's illusory opinion.31. Natural justice is a symbol or expression ofusefullness, to prevent one person from harming or beingharmed by another.32. Those animals which are incapable of makingcovenants with one another, to the end that they may neitherinflict nor suffer harm, are without either justice orinjustice. And those tribes which either could not or wouldnot form mutual covenants to the same end are in like case.33. There never was an absolute justice, but only anagreement made in reciprocal association in whateverlocalities now and again from time to time, providingagainst the infliction or suffering of harm.34. Injustice is not in itself an evil, but only in itsconsequence, viz. the terror which is excited byapprehension that those appointed to punish such offenseswill discover the injustice.35. It is impossible for the person who secretlyviolates any article of the social compact to feel confidentthat he will remain undiscovered, even if he has alreadyescaped ten thousand times; for right on to the end of hislife he is never sure he will not be detected.36. Taken generally, justice is the same for all, towit, something found useful in mutual association; but inits application to particular cases of locality orconditions of whatever kind, it varies under differentcircumstances.37. Among the things accounted just by conventionallaw, whatever in the needs of mutual association is attestedto be useful, is thereby stamped as just, whether or not itbe the same for all; and in case any law is made and doesnot prove suitable to the usefulness of mutual association,then this is no longer just. And should the usefulness which...
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