X. What Epicurus Actually Said

Seneca is fair to his opponents. He distinguishes what Epicurus really taught from what his followers made of it.

I will say something my fellow Stoics do not like to hear: the teaching of Epicurus was, properly understood, upright and serious. Examine it carefully and it is even stern. The much talked-about pleasure he describes is reduced to a very narrow compass. He requires pleasure to obey the same law we require good character to obey: obedience to nature.

Luxury is not satisfied with what nature requires. The problem is not Epicurus. The problem is that his name has been borrowed by people who want cover for excess. They heard the word pleasure and stopped listening. They became Epicureans without reading what Epicurus actually wrote, and they brought their existing vices to his school rather than learning anything from it.

The result is that they now parade their vices as wisdom. They boast of what they used to be ashamed of. Shame can never reassert itself once disgraceful idleness has been given a respectable name.

This is the real damage done by attaching pleasure to good character incorrectly: the honorable part of the teaching passes unnoticed, and the degrading part is what everyone sees and copies.