An Epicurean Perspective on Happiness

Philosophy has always been regarded as a means of discovering the secret of happiness. What really is that has the amazing power to make us happy? That gives us joy, pleasure, enormous satisfaction? One of the best answers to this tricky question might have been given thousands of years ago, before the birth of Christ, by an ancient philosopher named Epicurus. He was born in Greece, on the island of Samos in 341 BC.

Epicurus strongly believed that each of us is endowed with the capacity to achieve real happiness. The only problem would be that we tend to stubbornly look for it in all the wrong places. He claimed that our desire to feel pleasure, to enjoy life should not arouse any feeling of guilt. Life was given to us to enjoy, therefore it must be lived fully and fervently.

The most important mistake people make, according to Epicurus, is that they associate the idea of happiness with having lots of money. He also managed to explain why we tend to make such an erroneous association. Though Epicurus proclaimed that pleasure is the most essential thing in life, he appears to have led a rather simple, moderate life: simple clothes, simple home, drinking water rather than wine, and having frugal meals.

The basic concept in his philosophy is that we are starkly unable to understand what can make us happy. We are therefore very much attracted to material things rather than spiritual ones. And what do we do? We go shopping for useless things, mislead by advertising. Thus we replace our real needs with things like clothes, even if they do not fit us, furniture, cars, nice houses, and many other. But as this Greek philosopher tried to prove, there are only three things we need to be happy: friends, freedom, and an analyzed life.

Epicurus valued friendship very much, so when he was 35 years old he bought a big house, and invited some of his friends to live together with him. He stated that friends are an essential ingredient for happiness, and that we need their permanent company -when we eat, walk, or feel the need for conversation. Epicurus said one should never ever eat anything alone, that it's more important to have a simple meal with a special friend than to eat all sort of delicacies all by ourselves.

Freedom stands for the second ingredient of happiness. To break free from the agitated life of Athens, he and his friends decided to move to the countryside and lead a simple, beautiful, healthy life there. They could grow their own food crops and did not depend financially on anybody anymore. They could enjoy nature, fresh air, good food, and did not care if their clothes looked shabby. Money seemed to no longer have power over them.

And last but not least, a third thing we need to be happy is "an analyzed life". That meant taking time to think and consider our worries, what stresses out and why. Epicurus was of the opinion that our worries might decrease simply by analyzing them very carefully and rationally. In this respect, one might take into account here the Christian perspective on worries - namely trusting the Almighty to provide us with all the necessary goods we need to survive. At any rate, though he lived before the appearance of Christianity, Epicurus seems to agree that we should base our life on a spiritual support rather than a material one in order to be utterly, divinely happy.

If all we need are these above-mentioned simple, natural things, why aren't we happy most of the time? Why do we always tend to complain about the lack of money? A major role in this is being played by the world of advertising. This commercial, material world intends to sell us substitutes for the things we really need, and which come free of charge. Just to give an example here, think of the commercials for cell phones that have the following message: "if you buy our products, you will be getting in touch with plenty of people, and therefore have lots of friends". Yet let us not forget the old saying: "The best things in life are free."