The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
Moreover, the banishment of pain, as it is called by Epicurus, appears to
the Cyrenaics not to be pleasure; for neither is the absence of pleasure
pain, for both pleasure and pain consist in motion; and neither the
absence of pleasure nor the absence of pain are motion. In fact, absence
of pain is a condition like that of a person asleep. They say also that
it is possible that some persons may not desire pleasure, owing to some
perversity of mind; and that all the pleasures and pains of the mind, do
not all originate in pleasures and pains of the body, for that pleasure
often arises from the mere fact of the prosperity of one’s country, or
from one’s own; but they deny that pleasure is caused by either the
recollection or the anticipation of good fortune—though Epicurus asserted
that it was—for the motion of the mind is put an end to by time. They
say, too, that pleasure is not caused by simple seeing or hearing.
Accordingly we listen with pleasure to those who give a representation
of lamentations; but we are pained when we see men lamenting in reality.
And they called the absence of pleasure and of pain intermediate states;
and asserted that corporeal pleasures were superior to mental ones, and
corporeal sufferings worse than mental ones. And they argued that it was
on this principle that offenders were punished with bodily pain; for they
thought that to suffer pain was hard, but that to be pleased was more in
harmony with the nature of man, on which account also they took more care
of the body than of the mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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