Moderation in Pleasure

The Epicure and the Chain-Smoker

The epicure has nothing in common with the chain-smoker; he is closer to the gourmet who concludes a fine meal with a Cuban cigar. He is a master of pleasure and knows how to moderate it, less from a principle of discipline than for the pleasure itself.

Ernst Jünger, Approaches

The Epicurean philosophers believed that the good life was the pleasant one. Like Stoicism, Epicurean philosophy was caricatured, but not completely unfairly. Loosely speaking, an “Epicurean” is someone who likes fine wine and cheeses – there’s little about Epicurus’s definition of pleasure, the fourfold remedy, or metaphysics.

Jünger captures both the common and technical meaning here: an Epicurean knows how to enjoy life without becoming a slave to their desire. The good life is one without pain, full of the simple pleasures of life.

The Epicurean life isn’t just a pursuit of hedonistic pleasure; it requires virtues like moderation.

Moderation is often explained as self-control or discipline.

Discipline is something that we impose on ourselves. We change our environment. We write down rules to follow. We administer our own regime of rewards and punishments. By doing so, we aim to rein in our desires. This last phrase contains the admission that our wants are not what we wish they were. So, of course, it is a necessity to control them. That’s what discipline is all about. The self against itself.

But Jünger suggests that the Epicurean can find moderation in pleasure itself. I think there’s something deep and useful there.

Instead of always trying to force yourself to give up your desires, find happiness by simply enjoying life – nothing more and nothing less. Instead of imposing discipline from the outside, discover it in pleasure itself.