Definitions HQ

Epicureanism (n.) explains ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠everything by blind chance — and so explains nothing, not even why things look designed to us.

The Epicureanism (n.) were ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠at least consistent: having chosen a low principle, they lowered their highest good to match, expecting no more happiness than human prudence can win — paltry enough.

Epicureanism (n.) against ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠Platonism is a quarrel in which each says more than it knows: the first furthers knowledge at morality's cost, the second serves morality while licensing idle explanations of nature.

Epicureanism (n.) and ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠Stoicism used the same method — forcing virtue and happiness into one identity — yet ended an infinite distance apart, one grounding it in sensible need, the other in reason's independence from the senses.

An Epicureanism (n.) calculating ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠life's greatest well-being would, if prudent, vote for good conduct, so many charms attach to morality — but that prospect may serve only as counterweight to vice's enticements, never as the motive.