Seneca/Epicurus
Living for pleasure in an Epicurus way is one side of a lifestyle while acknowledging the bad and accepting it exists is the Seneca view of life. Both are very important for being alive; one must try to accept their frustrations and confusions although it is very difficult to overcome. I feel for some people its easier than others, not to say some are stronger and others are weaker, but people have different thresholds and tolerance levels going about dealing with their struggles and suffering. People get very caught up in their head and running thoughts to the point where they can feel trapped in their mind, which creates anxiety and pain. Its hard to get out of a lost mind because we tend to overthink everything once it's in the thought process. Seneca has a way of saying that we must accept that bad situations and bad moments do exist and that we must understand that they happen to everyone just that some can be worse than others.
Epicurus philosophy shows a more positive view about living for pleasure and joy, that we should live in the importance of freedom thought and friends. Both are true and very realistic they are just different. They focus on two large points that are similar in a way so their philosophies could be applied together; live for pleasure while accepting our suffrage.
But can we really try to control reality? Don't we all as a whole create a reality with the world's differing opinions towards situations and issues; aren't we apart of the world and its moving reality? As an individual we can't control what the reality is but only our reactions to it. We have little power over the horrible situations that happen in the world, only a strong opinion that others can choose to agree with; with that also comes not being able to control other peoples opinions and thoughts, what they do or how they feel. So in the end the world keeps going no matter what happens and we must accept like the Stoic way of thinking does to our problems and situations that come up though out our lives as we grow and prosper.
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school…it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. – Henry David Thoreau
Anxiety comes not from the future, but from wanting to control it and sometimes things just happen. It is often very frustrating when we can't do anything about something we may not like, but often life involves dealing with unpleasant situations. I also agree that both philosophies have to potential to pair well together.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your recognition of that everyone has their own level of how much they can handle, stress wise, everyone has their own limits. I think that for people who are irritated by the thought of bad things happening, should maybe go against Seneca and ignore them to preserve their happiness, just with the openness that when something unexpected does happen, it may hurt more. But it is each own's decision of weather they would like to live more Seneca or Epicures.
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful post. I really liked this line, "Don't we all as a whole create a reality with the world's differing opinions towards situations and issues; aren't we apart of the world and its moving reality?" I agree. These philosophies both seem to focus on what the individual can do to work on themselves. Do you feel working on oneself is enough or do you think that we also need a philosophy that focuses on making the world more peaceful and just?
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