Pleasure Yes, Pain No—Part 2

I do not know the ancient Greek word that Epicurus used for pain. Most contemporary writers just use the word pain. I still have a problem with that word, however, since I believe that we do not seek to avoid all types of pain. Do we not sometimes willingly take on pain in order to aid a loved one? If my spouse or my child is suffering from an affliction, would I not step in and risk some discomfort, in order to help them? 

And how about the pain of growth? There's wisdom in the old saw, “No pain, no gain.” I personally would not have benefited from a good career if I had shunned the pain of sleepless nights, while studying hard in college. How many people choose the pain of surgery, in order to correct some bodily disease? The list goes on.

What appears to be the key here, I believe, is that we seek to avoid unnecessary pain, or unjustified pain. Pain is unjust when someone consciously inflicts it on another. When that happens, we rightly feel the need to prevent or stop that kind of pain.

Then there is the unnecessary kind of pain that we needlessly inflict upon ourselves. This type of pain is often the result of foolish choices we've made in the past. At other times we experience unnecessary pain in the way that we react to events. If my mind is wandering as I walk around the house and I bump painfully into a door, I can needlessly increase my pain by also breaking a knuckle, if I get pissed off and take a foolish swing at the door.

So is there a better word than pain for those unpleasant experiences we wish to avoid? From my dictionary's thesaurus I think that the following words are good candidates: torment, misery, anguish, agony. Let me try the word “torment” on for size. It means “a severe form of suffering;” a kind of suffering that has no compensating value; it's for no good reason. It happens when someone (our ourselves) unfairly torment us.

Maybe I've belabored my point a bit excessively, but I do feel that this is a useful exercise in trying to overcome an unfortunate bias against Epicurus which our culture has absorbed, for a couple of millennia now. I'm going through this process in an attempt to counter a mental habit that I may have unconsciously developed: that Epicurus was a blatant hedonist who advocated living a life of sensual self-indulgence.

What's more, that bias can encourage us to reject the remainder of his philosophical teachings, which contain much wisdom. For example, Epicurus also taught that we need not be concerned with an afterlife, that we do not have to fear the gods, that we should surround ourselves with trustworthy friends, that even if we experience pain it seldom lasts long, and that the good life consists of seeking virtue and honesty. Maybe I'll write more on these other teachings in the future. It's good stuff.