Epicurean Tetrapharmakos – Four-Part Cure for Unhappiness

Context & Purpose

• Speaker: Monte Johnson, philosophy professor at the University of California, San Diego.
• Topic: Epicureanism’s four-part cure for unhappiness, the “Tetrapharmakos.”
• Format analogy: Works like modern cognitive-behavioral therapy—short maxims to meditate on for anxiety relief.
• Technical term: “Tetrapharmakos” = “four-part remedy”; originally a medical mix of 4 drugs.

The Four Capital Doctrines (Tetrapharmakos Summary)

• 1. God is nothing to fear.
• 2. Death is nothing to worry about.
• 3. The good things in life are easy to acquire.
• 4. The terrible things are easy to endure.
• Epicurus’s practical advice: “Meditate on these ideas day and night … alone and with someone like yourself … and you will never be badly disturbed, whether awake or dreaming.”

Maxim 1 – “God Is Nothing to Fear”

• Traditional religion depicts frightening deities (e.g., Zeus’s thunderbolts, Poseidon’s trident earthquakes).
  • Consequence: Costly, anxiety-inducing sacrifices to appease gods.
• Epicurean natural science: Comprehensive physical explanation of the universe removes need for divine causation.
• Theological argument:
  • A perfect being is invulnerable, happy, and therefore indifferent to human affairs.
  • Anger & pity are forms of suffering; incompatible with divine perfection.
  • Hence, blaming natural disasters or after-death punishments on a god is impious.
• Ethical implication: Religious fear is unnecessary and harmful; abolish fear-based worship.

Maxim 2 – “Death Is Nothing to Worry About”

• Link to Maxim 1: No divine punishment after death.
• Physicalist psychology:
  • Body disintegrates ⇒ living thing ceases.
  • No immaterial soul for reward/torment.
• Logical symmetry (“Lucretian symmetry argument”):
  • Death affects neither living (not dead yet) nor dead (no longer exist).
  • Past non-existence before birth felt as no loss; future non-existence is the same.
• Comfort in finitude: All striving and suffering end at death; removal of death-fear liberates us for present enjoyment.

Maxim 3 – “The Good Things Are Easy to Acquire”

• Nature’s free basics:
  • Air for breath, water for thirst, fire for warmth, earth for footing.
  • Minerals/plants/animals → shelter & food.
  • Social environment provides potential friends.
• Result: Realization of “enough” produces tranquility & allows deeper aesthetic/scientific appreciation of reality.
• Epicurus calls such a state “god-like” → invulnerable happiness without fear of nature.

Three-Fold Division of Desires (Epicurus’s Diagnostic Tool)

• \text{Natural \& Necessary}
  • Examples: air, basic food & water, simple shelter.
• \text{Natural but Not Necessary}
  • Examples: gourmet foods, mansions, sex.
• \text{Neither Natural nor Necessary (“Hollow”)}
  • Examples: fame, riches, glory, political power, immortality.
• Practical upshot:
  • Hollow desires are unlimited & hard to satisfy → net unhappiness.
  • Happiness increases by limiting desires rather than expanding acquisitions.

Two Kinds of Pleasure

• \text{Kinetic Pleasure} (movement/stimulation)
  • E.g., drinking when thirsty, eating when hungry, warming when cold.
• \text{Static Pleasure} (ataraxia + aponia)
  • Pain-free, satisfied, self-sufficient tranquility after needs met.
• Both pleasures are naturally limited; beyond saturation, only variation (not increase) is possible.
• Illustration:
  • Chocolate vs. vanilla ice-cream adds variety, not higher magnitude once satiety reached.
  • Epicurus’s diet: mostly bread & water; occasional pot of cheese labeled “indulgence.”
• Rational hedonism:
  • Often better to eliminate a desire than labor to satisfy it.
  • Sometimes endure short pain for a greater future pleasure & vice-versa.

Maxim 4 – “The Terrible Things Are Easy to Endure”

• Pain taxonomy:
  • Acute pains → sharp but short.
  • Chronic pains → long-lasting but dull.
• If pain ever becomes both intense & prolonged, ending life is an option ⇒ thereafter no harm can reach us (links back to Maxim 2).
• Grateful reflection on nature’s limits fosters serenity.
• Intellectual/philosophical activity supplies compensatory joy for life’s pains.
  • Example: Epicurus, dying of kidney stones, writes to Idomeneus that recalling their philosophical talks outweighs his suffering.

Broader Significance & Modern Connections

• Ethical stance: Removes fear-based piety, condemns sacrifice of human goods for imagined divine favor.
• Psychological resonance: Mirrors contemporary CBT – replace irrational fears/desires with rational evaluations.
• Practical minimalism: Encourages simple living, environmental moderation, sustainable resource use.
• Existential liberation: Acceptance of mortality & bodily nature frees attention for friendship, inquiry, and aesthetic wonder.
• Hedonistic but disciplined: Pleasure as highest good, yet defined primarily as absence of pain, not constant stimulation.

Key Numerical & Logical Takeaways

• 4 core maxims = Tetrapharmakos.
• 3 classes of desire → diagnostic/remedial guide.
• 2 categories of pleasure → interpretive tool.
• Logical syllogism for death:
  • “Where I am, death is not; where death is, I am not” ⇒ no overlap, therefore no experience of death.

Study & Meditation Tips

• Daily practice: Repeat the 4 maxims morning & night; discuss with philosophically like-minded friends.
• Journaling: Classify your current desires using the 3-fold scheme; plan eliminations/reductions.
• Sensory audit: Notice transition from kinetic to static pleasure (e.g., first sip of water ⇒ satisfaction plateau).
• Cognitive reframe: When pain/fear arises, recall natural limits & temporariness; visualize symmetry of pre-birth & post-death non-existence.