On Cicero's Interpretation of 'Katastematic' Pleasure in Epicurus
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Date
2009
Authors
Wenham, Mathew
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Publisher
Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek
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Abstract
The standard interpretation of the concept of katastematic pleasure in Epicurus has it referring to “static” states from which feeling is absent. We owe the prevalence of this interpretation to Cicero’s account of Epicureanism in his De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum. Cicero’s account, in turn, is based on the Platonic theory of pleasure. The standard interpretation, when applied to principles of Epicurean hedonism, leads to
fundamental contradictions in his theory. I claim that it is not Epicurus, but the standard interpretation that generates these errors because the latter construes pleasure in Epicurus according to an attitudinal theoretical framework, whilst the account of pleasure that emerges from Epicurean epistemology sees it as experiential.
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Greek Research, Greece, Australia, Mathew Wenham
Citation
Wenham, Mathew 2009. On Cicero's Interpretation of 'Katastematic' Pleasure in Epicurus. In E. Close, G. Couvalis, G. Frazis, M. Palaktsoglou, and M. Tsianikas (eds.) "Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University June 2007", Flinders University Department of Languages - Modern Greek: Adelaide, 109-118.