Epicurean philosophy teaches need-limiting rather than indulgent pleasure

Evidence

Quite contrary to the modern-day meaning of the word epicurean—often associated with decadent and plentiful food—what the school of Epicurus taught was that man actually needed very little to be happy, as long as he had recourse to reason and the ability to limit his desires. It’s no accident that this sounds similar to ideas of non-attachment in eastern philosophy. Before founding the school, Epicurus had read Democritus and Pyrrho, both of whom are known to have had contact with the gymnosophists, or “naked wise men,” of India. One can certainly hear echoes of Buddhism in Epicurus’s prescription for the soul: “The disturbance of the soul cannot be ended nor true joy created either by the possession of the greatest wealth or by honour and respect in the eyes of the mob or by anything else that is associated with causes of unlimited desire.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 147

Categorization

• DEFINE: Corrects the popular misreading of ‘epicurean’ by defining ataraxia as freedom from unlimited desire.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s earlier interest in Stoic and Eastern parallels; echoes the Gardens-as-infrastructure piece (communal cultivation as retreat). — connects to: Asceticism grants pleasure more rights than society’s instalment payments do — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 186