For a life of pleasure, pain is sometimes chosen

Choosing a pain for a pleasure

Human life is about having pleasures and many of them, in a previous post (linked at the bottom) I spoke about how even though pleasure is the goal for an Epicurean, it is not always chosen - this post will speak about pain and why it is sometimes chosen.

Epicurean "stop and go" system

Recall that for an Epicurean, pleasure and pain as Norman De Witt puts it in his book "Epicurus and His Philosophy", are natures "stop and go system". By whatever chance, nature also provided humans with the ability to think ahead, to plan what to do in the future and have a general idea of what could go wrong.

Now also recall that pleasure itself is the goal of life and everything is either a tool to either gain pleasure or avoid pain. (which is the same thing, more or less) Therefore our ability to reason and think ahead are tools to gain pleasure and it allows us to come to the realization that sometimes a pain is chosen for a greater pleasure.

Prime example of choosing a pain for a later pleasure

In the above image, I chose to put a women who is heavily pregnant. As a man, I can only use my imagination and speak to women about the pain of childbirth, they describe it as the most raw, exquisite pain imaginable but yet, many women are happy to go through it. ( I am speaking in generals here, there are of course many women who have no desire to go through it, have kids or they might even regret childbirth)

The reason for this is simple, the pleasure that a mother may feel toward her child is worth the pain of childbirth many times over. Women use their ability to reason and think ahead to decide that having a child, despite the extreme pain they have to endure, is worth it.

Thus the quote from Epicurus in the above image is apt, pain which leads to a greater pleasure in the long run is chosen. A very important point is that the pain itself - in this case child birth and pregnancy - is not "good", the pain is bad but the consequence of the pain - having the child and the feelings which comes along - are good because they are pleasurable.

Other examples

There are many other examples which one could choose from such as:

• Going on a diet
• Going to the gym
• Going to college
• Going to work
• Going to the dentist
• Going to the doctors
• Having a much needed conversation with a partner or spouse
• Giving blood (if it makes you happy to do so)

and many many more.

Conclusion

So when going about your life, use your ability to be prudent to decide which course of action will lead to the life of pleasure, in the long run. Sometimes a pleasure is avoided or a pain is chosen for the acquisition of this noble goal.

Link to blog post on avoiding a pleasure