Meaning of Life Is Pleasure" Is This Always True?

Meaning of Life is Pleasure” Is this always true?

Life is full of surprises, and as humans we love surprises. In my opinion, life isn’t always full of pleasure because there are incidents that either change us as person or scar us for life; and then there are events that happen that make us really love life or hate life depending on the outcomes of certain situations. “Stoicism initially emerged as a reaction against the belief that pleasure is always good and pain is always bad” (Soccio 106). I disagree with this statement because I was thought that pain is also always good along with pleasure because an individual will learn more while being in pain, so it is also a good thing. The Epicureans first came up with the idea and taught that the “meaning of life is pleasure,” but then later on the stoics went further with the idea of what really makes life really pleasurable.

My opinion is really strong on the epicureans and how they came with this idea because as a human being, the experiences that I had would have to determine whether life is pleasurable or not. “Aristippus taught that pleasure is the principle motive for living and that pleasure is always good regardless of its source,” (Soccio 108). He’s basically saying everyone experiences pleasure whether they realize it or not, but I say that it goes back to depending on the situations we are involved in. “Epicurus said; only the quality of our pleasures or pains is important,” (Soccio 109) and I agree with this statement because not only pleasures benefits us, but sometimes knowing the quality of pain is also important and it teaches us more about what life really is than experiencing more pleasures and not knowing or learning the things that we should be learning.

In addition, “Epicurus placed an extremely high value on friendship (or love: philia),” (Konstan). This statement is true because without friendship, I do not think anyone could stand to live or survive alone unless this individual is like super human. Transitioning to the stoics, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius; “Epictetus acquired special insight into the major issue of Stoicism: controlling what we can and accepting what is beyond our control, (Soccio 113). Here Epictetus is basically saying that we have to go with outcomes or consequences occur that we have no control over. This statement twists the whole “meaning of life is pleasure,” because it is saying sometimes things occur and we have no control over them but they can be either painful or pleasurable.

Furthermore, the stoics also came up with the idea of “The Fated Life,” but they were not very accurate about its meaning. My parents always raised me to believe that life isn’t always about having what you want or having all the luxurious things that gives an individual full pleasure in life. They told me however god has written your fate, then that’s how you live your life