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Dichotomy of Pleasure

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Dichotomy of Pleasure

Dichotomy of Pleasure: Epicureanism highlights the difference between short-term and long-term pleasures. They assert you can live a better life by focusing on long-term pleasures like exercise and reading over short-term pleasures like overeating and getting drunk.

Dichotomy of Pleasure

30 Phil, Chapter 11, Epicurus, Touchstone 31: Dichotomy of Pleasure.

Epicurus defined two types of pleasure: short-term and long-term. Too frequently people put short term pleasures over long-term ones causing deeper harm than warranted.
A short-term pleasure is kinetic as in the active enjoyment of fulfilling a desire, such as eating a delicious meal or engaging in a pleasurable activity. Longer or deeper pleasures are katastematic and include the relief of quenching one’s thirst or the contentment of a good night’s sleep. Put simply, for each pair of kinetic-katastematic pleasures, Epicurus wants you to prioritize the katastematic pleasure to live a better life.

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