Pater's philosophy

Pater calls himself an Epicurean, illustrating exactly how he implements this philosophy in his novel Marius the Epicurean, a sort of creepy novel where Marius is accidentally martyred because of his love for experiencing pleasure through beauty.  Of course, understood from another perspective, the love of beauty does, indeed, lead to salvation.  What one must keep in mind with Pater, however, is that beauty does not actually mean beauty, but pleasure.  Aristotle contrasts this to the virtuous life, where those who strive for virtue experience pleasure as a side, and do not need to go chasing pleasure as an appendage to life, as its own or an additional goal.  In addition, it is eminently clear in his writings that Pater does not think, oh epicureanism is the truest, most noble philosophy that will lead to the right ends.  Rather, Pater specifically chooses epicureanism as the philosophy which best fits the ends he desires to achieve; namely, pleasure.

Which leads to the speculation:  how honest are we, really, in our search for truth?  Do we honestly desire it, or are we, too, searching for whatever system will justify the ends we want?

chapter one due tuesday . . .