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 . . .

Utilitarianism and Epicureanism

It all started when . . . 

When Bentham said that the highest good is pleasure, and the way to create an ethics, morality, and social structure is to promote pleasurable things that will keep people warm, fed, clothed and happy, thus preventing wars and death.  There is no concept of developing the self, or striving for higher things, because the world is only physical.  John Stuart Mill takes evolves this further:  he admits to a realm of imagination, which is the reason that religion and poetry are useful.  This is not the ideal outlet, however.  In Utility of Religion, Mill claims that the best route to happiness is to be able to accept and be content with the fact that all we have is this physical existence, and, since pleasure is the highest good, we should take care to fill each moment with pleasure so that we will have nothing to regret or wish for at the end of life.  A moment filled with pleasure, he says, is never wasted, and a life filled with pleasurable moments is the highest good we could possibly desire.

Where does this leave poesy, then?