Epicurus On Happiness

In this essay I will examine the concept of happiness by the ancient philosophers Epicurus and Plotinus. Epicurus defines happiness as pleasure or the lack of pain, whereas Plotinus argues contrarily.
To fully comprehend why Epicurus thinks pleasure is happiness, we must first examine his thoughts on desire. He divides desires into two categories as natural and empty desires. Empty desires are made-up by the society, such as wealth or power. He thinks that these desires are problematic. Since they have no satisfaction boundary, one will get into a cycle where he will want more and more, and can never satisfy himself. Epicurus suggests that these unnatural desires should be eradicated completely. When it comes to natural desires, he also divides them into two as necessary and unnecessary. Necessary natural desires consist of consuming foods/drinks, shelter, avoidance of danger, and sex. Unnecessary natural desires are the exaggerated versions of the prior, such as desiring the most
Plotinus claims that if happiness is a concept, which concerns living creatures, it should be applicable to not only to humans, but to all living creatures. If one is saying that only pleasure is happiness, one should assume that animals are happy because they have desires, which they fulfill. Or if one neglects plants because they do not sense, will have to deny the concept of happiness to all living things. He suggests that if someone should know that pleasure is the source of happiness, than one cannot say pleasure is happiness itself but the understanding and awareness of pleasure being the crucial good, is happiness. Which raises another problem, how can reason come to the conclusion that itself is not the key to happiness, but pleasure is? It does not seem reasonable. Plotinus thinks that one can be happy even if one is not aware of it. He believes happiness can be achieved by disconnecting ourselves from our identification of