Preview

Epicurus Persuasive Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
630 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Epicurus Persuasive Essay
If Epicurus were alive today I believe he would be wise to advocate his four-part cure for anxiety. I will address how some of his points may seem harder to adhere to today, but how they are nonetheless helpful and still widely used to help cope with anxiety. Every person is a reflection of their time. However, if born today I believe Epicurus’s four-part cure would at its core still be the same and hold great merit.
The First of Epicurus’s four-part cure is, “Don’t fear god”. However, he lived from (342-270 B.C.E) which predates for example modern Christianity. Christianity instructs followers to concern themselves with the judgement of god. There are multiple religions were the deity are thought to be divine & perfect. However, in order to please them and in some cases to ensure happiness in an afterlife you must follow their instructions. For example, Christians fear god in a large extent because of the repercussions of not following his principles. By their own belief not doing so would cause them pain in the afterlife in the form of hell and damnation. It would be
…show more content…
Also it is possible to have anxiety about your own death as it relates to others. Many people fear death because of what it will mean for those they leave behind. For example, if you are a head of house hold and pass it can be financially and emotionally devastating for those left behind, especially if they are young children. However, I do believe it is good advice as it helps you detach from personal fear and grief from loss. I relate this advice to the modern sentiment said by believers and non-believers alike when a loved one dies, which is “they’re in a better place”. For the believer in a Christian god they are hopefully in heaven and for an atheist they no longer have the capacity to feel anything including

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Suffering and Epicurus

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Epicurus was a materialist who believed ‘human beings are purely material creatures’ (Epicurus 1998a, p.47), that the human body is complexly composed of atoms and when people die their bodies disintegrate along with their minds. Therefore, Epicurus believed it to be impossible for human beings to experience death. For Epicurus this makes the fear of death completely unnecessary, for ‘what is no trouble when it arrives is an idle worry in anticipation’ (de Botton 2000, p. 59). Epicurus thought that if one were to fear their death, they would only provoke unwanted worry and pain in their life. Furthermore, if one were to live a life with worry and pain,…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rosenbaum states “Epicurus offered a remedy for our attitudes towards our death” (Rosenbaum 175). People spend minutes, hours sometimes days preoccupied with the thought of death. Conjuring death in their mind is worse than actually experiencing it. Indeed, if something has no impact on a person, then there is no need of thinking about it. Once in a while it’s fine to think about death but it should take control of our lives. Instead one should try as much as possible to maximize pleasures and minimize pain. Evidently when one does so then the attitude towards death is no longer about fear but about how to escape the mere fact of…

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Julius Caesar defeated Pompey! He returns to Rome - the question is will he become King? In the play Julius Caesar returns to Rome after defeating Pompey. Some Romans want to make him king, but others think he will become too powerful, and they kill him. After the killing of Caesar, they have to justify their motives to the people of Rome. Marcus Antony and Marcus Brutus both give a speech at Caesar’s funeral, they both try to persuade the audience to agree with them using rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) however; Marcus Anthony’s speech was more effective in moving the audience to action.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to my reading the power to kill Julius Caesar was persuasion How did conspirators convince others to help them overthrow Caesar. Over 40 people were involved in the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar they were all bribed with gifts like Swisher Sweets, cigars and brown ale and emotionally made afraid of him. The main reasons why Julius was killed was because the perpetrators were afraid of Caesar gaining too much power and weakening political and economic positions. Unfortunately for Caesar his best friend Brutus was one of the perpetrators Being such a close friend to Caesar and then agreeing to the betrayal of his best friend Brutus said that he did all of this to protect Rome from being destroyed by the tyrannical ruler. So emotionally…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton was a pioneer nurse who founded the American Red Cross. In addition to being a hospital nurse, she worked as a teacher, patent clerk, and humanitarian. At a time when relatively few women worked outside the home, Barton built a career helping others. She was never married, as she knew the restrictions of a married woman at the time, but had a relationship with John J. Elwell. During the end of the American Civil War, Barton worked at a hospital she made helping the people at the Andersonville prison camp where 13,000 people died.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Moreover, death should never be a prevention to a man because no man has true knowledge of what happens after death. Plato and Socrates firmly believe that we have no cause to fear death, and, for the philosopher, death is probably a more desirable state to be in than life because one could reason and contemplate without the distraction of the body. There is no proof or reason to believe that through death, one gains the most knowledge especially if one does not know what happens after death. Philosophers were people who pursued wisdom, and according to Plato, the best way to do this was from the mind alone without the body. "For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom" (Plato 30). Philosophers did not fear death because they believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gain through death.…

    • 1516 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Due to the financial crisis there have been many changes made to government programs to reduce costs and help with debt. Many of these cuts are happening statewide, in America’s public schools. The first programs that are being cut are the art programs, and the excuse is that the core classes are more important. The argument is that children need to be more focused on test scores in Math, Science, English and History. It is unfair to single out art classes, there should be a more even spread of budget cuts, not just the sole elimination of the arts. There are parents who are indifferent with the arts and they are unfazed by their removal from elementary public schools. What many of these parents do not recognize is that there are actually benefits of the arts that help with core subjects. Some benefits are strengthening problem solving skills, stimulating critical thinking and helping developmental growth. There is also a duel component that shows that there is a direct correlation between SAT test scores and art programs in schools, as well as higher participation and attendance. It has also been shown that the arts can help boost the economy.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Punic Wars against Carthage, the plebeian smallholders who had to serve in the roman legions found themselves unable to farm their lands, unable to pay their taxes. Ultimately they lost their lands and ended up as the Mob, an impoverished group in Rome, reliant upon handouts. Meanwhile, the rich consolidated their lands into huge, slave-worked estates that made them even richer. This caused profound social, economic and political problems for the Roman state. The upper, political class divided between the Optimates - rich, conservative landowners who wanted nothing to change - and the Populares - senators who saw a need for land reform to ease the troubles of the poor.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send the homeless tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Reference? America has long been the land of freedom and hope to the world, and the American military is what has kept her that way. People have forgotten how important and valuable the military is to the world that we live in. As part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, automatic sequestration calls for $1.2 trillion in lowered federal spending, with 50% coming from defense and 50% coming from non-defense budgets. If Congress cannot reach an agreement, these cuts will reduce the Department of Defense spending by about $55 billion dollars. On September 11, 2001, the United States faced a difficult time in which 3,000 lives were lost due to an attack upon the U.S. by terrorists who hijacked airplanes and crashed them into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the United States Pennsylvania! That day, 9/11, has become a day in which we remember the lives that were lost and the families who were affected by such a tragedy. We called on our military once again, and they were there to protect our country. I am against automatic sequestration towards the military and military programs for many reasons.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Epicurus Epicurus (342.-270 B.C), unlike Aristippus had a more intellectual view of pleasure, and he was mainly concerned with the pleasures of the mind. Epicurus felt that man's insecurity could be partly traced to his false opinions regarding God: "First of all, believe that God is a being incorruptible and happy, as the common opinion of the world about God dictates; and attach to your idea of him nothing which is inconsistent with incorruptibility or with happiness; and think that he is invested with everything which is able to preserve to him this happiness, in conjunction with incorruptibility .For there are Gods; though our knowledge of them is indistinct .But they are not of the character which people in general attribute…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    EPICURUS TO MENOECEUS

    • 914 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Epicurus in his letter to Menoeceus backers the necessity of freedom from prejudice, superstition and extremes of emotions in the pursuit of happiness and a tranquil life. The apparent simplicity of this formula allowed detractors to misinterpret Epicurus, depicting him as depraved, hedonistic, anarchistic and atheistic. His aim is to present to us, how to live a happy life. He sees happiness as the fundamental principle of the good life. This paper is an attempt to critically delineate the essential tenets of Epicureanism as articulated in his letter to Menoeceus, and finally to criticize and evaluate in order to arrive at a dependable conclusion. In what follows, it would be apt to briefly consider the personality or Epicurus, before delving into the main work.…

    • 914 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Online, physically, or verbally you can be a victim of being bullied. You don’t have to keep things as they are. The question is how to handle the situation (Do you attack the bully and become the bully yourself? Or do you ignore the bully and pretend all is well?) What you do is speak up and ask for help. I would know, because not only was I a victim, I was also a person who stood by and simply watched it happen.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1930s- In the 1930s money was scarce because of the depression. People tried what they could too to keep themselves happy. They would watch movies, play games, and such. In the great depression the American dream had become a nightmare. The great place that was once called the land of opportunity was now known as the land of desperation. The best place for a better life was California.…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Select the best and worst presidencies from the time period we cover in the course (1400-1877). You are to write a persuasive essay providing at least three reasons for your conclusion about each of these two presidencies. You may use these guidelines as you write your essay.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persuasive Essay

    • 1173 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "It's not just a game," to many athletes this statement rings true. Sports fuel the drive and determination within people, and provide them an essential learning tool from which they can grow. Competitive is defined as, "of or relating to a situation in which people or groups are trying to win a contest or be more successful than other : relating to or involving competition ."(merriam-webster.com) This concept of competitiveness is the foundation of all sports. The competitive spirit and thirst to want to better oneself in order to be at the top is a fueling force that will propel our children far beyond their years on the court. Providing children with equal playing time in youth sports discourages the necessary need for healthy competition and takes away valuable life lessons that will prepare them for the future.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays