La mesure des affections dans l’épicurisme

Abstract

Measure plays a major role in epicureanism, a thought built up on the basis of a « canon ». The basic affections of pleasure and pain submit to such a process, though with due respect to that which is proper to the body on the one hand and to the soul on the other, as conceptualized by epicureanism. Moreover, such measure is essentially a measure of pain, since the highest pleasure is absence of pain, and cinetic pleasure is the process through which pain is suppressed. As far as the bodily affections are concerned, their measure is the physical measure of the atomic movement producive of pain ; as to the psychic ones, they submit to a logical apprehension dealing with the truth value of one or more propositions, and as such analogous, though not identical, to what the Stoics developped as a « conjunctive model » according to J. Brunschwig’s analysis. The combination of both approaches objectively grants, through appropriate measure, the superiority of psychic affections over bodily ones, and thus the sage’s happiness even if racked by the worst physical pains.

Keywords

• measure
• epicureanism and stoicism
• pain and pleasure
• body and soul
• atomic movement
• truth value