[magnifyingglass]

> Epicurus taught that living a simple life with friends, food, exercise and art would make you truly happy

He must have never heard of eating disorders and competition between artists.

Epictetus taught something that is similar to some kinds of buddhism. He was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was born a slave. Suffering is an inevitable part of life, and the best one can do is choose to be free from it in their mind. You either give the suffering power over you, or you separate yourself from it.

People can suffer over anything, but it is callous to assume that they can flip it off easily through the strength of mind, and it is naive to assume everyone has the same root causes of suffering. It is also naive to assume the process of alleviating suffering is the same for everyone in a general sense.

You can't get to your philosophy through the words of others. That is the most I have learned through every philosopher - that they did not choose to think to relieve the pain of others, but to first relieve it for themselves. How can you expect to teach something if you don't know that it works? And that is the problem I have with philosophy. You have to keep believing in it to make it work. This leads to study about the nature and existence of truth.

[Delmania]

To notpick, Epicurus was not a stoic, he was a peer to Zeno and taught his own school. Epicurus's approach to suffering was essentially to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

[vidarh]

Epictetus was a stoic. Epicurus was not.

[saiya-jin]

he didn't write anything about overeating nor competing with artists. For me, message is clear - enjoy good food (quality over quantity), and enjoy arts - even seeing/reading/watching them gives many people including me a pleasant experience (a good step towards happiness)