Getting Smart About Pleasure

The trouble with pleasure, according to the philosopher Epicurus, is that we’re not very good at it.

Epicurus. By Raphael. c. 1510. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The Greek philosopher Epicurus is a philosopher most often associated with hedonism, the idea that the good life is a life where we should seek to maximise our pleasure. This might conjure up images of wild excess, or endless drug-fuelled orgies…