What are Natural Desires? #084
Epicurus on what our nature needs
Epicurus and the Path to Satisfaction
For Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher, satisfaction does not depend on how expensive something is or how much other people want it. The satisfaction I get from something is natural, and nature gives me essentially what I need to be satisfied. I just need to recognize this.
When I eat a nice fruit or I eat a piece of bread, then I fulfill my desire to not be hungry. And somebody who is not hungry is as happy as somebody who has eaten something very expensive. Often, these very expensive things are not even particularly good, and something natural would be more fulfilling.
So we should replace, Epicurus says, all these expensive things with cheaper things that are more natural and more easily available. And then we can stop chasing after those expensive things. We can stop working so much in order to get them.
And there's another thing also: the environmental cost of pursuing desires that are unnatural. For example, if I want a coffee from South America, this has to be transported, which will cause environmental damage. Instead, I can drink, let's say, a peppermint tea, a peppermint infusion, which I can get from a small plant that grows on my balcony. And in this way, I have not only satisfied my desire for a nice natural drink, but I have also saved the environment to some extent from destruction.
