#hegesias

[opalid]

"Life seems good only to the madman, observed Hegesias, a Cyrenaic philosopher, some twenty-three centuries ago. These are almost the only words of his we have… Of all oeuvres to reinvent, his comes first on my list."

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

[unjustlyunread]

Cicero and other sources tell us that Hegesias' lectures at Alexandria led to so many suicides on the part of his hearers, that Ptolemy Lagi forbade their continuance!

— Frederick Copleston, from A History of Philosophy, v. 1

[blackestdespondency]

“‘Life seems good only to the madman’”

Hegesias

[blackestdespondency]

Complete happiness cannot possibly exist; for that the body is full of many sensations, and that the mind sympathizes with the body, and is troubled when that is troubled, and also that fortune prevents many things which we cherished in anticipation; so that for all these reasons, perfect happiness eludes our grasp. Moreover, that both life and death are desirable. They also say that there is nothing naturally pleasant or unpleasant, but that owing to want, or rarity, or satiety, some people are pleased and some vexed; and that wealth and poverty have no influence at all on pleasure, for that rich people are not affected by pleasure in a different manner from poor people. In the same way they say that slavery and freedom are things indifferent, if measured by the standard of pleasure, and nobility and baseness of birth, and glory and infamy. They add that, for the foolish person it is expedient to live, but to the wise person it is a matter of indifference; and that the wise person will do everything for his own sake; for that he will not consider any one else of equal importance with himself; and he will see that if he were to obtain ever such great advantages from any one else, they would not be equal to what he could himself bestow.

Hegesias

[blackestdespondency]

Hegesias wrote a book called Death by Starvation (Greek: ἀποκαρτερῶν), in which a man who has resolved to starve himself is introduced as representing to his friends that death is actually more to be desired than life, and that the gloomy descriptions of human misery which this work contained were so overpowering, that they drove many persons to commit suicide, in consequence of which the author received the surname of Death-persuader (Peisithanatos). This book was published at Alexandria, where he was, in consequence, forbidden to teach by king Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

Antinatalism in 285-246 BCE via Wikipedia

[blackestdespondency]

The wise person would not be so much absorbed in the pursuit of what is good, as in the attempt to avoid what is bad, considering the chief good to be living free from all trouble and pain: and that this end was attained best by those who looked upon the efficient causes of pleasure as indifferent.

Hegesias (290 BCE)