Ascetism and hedonism tension in the Roman Period stoas

Among the Roman Stoics, there are four philosophers who have a significant place in the moral philosophy. These are respectively Seneca, Epictetus, Aurelius and Cicero. The common idea shared by these philosophers is that morality can be justified by reason, which represents the human nature. Because a life that accords with the human nature is the same as the life that accords with human reason. In other words, the rational life is the moral life. Due to that living a moral life should accord with the nature, one must have the knowledge of the nature. In this context, the nature is the one presented in different forms, such as the human nature, the laws of nature or the as the God himself, i.e., the knowledge of the nature covers the nature of the world and the human nature. In the Hellenistic era when the Roman Stoics lived, there was a hedonist moral philosophy that identifies morality with pleasures. This philosophy defines happiness as a principle of enjoying the pleasures and avoiding the pain. Here, pleasure means the feeling created by the pleasant things. Thus, psychologically pleasure is confronted with pain, and it is found attractive. At this point, the important problem turns out to be the problem of whether to ground morality on human nature (or reason), or on the pleasures. It is the latter option objected by the Roman philosophers. According to them, the opposition between pain and pleasure causes a tension that makes the man unhappy. Due to this, the Roman Stoics suggest keeping away from the pleasures and avoiding the tension created by them through a rational life. To compensate for pleasures by reason and virtues, one needs to restrict the bodily instincts and cancel the passion for wealth and prestige. They define happiness as the restriction of the pleasures, which is called ascetism. Although ascetism itself creates a tension, this one is temporary, and it can be avoided if one gets used to living by the virtues and reason. Unlike the temporary tension in ascetism, in hedonism the tension is not temporary due to the continuous avoidance from pain and short-term nature of the pleasures. The first part of the study presents the historical and argumentative background of Roman Stoics. The second part presents a detailed account of the Roman Stoic theses against hedonism within the context of ascetism-hedonism tension. As the avoidance of pleasures means the avoidance of the tension, one needs to live an ascetic life to be happy and virtuous.