The founder of hedonism: Who is Aristippus?

(435-355 BC) Ancient Greek sage. He is the founder of the Socratic School of Kyrene and Hedonism. He was born in Kyrene, North Africa, and died in the same city. He was from a fairly wealthy family. Interested in philosophy in his youth, he went to Athens, first entering the circle of the Sophists. He met Protagoras, the most influential sophist of the time, and later became a close friend and student of Socrates. With the opportunities provided by his family, he started to live according to his heart and enjoy life without worrying about his livelihood. The way of life he adopted later became a determining factor in the formation of his thoughts and in seeking solutions to philosophical problems.

Aristippos approaches philosophy with moral problems arising from his way of life. The main area of his thought moral universe is morality, which organizes a person's current life, gives shape to his life, and connects his behaviors to certain principles of view. Morality is not a knowledge entity that consists of abstract views and shapes behaviors only in the universe of thought; It is a doctrine that is applied to life and brings rules to the living environment. The aim and essence of this teaching is the happiness of the person. Happiness is first for the individual and then for the society consisting of individuals. Happiness is unthinkable in a society that dominates individuals over individuals. Happiness, due to behavior, rises gradually from the bottom up, from the individual who forms the base, to the society that establishes the ceiling. Therefore, the essence of morality is the problem of happiness.

Aristippus approaches the problem of happiness with a Socratic approach; believes in the necessity of establishing a connection between the sense data and the principles of reason in order to ensure happiness. The source of his view on sense data is the sophists and especially the teaching of Protagoras, and the focus of his thought based on the principles of reason is Socrates' understanding of philosophy. Aristippos shaped his theory based on a reconciliation between two opposing views. There is no work left from Aristippus, the founder of the Kyrene School. His views, the theory of happiness, are learned not from his own writings, but from the statements of his daughter Arete's son, Aristippus. According to the sources giving information about Aristippus, the thinker did not adhere to the traditional philosophy of his age; logic was not concerned with physics.

According to Aristippus, there is only one source of knowledge, and that is the senses. Our senses give us information about the objects around us. What we perceive is not the object itself, but its impressions, and sensations provided by the senses. Our senses cannot tell us the causes that make up the objects, but only the side of the object that comes to us and is given to us by the senses. The root causes of sensations, therefore, remain “unknowable”.

In us, impressions such as sweet, bitter, color, and beautiful are formed as a result of sensory data. However, we cannot know for sure whether the objects are sweet, bitter, beautiful, or colorful. Eaten honey awakens a taste in the mouth, tastes sweet. However, it is not possible to make a definite judgment about whether the essence of honey is sweet or not. The impression of "sweet" in us is a sensation, not the knowledge of the causes, the element that establishes the essence of honey.

The effect that arouses pleasure is good, the effect that causes pain is bad, and so is the case of human objects. The loved, desired, joy-creating good; is an undesirable, avoided, evil that causes sadness. So good and evil differ from person to person, according to the effect on the person. One is a being of will; The main purpose of this will is pleasure, to be happy with life. Since the purpose of the will is pleasure, this feeling is good. Since the will avoids pain and sadness, sadness and pain are also bad. Good and bad appear as pleasure and pain.

Pleasure is only valid for the time lived, for the present; It does not apply to the past or the future. There is no pleasure in the past, it is over, it is gone. There is no pleasure in the future, it does not exist for now. Pleasure is an event experienced, connected with our senses, not a concept found only in thought. In this respect, pleasure is associated with the body, not a soul being. There can be no qualitative distinction between pleasures, all pleasures are equal to each other. Only the stages can be different. They are the durations that make up the stages of essentially equal pleasures.

The main principle to reaching pleasure and understanding what pleasure is knowledge. Knowledge is also the source of happiness provided by pleasure. Knowledge teaches us what freedom, will, consciousness, past, and future are; It shows the rules of enjoying life. This knowledge is not the kind of knowledge that ordinary people understand; is the knowledge of the sage.

There is no need to despise the life of the universe, to endure some deprivation in order to educate its essence, to make oneself suffer. One should live well, as best as he can, by following the principles of reason and the rules of the will. He must do whatever it takes to enjoy life. Dressing well, having fun, loving, and being loved are the actions that make up the whole of human life. It is not wise to restrict them by taking them under strict control, and it is against human nature.

Aristippus' teaching emerged as a reaction to the views of Antisthenes, who found happiness in turning away from life, reducing wants and needs as much as possible, and denigrating pleasure (pleasure). Although the two sages were students of Socrates and based on the principles of reason predicted by Socrates, their opposing views on morality stemmed from the difference in their way of life. On the other hand, their teachers' interpretation of Socrates in a different way allowed the emergence of two separate schools, and their effects continued throughout the ages. Epicurus, who came a century after Aristippus's views, processed them through a new interpretation and developed the concepts of happiness by giving them a different meaning.