External "Goods" Impact Eudaimonia

Quote from Pacatus

I recalled having seen English translations that rendered μακάριος as “happy” – including in the beatitudes. The two I found are Young’s Literal Translation (1898) and the Good News Translation by the American Bible Society (1976).

There seem to be SO MANY specific Greek and Latin words that get chopped down to just "happy" in English.

Case in point: VS48 ( Pacatus 's footer) -

While you are on the road, try to make the later part better than the earlier part; and be equally happy when you reach the end.

πειρᾶσθαι τὴν ὑστέραν τῆς προτέρας κρείττω ποιείν, ἕως ἂν ἐν ὁδῷ ὦμεν· ἐπειδὰν δʼ ἐπὶ πέρας ἔλθωμεν, ὁμαλῶς εὐφραίνεσθαι.

which is related directly to εὐφροσύνη (euphrosúnē) mirth, merriment; gleefulness; etc.; especially of a banquet, good cheer, festivity

εὐφροσύνη - Ancient Greek (LSJ)

Quote from Don

There seem to be SO MANY specific Greek and Latin words that get chopped down to just "happy" in English.

An interesting anecdote on translation: I read once that Martin Buber’s and Franz Rosenzweig’s translation of the Torah from Hebrew into German was much longer than the original – because they wanted to capture all the nuances of the highly polysemous Hebrew! No "chopping down" for them!

You had me at "polysemous"

Quote from Kalosyni

Here is an excerpt from the above article (found in the Notes number 1):

Quote

Aristotle, in fact, identifies a tripartite division of goods: external goods (ektos agatha ), somatic goods (ta soma agatha ), and psychological goods (ta peri psychen agatha). In this tripartition, the external goods include only goods external
to the body, like money, while bodily goods like health are called somatic goods. However, Aristotle typically collapses the categories of somatic and external into one, indicating the real distinction he wants to draw: that between psychological
goods and everything else. Aristotle takes this division to be commonplace (P1323a24-26), as does Plato (cf. Euthydemus 279b, Philebus 48e).

I was rereading this, and it struck me that Epicurus seems to riff off of Aristotle's categories in a couple ways. First, somatic goods (ta soma agatha ), and psychological goods (ta peri psychen agatha) sound like the health of the body and the serenity of the mind, namely aponia and ataraxia. soma σῶμα is just Greek for "body" (plus some other connotations in the polysemous Greek) and psyche is "mind" (for our purposes, but sometimes translated "soul"). I was also reminded of the division of the necessary desires in the Menoikeus letter:

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of the necessary ones: on the one hand, those necessary for eudaimonia; then, those necessary for the freedom from disturbance for the body (αἱ δὲ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἀοχλησίαν); then those necessary for life itself.

It strikes me that, according to Epicurus (and the other ancient philosophers), there's only one Greatest Good (tagathon), and that's pleasure in Epicurus's school. All other goods (agathos) are instrumental to achieving that greatest good. It seems to me that Epicurus was willing to employ any of the instrumental goods, for the body or mind, in service to achieving the greatest good. Other schools limited which goods or virtues were to be employed or were to be considered "good."

Don How does tagathon relate to telos?

Quote from Pacatus

Don How does tagathon relate to telos?

In connotation. Tagathon ταγαθον is ultimately simply "good" agathon with the definite article "the" added to the front: t + agathon = "The Good". As opposed to agathon "a good, good (adjective)"

They're basically referring, I think, to the same thing: that to which all other things point; the ultimate reason why we do what we do.