The Comparative study of Hedonism in Charvaka and Epicurus

Hedonism as an idea is a theory, according to which happiness is ultimate good and unhappiness is the ultimate evil. Materialist schools of thought that generally have given to hedonism, in the human different cultures have various expressions. Hindu culture is no exception to this rule, because in Hindu culture there is a distinctive school of philosophy called Charvaka that having intellectual disposition of materialism, consider only pleasure as meaning and the aim of life. Epicurean philosophy in Greece is the closest school to Charvaka. By this comparative study of hedonism in Charvaka and Epicurism through available library resources, it becames clear that both these philosophies, created schools with nature of hedonism that in spite of great opposition, managed to attract adherents over centuries. The two schools of thought, since believe in the existence of only material world and consider human existence only on the material dimension, as well as deny any existence after death, so conclude that there must be pleasure and should get to pleasures of life completely. However, there are also some differences: Epicureans have completely differed with a sect of Charvakas in the meaning and kinds of pleasure. Also, for Epicureans, unlike followers of Charvaka that are attached to the sensual pleasure, happiness more and more means the absence of pain. While, the main aim of Charvakas is to deepen and to extend the measure of pleasure, Epicurus’s end is to reduce the pain as well as possible.