Abstract

Hedonism as an idea is a theory, according to which happiness is ultimate good and unhappiness is the ultimate evil. Materialist schools of thought, which generally believe in hedonism, have various expressions in different human cultures. Hindu culture is no exception, because there is a distinctive school of philosophy in this culture, called Charvaka, which considers pleasure as the only meaning and aim of life, due to having materialistic school of thought. Epicurean philosophy in Greece is the closest school to Charvaka. These two philosophies formed schools with a hedonistic nature, which could attract many people over centuries in spite of their many enemies and great oppositions. A comparative study of hedonism in these two philosophies through available library resources shows that both of them believe man should be happy and enjoy life completely, because they apparently believe only in the validity and existence of material world, explain man’s existence on the basis of his material dimension, and reject any kind of existence afterlife. There are, however, some differences between these two philosophies. Epicureans are completely different with a particular sect of Charvakans in terms of their view about the meaning and kinds of pleasure. Furthermore, Epicureans regard higher happiness and pleasure more as the absence of pain, unlike the followers of Charvaka who regard physical pleasures as the only valid ones. The main aim of Charvakans is to deepen and extend the scope of pleasure, whereas Epicureans seek to reduce the pain as much as possible.