Today added to the site is a new article on the Epicurean "fullness of pleasure" model.
Epicurus's ancient critics understood perfectly well that he taught pleasure, which is why they attacked him so fiercely. Many modern commentators have since turned that teaching into a call for minimal stimulation, reduced desire and passive calm.
The article shows that the doctrines of painlessness and the limit of pleasure, and the terms ataraxia and aponia, are not a call to a zero-state. They are Epicurus's precise answer to the Platonic and Stoic argument that pleasure cannot be the highest good because it has no limit. A cup that is full is not empty. It is full.
The article can be read at the link below or by opening the "Ethics Analysis" menu in the left navigation sidebar.