ABSTRACT
Ancient Greek philosophers had very different concepts of happiness and pleasure from the more materialistic and hedonistic ideas of the modern world. For this reason, many contemporary students read their books without really being able to comprehend their main message, which really viewed philosophy as a kind of religion. Indeed, Plato’s followers did start their own religion, which lasted for centuries and was incorporated into Stoicism and early Christianity. All of them rejected the idea that happiness came from money, material success, sex or physical pleasure, which are the basis for the modern mass consumption economy. That simply did ...