Sort the desire

Around 306 BCE, the philosopher Epicurus bought a house with a garden just outside Athens and opened it as a school. Unusually for the time, women and slaves were welcome. His followers became known as the philosophers of the Garden.

Epicurus taught that pleasure is the goal of life, which made him notorious. But his idea of pleasure was strikingly plain: friends, conversation, freedom from fear. He lived mostly on bread and water, and once wrote to a friend asking for a little pot of cheese, so that he could have a feast whenever he liked.

In his Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus sorted desires into three kinds. Natural and necessary: food, shelter, friendship, rest. Natural but not necessary: a fancy meal, a nicer flat. Empty: fame, endless wealth, everyone's approval, desires that have no natural limit and can never be satisfied.

Much anxiety comes from treating the second and third kinds as if they were the first. "I need that job." "I need them to like me." Sorting the desire doesn't mean you can't want it. It shows how much weight it deserves.

Necessary desires are usually easy to meet. Knowing that can be a quiet source of calm.

• Buddhism

  Craving that can never be satisfied is seen as a root of suffering.

• Psychology

  Research on the "hedonic treadmill" suggests we quickly adapt to new possessions, and go back to wanting more.

Think of something you've been wanting, or feeling you need.

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Which of these would Epicurus call an empty desire?