I will update this thread but it will provide for the main place for discussion of this article.
Article: Not A Bunker But A Camp: A Response To “The Garden or the Forum”
-
-
I usually avoid philosophical skirmishes because they tend to lead to 'my god is better than your god' scenarios but I want to give credit where credit is due. I really enjoyed your response Cassius . This is a very well written article and the quality of Mr. Pigliucci's work pales in comparison with yours.
-
Well done!!
Oddly enough, this came up on my Substack feed before I saw it here, and I started reading. Really enjoyed it. Kept thinking, I have to share this on the forum. Got to the end, and at that point realized it was Cassius's!
Great response to Pigliucci, although I didn't read nor do I now plan to read his article.
Engagingly written! Overall excellent job.
-
I see you don't allow comments on Substack. That's a shame. I'd really be curious to see Pigliucci's response to your response. I did see someone posted your link to his comments.
-
I see you don't allow comments on Substack.
I may change that but have not thought it through.
-
Cassius Complements on your thorough refutation of Pigliucci's article on the duty to engage among Stoics. I wish you and he could engage in a scholarly journal on issues he asserted and your response. Any ideas on how to initiate something like that?
-
I wish you and he could engage in a scholarly journal on issues he asserted and your response.
It's an interesting question. I am not opposed to doing that at some point, and in fact I expect to do more interviews/discussions as we've done on the podcast in the past, but I need to think through exactly if and when debating with someone committed to an opposing position is worth the time.
If I were promoting myself as a guru or writing a book I wanted to sell or wanted to become a "personality" then that would clearly be the thing to do. However that is not my goal: my goal is the successful restoration of an Epicurean "camp" (to use that terminology here), and that isn't necessarily best accomplished by engaging in personality debates or trying to build my own personal "brand." I don't admit that anything we do here is anything other than correct Epicurean philosophy, so it would only detract to allow it to appear to be a "Cassius Amicus" innovation.
in fact I am remembering lately what Francis Wright had to say in A Few Days In Athens about how in-person arguments rarely produce anything good as a result.
As Martin and I and others observed over at Facebook, there is an unlimited supply of Stoics who love nothing better than arguing about detailed points of logic. The truth is that basic issues of the nature of the universe and our perspective on this world as sufficient for us, rather than focusing on a transcendent "true world" need no sophisticated analysis. The respective positions are unbridgeable and the main question is how to get the world to people who are open to the Epicurean side.
As you yourself indicated in an earlier post, engaging in debates where we have no reasonable expectations of coming to agreement with the other side. For the present I am thinking that the best thing i can do for the project is to continue to focus on the podcast and producing new content of our own. So I'm still thinking but those are my current thoughts.
We have a lot of projects going on here and those will probably continue to be my primary focus.
-
Cassius I respect your inclinations and wouldn't try to change your thoughts on widening the issue of a Stoic vs Epicurean duty to engage. As you confirmed, I think there is little likelihood to gain agreement between debaters, and frankly why should there be? And that is why I'm not suggesting personality driven debate to the public at large. That becomes two men of a certain age nit picking each other's belief's. My thinking was that a scholarly debate read in an academic journal, might raise the misstated issues by Pigliucci to professionals in the field. Any one of those who may better understand Epicurus though your forceful review of Pigliucci becomes a force multiplier so to speak toward your goal of clearing up misconceptions of Epicurean foundations.
Once again, great job!
Finding Things At EpicureanFriends.com
Here is a list of suggested search strategies:
- Website Overview page - clickable links arrranged by cards.
- Forum Main Page - list of forums and subforums arranged by topic. Threads are posted according to relevant topics. The "Uncategorized subforum" contains threads which do not fall into any existing topic (also contains older "unfiled" threads which will soon be moved).
- Search Tool - icon is located on the top right of every page. Note that the search box asks you what section of the forum you'd like to search. If you don't know, select "Everywhere."
- Search By Key Tags - curated to show frequently-searched topics.
- Full Tag List - an alphabetical list of all tags.