Posts by kochiekoch

SUNDAY WEEKLY ZOOM - 12:30 PM EDT - Ancient Text Study: De Rerum Natura by Lucretius -- Meeting is open to Level 03 members and above - Read the agenda for our December 14, 2025 meeting -- or find out how to attend.

 

  • Epicurean Philosophy And Boomer Word Associations ("Feeling No Pain")

    Quote from Cassius

    The question is: To what extent does hearing someone say that they are "feeling no pain" automatically invoke an association that what they mean is that they are "stoned?"

    To me, it would be a great extent considering the times I lived in as a young man when I would hear the phrase now and again.

    While I'm largely clueless about its connotations today among post baby boomers, a quick AI search tells me it's gained a wider scope. More escape from stresses in general rather than being "stoned". It's a reason that Stoicism has gained such wide interest among the post boomers.

    Although stoned works! 🥴

  • A Video on the Preservation of Wood at Herculaneum

    Great video Joshua! ^^

    You know, what always impressed me about the preserved organic stuff in Herculaneum and Pompeii was the sectioned loaves of bread. They almost look like you can lay down a few coins and get your birthday cake shaped section of bread and continue down the street.

    Unfortunately, they're all really stale. :(

    Herculaneum loaf - Wikipedia

    The form and recipe still exists. Here is a yummy reconstruction:

  • Video: Ancient Greek Society and Religion

    Recently, on my UTube feed I got a video on ancient Rome and religion. The gist of which was that religion was inseparatable from the state and society. For example, the treasury in ancient Rome was also the Temple of Saturn. Atheism was almost unthinkable when society and religion were so tightly intertwined.

    Of course, ancient Rome isn't ancient Greece, but I thought they might be similar and sure enough they were. Ancient Greek religion was deeply intertwined with Greek society in a similar way as in ancient Rome. It was the glue that held separate city states together with a common Greek identity. As this video shows:

    TLG 6K #1

    Epicurus was and has widely been criticized for atheism, but he very likely was a theist with a different and realistic as opposed to idealistic view of the gods than was common. He even says so:

    Menoeceus 123-124 - Epicurus Wiki

  • No Supernatural Entities, Forces, or Powers and No Ghosts

  • No Supernatural Entities, Forces, or Powers and No Ghosts

    Quote from Kalosyni

    I have been thinking about how important it is to be grounded in a realistic worldview of matter and phenomenon having natural causes. Back in the September first Monday Zoom, we discussed what this worldview should be labeled, and the concensus in that meeting was the label "materialism". However I see a problem with that label because it has a double meaning (the belief that money and material possessions are the most important thing in life - which is not what Epicureans believe at all) and wondering if we could come up with a better label.

    There IS a better label Kalosyni! :)

    Physicalism - Wikipedia

    >>In philosophy, physicalism is the view that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical,[1] or that everything supervenes on the physical.[2] It is opposed to idealism, according to which the world arises from mind. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substance" view of the nature of reality, unlike "two-substance" (mind–body dualism) or "many-substance" (pluralism) views. Both the definition of "physical" and the meaning of physicalism have been debated.

    Physicalism is closely related to materialism, and has evolved from materialism with advancements in the physical sciences in explaining observed phenomena. The terms "physicalism" and "materialism" are often used interchangeably, but can be distinguished based on their philosophical implications. Physicalism encompasses matter, but also energy, physical laws, space, time, structure, physical processes, information, state, and forces, among other things, as described by physics and other sciences, as part of the physical in a monistic sense. From a physicalist perspective, even abstract concepts such as mathematics, morality, consciousness, intentionality, and meaning are considered physical entities, although they may consist of a large ontological object and a causally complex structure.[3]

    According to a 2020 survey, physicalism is the majority view among philosophers,[4] but there also remains significant opposition to physicalism.<<

  • Modern Scientific Challenges To Theory That Universe Had A "Big Bang" Beginning

    Another way you explain mature galaxies in the early universe is misinterpreting what you're seeing. ^^

    https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-134?ref=warp-news&news=true

    >>When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early universe from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found what appeared to be a bevy of Olympic bodybuilders. Some galaxies appeared to have grown so massive, so quickly, that simulations couldn’t account for them. Some researchers suggested this meant that something might be wrong with the theory that explains what the universe is made of and how it has evolved since the big bang, known as the standard model of cosmology.

    According to a new study in the Astronomical Journal led by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Katherine Chworowsky, some of those early galaxies are in fact much less massive than they first appeared. Black holes in some of these galaxies make them appear much brighter and bigger than they really are.

    “We are still seeing more galaxies than predicted, although none of them are so massive that they ‘break’ the universe,” Chworowsky said.<<

  • Looking for constructive feedback on my mostly Epicurean philosophy of life

    Hi there! It's been a long time. :)

    I think I might have encountered you and your document on Vincent Cook's e-mail list years ago.

    I have it in my favorites and check in now and then to see if you have any updates.

    Like Cassius, I notice your document does diverge from Epicureanism in some respects, but overall, a good and thought provoking read. ("Death is harmful to one who dies"). Huh?

    I notice I can't access it on Scrib anymore unless I sign up, which I'm not going to do. ^^ Oh well I got your Wordpress address.

  • Unfortunate Use of Bust of Epicurus

    You know I think I get it. The Guardian creator of the illustration looked for some old statue with a pleased, satisfied look, as he was being transfused, and came up with a picture of Epicurus looking just that way.

    LOL!!! wouldn't he/she be surprised if they knew anything about the man at all! And his views on death! 😁

  • Empedocles Document Found

    It's very rare, but a document with Empedocles original work has been found.

    Original documents with a philosopher's words just don't happen every day. It's one reason the documents from Philodemus, from Herculaneum are so remarkable.

    He seems to have solved the immobility problem of Parmenides, we've recently discussed, by hypothesizing movement from the conflict of "Love and Strife". :D

    Interesting way he ends his career. He proclaimed himself a God and went down into Mt. Etna's crater to prove that.

    Didn't go as he planned. :(

    Empedocles: New Insights from Recent Papyrus Fragments (greekreporter.com)

  • Lucian: Alexander, The Oracle-Monger

    I take a large fish oil capsule every day. I think it DOES help, although the placebo effect is strong in them! ^^

    I once had a bottle of fish oil with a ruptured capsule. It was the most horrible smell in the world! These capsules are organic, and decay if breached.

    I took it back and exchanged and told them DO NOT OPEN THE BOTTLE! :D

  • The Normal Curve of Pleasure

    Quote from Cassius

    I remember that we discussed trying to plot things out in the past, and see this is mentioned in this thread / post from 2019,

    In that discussion we were talking plotting out duration of life in relation to pleasure predominating over pain, if I recall correctly

    It's probably still worth experimenting with various scenarios by actual plotting of diagrams at some point.

    Yeah, it looks like I'm not the only person that thought of using a normal curve to describe pleasure. Normal curves can be used to describe all sorts of things. And are! :)


    Quote from Cassius

    Anybody coming across this thread and getting motivated to plot some bell curves might want to also consult the earlier thread in which a "spreadsheet" was discussed:

    Post

    A Draft Epicurean Pleasure Maximization Worksheet

    Feelings cannot be reduced to numbers, and there are important limitations in the use of a "worksheet" as an aid in evaluating choices and avoidances. However it may be helpful to some people to visualize an illustration of the weighing process that some term the "hedonic calculus." Here is a draft example for your consideration and comment. Scores included here are of course fictional and for example only. A version of the spreadsheet in xlsx format is attached for downloading.

    …
    Cassius
    July 11, 2019 at 10:25 PM

    Even though pictoral and mathematical representations are limited, and cannot possibly capture the "feelings" that are involved in pleasure and pain, I continue to think that the process of working through them is useful, especially in that trying to formulate them emphasizes *how* in the end a mathematical analysus cannot hope to capture in objective form the full human pleasure/pain evaluation, which is inherently subjective, especially as to "mental" pleasure and pain.

    Wow! 8| That worksheet is really numerically specific! I wonder how you get specific numbers for pleasure. ^^

    As far as the worksheet is concerned, I can see your point. I don't think you can quantify pleasure that specifically either.

    The Normal curve though is pretty generalized and follows Epicurus' idea's well IMO.

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