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I came across this observation from Numenius of Apamea who wrote the passage some 500 years after Epicurus and I thought it may be interesting topic for us to discuss. Epicurean school in antiquity was uniquely resistant to any change or innovation. When other schools went through distinct periods in their development - Middle Platonism, Neoplatonism, Early Stoa, Middle Stoa, 1st Academy, 2nd Academy, umpteen academy etc. - Epicureanism had never developed. No new ideas were introduced, nothing was really questioned or corrected, there were around 10 scholars in succession that we know of who run the school and yet no-one really deviated or influenced in any significant way the teachings of the school.

So what do you think? Why was Epicurean school like a tardigrade in a state of cryptobiosis? Was the school's stagnation a feature or a bug?

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On the contrary, there was no great necessity that the Epicureans should have preserved the teachings of their

Greetings, friends!

I'm just noting for my own, future reference locations at which I have uploaded a translation:

Academia
On EpicureanFriends
Society of Friends of Epicurus

I'll make primary updates on twentiers.com/biography, but I've uploaded static copies elsewhere.

Nothing new lately. I hope everyone is well.

Greetings, all!

I'm centralizing some of the Epicurean art, merchandise, and related paraphernalia I've created in the Epicurean Emporium. My wife was previously hosting some of the material – including her historical portraits and digital illustrations – on Etsy and RedBubble, but we've made some changes, so it is now available through https://twentiers-shop.fourthwall.com/.

I'm still uploading things and organizing the navigation. It's a big bucket of products right now, but I'm working it out.

I'm also hosting a digital copy of The Hedonicon through the site. As I posted elsewhere, I jumped off of Musk and Zuckerberg's platforms, and I'd like to move away from Bezos' as much as possible, too, so I've ported e-book to this site. It's better, anyway. Amazon only pays the author/editor pennies for a cheap e-book or kindle file, and this site isn't quite as hungry.

PhiloSophos: Philosophical Connections by Dr Anthony Harrison-Barbet

A great resource for anyone interested in Western Philosophy. It contains interlinked profiles of 126 philosophers with 'connections' at the end of each profile. And these connections are the real gems of this web site. They show philosophers' influences, which ideas they shared, which ideas they opposed and which ideas they modified. It's a very clear way to see the development and interconnectedness of Western philosophy.

Please read 'How to use the profiles' section first to understand the whole concept and its execution.

First of all, hello (again)! I joined more than a year ago but have been fairly quiet since.

Eikas got me wondering whether there were other practices, observances, or rituals that ancient Epicureans followed, perhaps on a daily basis. If so, what might these have been? What might the typical day of an Epicurean in 3rd-century Athens (or 1st-century Herculaneum) have been like, and how would they have incorporated Epicureanism into it?

As 21st-century Epicureans, how do you integrate it into your daily life? Is there any particular structure or set of practices involved?

Admin Edit: We have now added a new weekly meeting on Sunday afternoons 12:30 ET. For more info go here.

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This thread is for discussing the potential of adding a regular Zoom for those who want an introductory level approach.

Our current meetings are as follows:

• Our First Monday session is a once per month meet and greet targeted at new participants.
  
• Our Wednesday night EST meeting have been devoted to status updates on recent threads on the forum and going through the fragments in Bryan's work on Usener's Epicurea.

(Our Twentieth session is only available for Level 03 and higher, and is a once per month commemoration of Epicurus and other early Epicureans, and we've been using it for advanced level general discussion of how we've pursued applying Epicurean principles over the last 30 days).

The thought is that we need a regular series for those who mainly want to get "introduced" to the basics of the philosophy

We've done several series in

I couldn't find the exact source of this quote, so this may be more paraphrase than quote. There's also this article from 2019:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17949861.billy-connolly-scottish-story/

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The Scots and the Irish – Connolly is of Irish stock as his surname tells you – have a deep cultural quirk of respecting death, but never taking it too seriously. Connolly will be keeping up that tradition. He’s told his wife Pamela Stephenson that when he dies he wants an epitaph in tiny writing so visitors will have to step close to his gravestone to read it. When they can finally see it, they’ll discover it says: “You’re standing on my b***s”.

I received an email from a reader of epicuro.org who prefers to remain anonymous with an original proposal that immediately thrilled me. Here is his email:

Epicurean philosophy is among the greatest movements of thought in history, on a par with the most common religions.

Unlike religions (e.g. Christianity) and other more recent movements (e.g. Communism), it does not have a symbol with which it can be identified around the world.

I therefore thought of a symbol that could condense the main points of Epicurus' thought, in a graphic that is as minimalist as possible.

The result is this: ⟐

A rhombus with a dot inside.

The four sides of the rhombus represent the quadrifugaco, the way to happiness according to Epicurus.

The point, on the other hand, represents the Democritean atom at the basis of Epicurean physics and the key concept of clinamen, the random movement of atoms.

This symbol corresponds to the UNICODE U + 27D0 standard so it is copyright free.

What do you think?

Simbolo Epicureismo.png

Hey folks! I’m back from my trip and thought I’d jump into a fun discussion. As a big film geek, I’ve recently been reflecting on movies from an Epicurean perspective, and I wanted to share a couple of key points to kick things off:

1) While movies can be valuable tools for exploring philosophy, they are rarely a perfect depiction of Epicurean principles unless that’s the filmmaker's intention. I believe it’s crucial that we acknowledge where a movie and its characters align with the philosophy and where they diverge. Not all elements of a film will resonate with Epicurean thought.

2) At the same time, I believe that almost any movie can be analyzed through an Epicurean lens, particularly if we operate under the assumption of psychological hedonism. After all, most characters are in pursuit of pleasure and avoiding pain, though they may differ in how effectively they navigate that pursuit. Examining this aspect of characters’ motivations can provide insights into the challenges they

I recently made a discovery I wanted to share:

The Hegemon never really refers to particles as the noun “atoms” or “uncuttables“. He only ever uses a form of word átomos as an adjective. As many times as he refers to “uncuttable” parts, he equally refers to them as “countless”, “microscopic”, and “primordial”. Just as easily as we have adopted the term “atom”, we could just as easily say “mikron”, “ametabolon”, or “apeiron”. Still, two words from this Epicurean vocabulary survived history and contribute to contemporary jargon; those two words are “proton” and “lepton”. Otherwise, Epíkouros properly refers to these bits of matter as σπερμά (spermá, “seeds”), ᾰ̓ρχαί (ărkhaí, “beginnings”), σώματα (sṓmata, simple “bodies”), ὄγκοι (ónkoi, “hooks”), τομαί (tomaí, “splinters”), λεπτομερής (leptomerḗs, “fine parts”), λεπτοί (leptoí, “cents”), μόρια (mória, “motes”), and, most frequently, as μέρη (mérē) meaning “parts” or “particles”.

Those are my translations of them, anyway. Lepton is