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Cassius February 23, 2026 at 9:29 AM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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To those reading along I would amplify what Daniel has said about 1000 times. He's approaching the subject as it is generally approached nowadays - sort of clinically. Yes indeed if you define 1 as "courage" and 2 as "justice" and "complete happiness" as…
Kalosyni February 23, 2026 at 9:00 AM

Replied to the thread What kinds of goals do Epicureans set for themselves?.
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From the Letter to Menoeceus we see in the opening paragraph that one should study philosophy both when young and when old, and interestingly it does occassionally seem that here on the forum we have a mix of both younger (college age) and older…
Daniel188 February 23, 2026 at 7:01 AM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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[…]

It simply doesn't work that way. It's impossible to completely "not worry" about certain basic needs. Their absence will always worsen the quality of life. According to the Stoics, theoretically, even if you were stranded on a lonely island, you would…
Joshua February 22, 2026 at 1:07 PM

Replied to the thread Sunday February 22, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 174.
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[…]
EdGenX February 22, 2026 at 12:24 PM

Replied to the thread Sunday February 22, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 174.
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Looking for link
Cassius February 22, 2026 at 12:23 PM

Replied to the thread Sunday February 22, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 174.
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Very good!
EdGenX February 22, 2026 at 12:23 PM

Replied to the thread Sunday February 22, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 174.
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I am able to attend!
EdGenX February 22, 2026 at 12:22 PM

Replied to the thread Sunday 12:30 ET Zoom - Epicurean Philosophy Discussion - How to Attend.
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I just got in, I am able to attend!
Don February 22, 2026 at 8:45 AM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Echecrates

By Zeus, Phaedo, they were right. It seems to me that he made those matters astonishingly clear, to anyone with even a little sense.

Ἐχεκράτης
νὴ Δία, ὦ Φαίδων, εἰκότως γε: θαυμαστῶς γάρ μοι δοκεῖ…
Cassius February 22, 2026 at 8:23 AM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Matteng here is another example of that problem of granting false presumptions, this from Plato's Phaedo:

[…]

Hell, no, Socrates!

I do NOT grant you that there is an "absolute" beauty and goodness and greatness!

Read onward from there, and you see what a…
Cassius February 22, 2026 at 8:08 AM

Replied to the thread An Analogy That Should Live Forever In Infamy Along With His Ridiculous "Cave" Analogy - Socrates' "Second Sailing".
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So the most relevant section comes near the end, when Socrates feels challenged by the argument that the soul might be longer-lasting than the body, but still might not exist forever. The main part starts with this opening:

[…]
Don February 22, 2026 at 7:34 AM

Replied to the thread "Prayer" vs "Choice and Avoidance".
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Oh, in response to Kalosyni 's thread title, "Prayer" vs "Choice and Avoidance", I see choice and rejection (see other threads for my rants on "avoidance" as a translation of φεύγω) as a tactic of Epicurean living practice. Honestly, if we…
Cassius February 22, 2026 at 7:13 AM

Replied to the thread An Analogy That Should Live Forever In Infamy Along With His Ridiculous "Cave" Analogy - Socrates' "Second Sailing".
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Anyone who wants to defend Socrates needs to be sure they have read the full Phaedo. Here's more of a taste of what Epicurus must have considered to be poison worse than hemlock. This is Socrates speaking, There is much more, and worse.

[…]
Don February 22, 2026 at 7:11 AM

Replied to the thread "Prayer" vs "Choice and Avoidance".
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Interesting topic. Thanks for starting this Kalosyni !

I fully agree that the popular notion of the word prayer is "Oh God, I know you're busy but I need a favor." I'm intentionally being flippant, but this idea isn't new. Lucian gave us Icaromenippus,…
Cassius February 22, 2026 at 6:40 AM

Replied to the thread An Analogy That Should Live Forever In Infamy Along With His Ridiculous "Cave" Analogy - Socrates' "Second Sailing".
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That is exactly my reaction Don. And i am sorely embarrassed that this forum has been going for some fifteen years without my recognizing this adequately.

Mea maxima culpa!

For me, this places a lot of what I've been reading about Epicurus in a very new…
Don February 22, 2026 at 6:14 AM

Replied to the thread A Full Comparison of Epicurus vs Aristotle.
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fwiw, here's where I started my dive into Nichomachean Ethics:

https://sites.google.com/view/epicurean…omachean-ethics

I'll admit I abandoned it after awhile due to lack of time (and interest). Maybe I'll go back in at some point and hit specific passages,…
Don February 22, 2026 at 6:08 AM

Replied to the thread An Analogy That Should Live Forever In Infamy Along With His Ridiculous "Cave" Analogy - Socrates' "Second Sailing".
Post

[…]

By Zeus, *THIS* is the basis of Western philosophy??

*THIS* is why society or culture or academia refer to the natural philosophers as *PRE-SOCRATIC* and largely dismiss them as irrelevant???

I admit I've never heard of the "second sailing" but, from my…
Don February 22, 2026 at 12:11 AM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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[…]

This idea occurs as PD5, VS5, and in Menoikeus, so it must have been important. I like Peter Saint-Andre's rendering:

It is not possible to live joyously without also living wisely and beautifully and rightly, nor to live wisely and beautifully and…
Cassius February 21, 2026 at 7:07 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Matteng that is why I am finding the material we are covering on the podcast now so valuable. I too was attracted to Stoicism (many years ago now) and for a long time I favored it. But as I look back now I see that i should have immediately tried to…
Matteng February 21, 2026 at 4:08 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Cassius Thank you, that really sums it up. After distancing myself more and more from Stoicism, when I read their arguments I'm still occasionally drawn to the dark side

And as you write, if one accepts their premises too quickly, one is right in the…
Cassius February 21, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Posted the thread Sunday February 22, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 174.
Thread

This week we will pick up at Lucretius line 174, and we will talk further about Dave's question as to Lucretius' use of the word "seeds"

https://handbook.epicureanfriends.com/sbslucretius/#1-174
Cassius February 21, 2026 at 1:57 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Going back to the recent question in which the Stoic article was cited, I want to add this:

[…]

Again, the entire discussion in the article gets off to a bad start by failing to be clear what is meant by happiness. But even within the general framework of…
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 9:19 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Matt there is something else I want to add. I see that you are going through a long sequence of statements about Stoicism and analyzing the logic of them. Anytime I get confronted with a long intricate chain argument, I always remember this from Lucian's…
Joshua February 20, 2026 at 8:58 PM

Replied to the thread Episode 322 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates' "Second Sailing" And His Treatment of Students (Not Yet Recorded).
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[…]
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 5:58 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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[…]

i would say from the very first sentence you are not defining what happiness means, so that it would be unproductive to evaluate anything after that starting point without more specifity.
Matteng February 20, 2026 at 5:42 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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I try to deconstruct it a little bit, point for point, my statements come after "=>":

[…]

=> 1) Compatible with Epicurean Philosophy
2) questionable

[…]

=> 3) Yes ok, but Pain Signals are important Information for life/Health/self preservation

[…]

=> 4,5) No,…
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 4:49 PM

Replied to the thread Episode 322 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates' "Second Sailing" And His Treatment of Students (Not Yet Recorded).
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Phaedo 99c–100a - Loeb (Jowett) from Archive.org, page 367 of the PDF version.
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 3:10 PM

Posted the thread Episode 322 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates' "Second Sailing" And His Treatment of Students (Not Yet Recorded).
Thread

Welcome to Episode 322 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the…
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 3:09 PM

Replied to the thread Episode 321 - EATAQ 03 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates For Denouncing Natural Science.
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Complete Show transcript is here:

https://epicurustoday.com/00-lucretiusto…321/#transcript
Eikadistes February 20, 2026 at 11:51 AM

Replied to the thread Episode 321 - EATAQ 03 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates For Denouncing Natural Science.
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My man!
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 10:43 AM

Replied to the thread Episode 321 - EATAQ 03 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates For Denouncing Natural Science.
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Episode 321 of the Lucretius Today Podcast is now available. This week our episode is entitled: "The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates For Denouncing Natural Science"

[media]https://www.spreaker.com/episode/70179149/media
Cassius February 20, 2026 at 9:23 AM

Replied to the thread Episode 321 - EATAQ 03 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates For Denouncing Natural Science.
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Current Link to Cosmos Episode 7 - Backbone of the Night - Attacking the Socratic/Platonic abandonment of the study of Nature (mentioned in this episode of the podcast)

https://odysee.com/@OzFlor:7/Cosmos7:4
Kalosyni February 20, 2026 at 9:20 AM

Posted the thread Happy Twentieth of February 2026!.
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Happy Twentieth Everyone!
Cassius February 19, 2026 at 1:54 PM

Replied to the thread Episode 321 - EATAQ 03 - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates For Denouncing Natural Science.
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This will deserve its own thread - Socrates' "Second Sailing" and its implications from the Epicurean perspective.

An Analogy That Should Live Forever In Infamy Along With His Ridiculous "Cave" Analogy - Socrates' "Second Sailing" …
Cassius February 19, 2026 at 1:52 PM

Posted the thread An Analogy That Should Live Forever In Infamy Along With His Ridiculous "Cave" Analogy - Socrates' "Second Sailing".
Thread

Carl Sagan's "Backbone of the Night" episode has me wanting to pursue further the condemnation of Socrates and Plato for deprecating the study of natural philosophy. Here's some initial research into a term apparently that is a key part of that terrible…
Cassius February 19, 2026 at 1:23 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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[…]

It appears that many Stoics are comfortable saying that they have no concerns about life and health. For my part I'd say that unless you have life and at least some degree of health, no happiness is possible.

This is an unbridgeable divide. The…
Matteng February 19, 2026 at 12:03 PM

Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.
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Found this Stoic text which claims that the dichotomy leads to undisturbable happiness.

The main point is that when you desire no things outside of your control ( like life, health … ) you encounter no „unhappiness“ or when you desire only Virtue…
Kalosyni February 19, 2026 at 10:07 AM

Replied to the thread What kinds of goals do Epicureans set for themselves?.
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It might be good think about goals for an Epicurean through the framework of lifestages. In modern psychology Erik Erikson and others have presented ideas of lifestages.

I am posting a table of lifestages categories - we could then see if we can compare…
Eikadistes February 19, 2026 at 8:41 AM

Replied to the thread "Prayer" vs "Choice and Avoidance".
Post

[…]

Philódēmos records Epíkouros of having written that "it is fitting for us to pray’". In On Piety, he affirms that their opponents observed the Epicureans to share "propitious offerings and sincere and sonorous prayers" to the gods. So, even then, the…
Kalosyni February 18, 2026 at 10:22 AM

Replied to the thread "Prayer" vs "Choice and Avoidance".
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Here is an interesting article from the Psychology Today website, and which would be related to the topic of "Epicurean choice and avoidance"...

[…]

Read the full article here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-pra…resourcefulness
Cassius February 17, 2026 at 10:16 AM

Posted the thread New Graphic: Epicurus vs. Other Major Philosophies.
Thread

I have now expanded the old comparison chart we had on the forum through the use of Claude AI to include columns for the Socratics and the Aristotelians. For the new additions I haven't checked each of the sources that that are listed for each point on…
Cassius February 17, 2026 at 8:52 AM

Replied to the thread A Full Comparison of Epicurus vs Aristotle.
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I am going to update the master comparison table (which at present is oriented toward comparing with Stoicism and repost it shortly. I will add Aristotle and also the Socratics.

Edit: This is the current status of the result:

…
Kalosyni February 17, 2026 at 8:07 AM

Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.
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Happy Birthday! SillyApe
Kalosyni February 17, 2026 at 7:56 AM

Posted the thread A Full Comparison of Epicurus vs Aristotle.
Thread

I want to set up this thread as a place to do an overall comparison between Epicurus and Aristotle.

Cassius do we have a table of comparison somewhere already?

Here is an interesting historical snippet from Reddit answering the question "Did Epicurus…
Cassius February 17, 2026 at 4:05 AM

Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.
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Happy Birthday to SillyApe! Learn more about SillyApe and say happy birthday on SillyApe's timeline: SillyApe
Joshua February 17, 2026 at 2:21 AM

Replied to the thread Sunday February 14, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 159.
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[…]

Thomas More (1478-1535) published Utopia in 1516; for reference, here are some of the relevant texts from antiquity by first Latin translation, first Latin printing, and the first Aldine press edition of the Greek text:

And here is the editor of a …
Robert February 16, 2026 at 11:29 PM

Replied to the thread Sunday February 14, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 159.
Post

[…]

Thank you, Joshua! How familiar do you think More might have been with Epicurus? His argument seems almost a direct response to the position expressed in PD34 and elsewhere.
kochiekoch February 16, 2026 at 8:19 PM

Replied to the thread The dark Epicureanism in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
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From what you write, Fitzgeralds Rubaiyat sounds more Cyrenaic than Epicurean or, I'll bet Sufi.

A more Victorian Skeptic view than what Omar Khayyam actually wrote?
Cassius February 16, 2026 at 7:02 PM

Posted the thread New Decision Tree: Are You On Team Epicurus?.
Thread

I've prepared a new page to make it easier for browsers of the page to identify to what extent they fit with Epicurean Philosophy. This is a first draft which will change, but it's already in usable form. This stems primarily from the recent material…
DaveT February 16, 2026 at 4:28 PM

Replied to the thread 16th Panhellenic Epicurus Seminar In Athens Greece - February 14, 2026.
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Cassius Thank you.

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