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Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 5:33 PM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.PostOf course "arrangement of atoms" is clearly just a shorthand, and calling something "emergence" is just slapping another label on it. But I am wondering if there are others ways to describe the process that help distinguish it from "randomness" -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 5:17 PM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.PostI think what I am considering is whether it is the best we can do to say that -for example - memory is simply a very precise arrangement of atoms.
Again not implying that it is anything non-natural, but there are many things which clearly CAN be that. I… -
Eikadistes
PostApril 7, 2026 at 5:10 PM Our friend Leonidas from the Garden of Athens has taken the time to translate the Timeline of Epicurean Philosophy hosted at Twentiers into Greek! You can find his translation ΟΙ ΕΠΙΚΟΥΡΕΙΟΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΑ ("THE EPICUREANS IN ANTIQUITY") here.
I'm… -
Patrikios
April 7, 2026 at 4:47 PM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.Post[…]
Cassius
I don’t see how ‘emergence’ plays out in recreating the same exact experience when it is a different time or place. I also don’t see it as a question of “past lives” from a previous time.
Those reunited “atoms” never caught the same… -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 4:05 PM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.PostPatrikios I wonder if "emergence" is not part of this answer too. I think it's reasonable to say that if we were taking an atomic reductionist point of view that the "atoms" of our current forms could in fact be reunited in exactly their same positions… -
Don
April 7, 2026 at 4:00 PM Replied to the thread How to argue against the Kalam Cosmological Argument?.Post[…]
Amen. -
Eikadistes
April 7, 2026 at 3:58 PM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.Post -
Patrikios
April 7, 2026 at 3:17 PM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.Post[…]
LAMAR__44
Interesting question of how would we know. To “know” something requires a brain with memory. Our brains contain volatile memory, with neuron cells. But when the blood flow stops, the brain’s power supply (oxygen, glucose) are cut… -
Eikadistes
April 7, 2026 at 11:26 AM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.PostAlso, my bad (upon reflection) for demonstrating my point with mythic narratives.
Read the citation Cassius shared for a proper, Epicurean defense. -
Eikadistes
April 7, 2026 at 11:25 AM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.Post[…]
The future animal that looks like you will have different friends.
To be the same, you'd also need the same context, the same culture, the same language, the same fashion, the same laws, the same relationships, the same experience that guarantees an… -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 11:20 AM Replied to the thread How to argue against the Kalam Cosmological Argument?.Post[…]
[…]
And I agree with Eikadistes there Lamar_44. Eikadistes is using what is apparently the current terminology. I use the terminology I grew up with - "universe means everything - the all." As I read it we end up in the same place.
[…]
This is a… -
Eikadistes
April 7, 2026 at 10:57 AM Replied to the thread How to argue against the Kalam Cosmological Argument?.Post[…]
This point is consistent with Epicurean physics, which teaches that each kósmos is temporary.
In the Epistle to Herodótos, Epíkouros describes the creation of a kósmos: "concerning the intercepting of the amalgamations out of [the] beginning of these … -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 9:27 AM Replied to the thread David Sedley's "Epicurean Theories of Knowledge From Hermarchus To Lucretius And Philodemus".PostIt appears for some reason that this thread was closed in error, as I don't see another one treating the same article by Sedley. It's directly relevant to issues of knowledge and probability so I am bumping it for reference in current discussions. -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 7:49 AM Replied to the thread How to argue against the Kalam Cosmological Argument?.PostSound to me like that's a variation of the Zeno argument that you cannot move or walk across the room because there are infinite steps in between.
Someone else ( Joshua ) probably can state the response better than me, but Epicurus rejects the argument… -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 7:40 AM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.Post[…]
Perhaps Tau Phi's post mentions this (haven't read it yet) but your specific question is addressed by Lucretius. His answer is as you indicate, that our exact atoms could reassemble in the future, but that we would have no memory of it so it would not… -
TauPhi
April 7, 2026 at 6:40 AM Replied to the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.PostI conducted similar thought experiment some time ago and tried to imagine how Epicureans in antiquity could tackle this problem. I hope you find it interesting:
Ancient Epicurean worldview (classes of compounds of atoms) -
LAMAR__44
April 7, 2026 at 6:09 AM Posted the thread How to argue against the Kalam Cosmological Argument?.ThreadEssentially, it argues that the universe could not be eternal, since this would require an infinite past. And we can’t have an infinite past, because this would require an actual infinite set to be constructed through successive addition of finite… -
LAMAR__44
April 7, 2026 at 6:01 AM Posted the thread How do we know that we only get one life?.ThreadEssentially, from what I know about Epicurean physics, is that time extends infinitely into the past and into the future, as well as space extending infinitely in all directions, and there is infinite matter in this universe.
Now, if the soul is just a… -
Cassius
April 7, 2026 at 4:05 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostHappy Birthday to Jesse! Learn more about Jesse and say happy birthday on Jesse's timeline: Jesse -
Eikadistes
April 6, 2026 at 12:25 PM Replied to the thread Was Epicurus Influenced by Xenophanes?.PostI have yet to find Xenophanes in the extent works of Epíkouros, Metródōros, Hermarkhos, Polyainos, Polystratos, Karneiskos, Dēmētrios of Lakonia, Zēnon, Philódēmos, or either Diogénēs.
Lucretius does allude to Xenophanes (but not by name) somewhere around… -
Cassius
ThreadApril 6, 2026 at 10:56 AM Given that many of our recent discussions have focused on identifying the Epicurean position as to knowledge, and whether "probability" is the best we can do on any topic, I've produced using Claude an initial outline of the analysis of Philodemus made… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 10:40 AM Replied to the thread Sunday April 5, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 305.PostRobert I have completed my first review of the full Claude summary, and it appears to me to be excellent. For ease of followup I would appreciate further comments on this topic being made over there so we can keep most of the discussion in the… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 10:39 AM Posted the thread Analysis of Epicurean Canonics.ThreadI have asked ClaudaAI to take the DeLacy translation and commentary, as well as Sedley's essay On Signs, and produce a detailed outline and analysis of the work based on those two authorities. After reviewing the result it looks pretty good to me, and… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 10:33 AM Replied to the thread Was Epicurus Influenced by Xenophanes?.PostWhat conclusion would you reach if there were such influence? -
Kalosyni
April 6, 2026 at 9:30 AM Posted the thread Was Epicurus Influenced by Xenophanes?.ThreadWe can see the Epicurean understanding of the gods in Principal Doctrine 01, the Letter to Menoeceus, and in Lucretius. And perhaps Epicurus was influenced by Xenophanes ideas (which alos came down through Plato/Aristotle, but Epicurus forms different… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 8:38 AM Replied to the thread Sunday April 5, 2026 - Zoom Meeting - Lucretius Book Review - Starting Book One Line 305.PostAt this meeting Robert bravely attempted to summarize aspects of Philodemus' "On Methods of Inference / On Signs" as to where Philodemus comes down on whether positions can constitute"knowledge" or rise only to "probability."
If i recall correctly… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 7:29 AM Replied to the thread Is There A "Paradox of Hedonism"?.Post[…]
I don't think Epicurus would consider "the value of friendship above the value of pleasure"
His wider framework is clearly to divide all feelings into pleasure and pain with only pleasure desirable in and of itself. So I think that observation answers… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 7:14 AM Replied to the thread Is There A "Paradox of Hedonism"?.Post[…]
This is a subject that we have not explored deeply here at the forum, with Sedley's "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism" only recently being first discussed. References to "both levels (atomic and our world level) being real has been discussed as a result of… -
Cassius
April 6, 2026 at 4:05 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostHappy Birthday to Tony Fox! Learn more about Tony Fox and say happy birthday on Tony Fox's timeline: Tony Fox -
LAMAR__44
April 6, 2026 at 12:22 AM Replied to the thread Is There A "Paradox of Hedonism"?.PostI’ve heard of emergence before, particularly in debates about how the mind arises from the physical. When describing emergence, are you referring to weak/reductive emergence? Where we can map a phenomenon down to its constituent parts, such as a wave…
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