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  • Cassius January 14, 2026 at 2:08 PM

    Post
    Thanks for those comments Bryan. I suppose to nail down another aspect of this discussion, would you or anyone else here advocate for Lucretius taking off in a bold new direction from Epicurus as to the nature of atoms? I suppose an interesting case…

  • Cassius January 14, 2026 at 1:59 PM

    Post
    Good topic Matteng but please edit your first line:

    […]

    I it looks like you mean to say " read / hear "

    because you've included a lot that I don't think you read HERE! :)

  • Matteng January 14, 2026 at 1:19 PM

    Thread
    In the past I often read/here:

    Stoicism = Stress management

    Epicureanism = Stress avoidance

    And that Suffering belongs to Life, and is needed for growing and that it is bad to shun pain.

    And that Epicurean philosophy would teach to shun pain.

    Stoics train…

  • Kalosyni January 14, 2026 at 12:45 PM

    Uploaded the image Many more pleasures than pains.
    Image/Video
    Many more pleasures than pains

  • Bryan January 14, 2026 at 10:50 AM

    Post
    […]

    At every turn Lucretius is trying to translate, not transliterate, Epicurus. There are only a few exceptions (Such as homoeomeria, for which he apologizes for using only the transliteration.) To consider this translation a transformation is of course …

  • Cassius January 14, 2026 at 4:56 AM

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    One more comment:

    If what Nail is saying is that he sees much more emphasis on motion in Lucretius than he does in Epicurus, and that this is why we should not be overly focused on anything that is static, then I completely agree. I think motion is a…

  • Cassius January 14, 2026 at 4:30 AM

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    Also Eikadistes I just glanced back over your recent article. What you wrote makes perfect sense to me in going over the many different words that were used as apparent synonyms for particles and stressing that we should pay attention to them.

    But while I…

  • Cassius January 14, 2026 at 4:10 AM

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    I just read the article. I agree with some of Nail's points on ethics (especially his implicit or explicit criticism of too much focus on static / katastematic ideas) but I am not seeing the profound differences between Lucretius and Epicurus that he…

  • Eikadistes January 13, 2026 at 9:54 PM

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    That's what I found, as well. H. A. J. Munro is the only author I've found who seems to consistently stick to Lucretius' neologisms, as opposed to inserting modern scientific jargon. I made a list of the vocabulary words and phrases that Lucretius uses…

  • Kalosyni January 13, 2026 at 9:49 PM

    Thread
    The following page contains a long explanation by the author Thomas Nail (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Denver) of his ideas regarding Lucretius, including his stance that Lucretius never used the word "atoms".

    …

  • kochiekoch January 13, 2026 at 9:16 PM

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    Stunning reconstruction of Rome in all its colorful beauty.

    One thing this version has that other's I've seen is lots of people. Those streets must have been PACKED.

  • Cassius January 13, 2026 at 9:37 AM

    Thread
    Watching a video of a reconstruction of ancient Rome brought my attention to "Fausta Felicitas."

    In addition to Virgil's "Felix quit potuit...." passage I presume that the Romans in general would have connected the word "Felicitas" to the happiness…

  • kochiekoch January 12, 2026 at 8:41 PM

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    In this subject I recalled that religion in ancient societies like the Greeks and Romans had religion DEEPLY intertwined with public life. Denying the gods was unthinkable and, in their view, dangerous as it invited retaliation from the gods. There…

  • Kalosyni January 12, 2026 at 8:16 AM

    Thread
    I just found this interesting article on how important exercise is, and that it is as effective as pharmacological threatments or psychological treatments. And it also helps with neuroplasticity:

    […]

    You can read the full article here.

  • TauPhi January 11, 2026 at 7:02 PM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    Aristippus' anecdotes about sea voyages he took. Both come from Gnomologium Vaticanum (link below).

    Aristippus the Cyrenian philosopher was shipwrecked sailing into Athens, and having been taken in by the Athenians and asked what he intended to tell his…

  • Don January 11, 2026 at 6:30 AM

    Replied to the thread Welcome JLPENDALL!.
    Post
    Welcome aboard, jlpendall

  • Cassius January 11, 2026 at 6:09 AM

    Replied to the thread Welcome JLPENDALL!.
    Post
    jlpendall tells us:

    Hi Cassius!

    I learned a little bit about Epicurus decades ago, but it was only after basically a lifetime of practicing various philosophies that his take on things started to click.

    At 39, I’m starting the classic struggle of…

  • Cassius January 11, 2026 at 6:08 AM

    Posted the thread Welcome JLPENDALL!.
    Thread
    Welcome jlpendall

    There is one last step to complete your registration:

    All new registrants must post a response to this message here in this welcome thread (we do this in order to minimize spam registrations).

    You must post your response within 24…

  • Joshua January 10, 2026 at 10:32 AM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    And to be fair, the failure rate for sea journeys in ancient Greece was also abysmal. Protagoras, Zeno of Citium, and Aristippus were all shipwrecked, and a young Julius Caesar was captured by pirates. I'm sure there are many more such stories!

  • Cassius January 10, 2026 at 9:57 AM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    […]

    The odds an astronaut will die are 100% - just like anyone else.

    We all die, but some of us want the maximum pleasure we can get out of life before we do!

    And for some of us, the life of an astronaut would lead to maximizing pleasure.

    The texts are very…

  • Kalosyni January 10, 2026 at 8:33 AM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    […]

    I am of the few who would say that Epicurus would not engage in spaceflight.

    Just for fun I asked Google AI: In 2026, what are the odds that an astronaut will die?

    Google response:

    There's no precise "odds" for an astronaut death in 2026, but risks are…

  • Cassius January 10, 2026 at 8:20 AM

    Post
    Reading ahead, there is a lot of useful information about Epicurus, and by no means is all of it criticism. We'll take as much time as we need to go through it, because this is some of the most authoritative summary material that survives from the…

  • Cassius January 10, 2026 at 7:59 AM

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    This paragraph is important for many reasons, not the least of which is that (1) Epicurus held that there is "nothing good but pleasure," (2) that it was not Epicurus but Hieronymous who held the good to be "absence of pain," and (3) that the Stoics held…

  • Cassius January 10, 2026 at 7:44 AM

    Thread
    Welcome to Episode 316 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 January 10, 2026 at 7:39 AM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    […]

    It's certainly not the only way - but it is one way - to emphasize that Epicurean philosophy applies to everyone, that each of us gets old and eventually dies, and that we want the pleasure while we are alive of thinking that we are helping those who…

  • Bryan January 9, 2026 at 11:43 PM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    Wow, that really looks GREAT! On a side note, I love young Epicurus in a spacesuit -- and it really is a fully appropriate image. THANK YOU!!!

  • Cassius January 9, 2026 at 9:06 PM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    Thanks Joshua. I have more work to do on that so I will incorporate that as I revise the outline. It's difficult getting it working right on all screen sizes so if someone runs into a problem please let me know and Claude and I will adjust it!

  • Joshua January 9, 2026 at 7:38 PM

    Replied to the thread Updating Of EpicurusToday.com.
    Post
    These are very useful! It did occur to me just now, though, that part is generally a higher order of classification than section--book -> part -> chapter -> section -> subsection--but I don't know if it's really worth fixing. As always Cassius thank…

  • Patrikios January 9, 2026 at 6:33 PM

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    […]

    Cassius ,

    Thanks for the Claude (AI) bibliography, which I am finding most thorough and helpful. To answer your key question, "what is happiness", I agree that we cannot afford to wait for perfect clarity before we must act to implement Epicurean…

  • Cassius January 9, 2026 at 3:57 PM

    Thread
    As many of you know I have been working to consolidate many of the materials referenced here at EpicureanFriends.com which are currently scattered over a number of URLs.

    I have revamped the existing EpicurusToday.com website to serve as a clearinghouse…

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