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Cassius
February 24, 2026 at 5:27 PM Replied to the thread Welcome MCTIMKAT!.PostWelcome MCTIMKAT!
He tells me --
As I approach my 70th birthday, I have been reviewing my life up to this milestone point, and in so doing have developed a strong desire to consolidate the experiences of those years into a coherent philosophy of living to… -
Cassius
February 24, 2026 at 5:25 PM Posted the thread Welcome MCTIMKAT!.ThreadWelcome mctimkat
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 hours,… -
Cassius
February 23, 2026 at 9:29 AM Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.PostTo 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?.PostFrom 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.Post[…]
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.Post[…] -
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.PostLooking 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.PostVery 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.PostI 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.PostI 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.PostEchecrates
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.PostMatteng 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
PostFebruary 22, 2026 at 8:08 AM 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".PostOh, 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
PostFebruary 22, 2026 at 7:13 AM 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".PostInteresting 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
PostFebruary 22, 2026 at 6:40 AM 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.Postfwiw, 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
PostFebruary 22, 2026 at 6:08 AM […]
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.Post[…]
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.PostMatteng 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.PostCassius 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
ThreadFebruary 21, 2026 at 4:00 PM 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.PostGoing 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.PostMatt 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
PostFebruary 20, 2026 at 8:58 PM […] -
Cassius
February 20, 2026 at 5:58 PM Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.Post[…]
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.PostI 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
PostFebruary 20, 2026 at 4:49 PM -
Cassius
ThreadFebruary 20, 2026 at 3:10 PM 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…
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