Outlining Catherin Wilson's "How To Be An Epicurean" - A Blank Form

    The following is a numbered outline of the chapters in Wilson's "How To Be An Epicurean." If you are going to make detailed notes on the book, you might want to cut and paste this outline into a thread of your own and then fill in your comments under each section. You should be able to simply use your browser's copy and paste feature to select the text below and copy it into a post of your own. I hope this is helpful!


    1. Part 1 - How The Epicurean Sees the World
      1. Back To Basics
        1. The Epicurean Atom
        2. Atomism: Three Consequences
      2. How Did We Get Here?
        1. The Epicurean Theory of Natural Selection
        2. Darwin's Upgrade: How Natural Selecton Causes Evolution
      3. The Material Mind
        1. The Mystery of Consciousness
        2. The Evolution of Consciousness
      4. The Story of Humanity
        1. The State of Nature and the Rise of Civilization
        2. Authority and Inequality
        3. The Lessons of the Past
    2. Part 2 - Living Well and Living Justly
      1. Ethics and the Care of the Self
        1. Pleasure and Pain
        2. Prudence and its Limits
        3. Hedonism and its Problems
        4. Don't Suffer in Silence!
        5. The Pleasure Merchants
      2. Morality and Other People
        1. Morality vs Prudence
        2. Moral Truth and Moral Progress
        3. Why Be Moral?
        4. What's Different About Epicurean Morality?
      3. Beware of Love!
        1. The Epicurean Exception
        2. The Pains and Pleasures of Love
        3. Sexual Morality: Minimizing Harm to Others
        4. Using Your Head
      4. Thinking About Death
        1. The Epicurean View of Death
        2. Death at the Right and Wrong Times
        3. Abortion vs Infanticide
        4. Suicide vs Euthanasia
        5. Resisting and Accepting Mortality
        6. Don't Count on the Afterlife
    3. Part 3 - Seeking Knowledge and Avoiding Error
      1. What is Real?
        1. Nature and Convention
        2. Things In Between
        3. Human Rights: Natural or Conventional?
        4. The Imaginary: Unthings
        5. The Reality of the Past
      2. What Can We Know?
        1. The Importance of First-Person Experience
        2. Resolving Disagreement
        3. Is Empiricism True?
    4. Part 4 - The Self In a Complex World
      1. Science And Skepticism
        1. Scientific Explanation
        2. Can We Trust The Scientists?
        3. Living With Uncertainty
      2. Social Justice For An Epicurean World
        1. Three Epicurean Philosophers On War, Inequality, and Work
        2. Epicurean Political Principles
        3. Justice for Women: Nature, History, and Convention
      3. Religion From An Epicurean Perspective
        1. Belief In the Imaginary
        2. Piety Without Superstition
        3. Can Religion Be Immoral?
        4. Can A Religious Person Be An Epicurean?
      4. The Meaningful Life
        1. Two Conceptions of the Meaningful Life
        2. Meaningfulness For the Individual
        3. The Problem of Affluence
        4. The Philosophical Perspective
      5. Should I Be A Stoic Instead?
        1. The Stoic System
        2. Too Much Fortitude?
        3. Wrapping Up

  • Cassius

    Changed the title of the thread from “Outlining "How To Be An Epicurean" - A Blank Form” to “Outlining Catherin Wilson's "How To Be An Epicurean" - A Blank Form”.