Welcome Charles Edwins!

    Thanks Cassius . I'm glad to be a part of the online Epicurean community found both here and on Facebook and wherever else on the internet.

    To give a little background of myself: I'm 19 years old and I live in Minnesota. In my free-time I like to study Politics, Geopolitics, History, Economics, Literature, Music Theory/History, and of course, Philosophy. In particular I love Antonio Vivaldi (Baroque) and Hindustani Classical Music (India), my favorite book is "One Thousand and One Nights", and my philosophy is obviously geared towards Epicurus, I draw inspiration from David Hume, Charvaka, and Donatien François.

    As I have mentioned prior in a few other introductory statements, I used to be a rather dogmatic hedonist. But that blanket term did not imply any further studies or associations with other forms of thinking (ie epistemology or ethics), and I could not reconcile the many questions I had, nor the scathing criticisms that the term begs for. Eventually, I decided to look back upon Epicurus whom I had known before, but never gave much thought to.

    Since then, I've developed a much more firm philosophy in the wake of Epicurus, and wishing to keep the trend of satisfying a desire for more knowledge, I stumbled across many Epicurean communities online: primarily through Facebook. Thus, that is what leads me to writing this introduction and allows me to maintain my interest and ambition in wanting to both grow the number of Epicureans worldwide, and to become much more involved with the existing community.

    “If the joys found in nature are crimes, then man’s pleasure and happiness is to be criminal.”

    Very nice, Charles! It'll be great to have your perspective here. I especially love your mention of Hume. It is worth remembering that the celebrated and notorious Scottish agnostic was born in Edinburgh just 14 years after the last British heretic was executed in the same city (Thomas Aikenhead; a lad of 20 and a student at the university, hanged for blasphemy). We owe them a great deal, and others like them.

    I'm a northwest Iowa boy myself.

    Welcomes Charles

    I see you like Indian classical music, so you'll enjoy the music I chose for my video "I Call You to Constant Pleasures" with quotes by Epicurus. It's a beautiful melody. Cassius wasn't into Indian music and sought to change the tune (the song is actually by musicians from Germany), but I loved and relished this song from the moment I heard it.

    "Please always remember my doctrines!" - Epicurus' last words

    Hiram Its a nice piece. My personal favorite music to study Epicurean philosophy to, is the Dhrupad style developed by Zia Mohiuddin Dagar: two tanpuras and a rudra veena. I find percussion and a fast-paced tempo to be counter productive to meditating or deep thinking.

    “If the joys found in nature are crimes, then man’s pleasure and happiness is to be criminal.”

    Quote from Hiram

    . Cassius wasn't into Indian music and sought to change the tune (the song is actually by musicians from Germany), but I loved and relished this song from the moment I heard it.

    We have a wide variety of tastes and preferences in our Epicurean Work. I am very much in the "Western" tradition and Hiram is, I perceive, not, but that has not stopped us from collaborating when possible.

    I consider myself to be in both, personally.

    I know a wide variety of western philosophy and humanities, but I always find myself going back to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc. for the same subjects. There's always something to learn from each culture.

    “If the joys found in nature are crimes, then man’s pleasure and happiness is to be criminal.”