EpicureanFriends is a community of real people dedicated to the study and promotion of Classical Epicurean Philosophy. We offer what no encyclopedia, AI chatbot, textbook, or general philosophy forum can provide — genuine teamwork among people committed to rediscovering and restoring the actual teachings of Epicurus, unadulterated by Stoicism, Skepticism, Supernatural Religion, Humanism, or other incompatible philosophies.
Changed the title of the thread from “Article by Norman DeWitt on Present Impressions of the Mind” to “Article by Norman DeWitt: Epicurus, ΠϵρὶΦαντασίας (Present Impressions of the Mind)”.
Now THIS is what I'm talking about!! This is DeWitt's full erudition and scholarship on display. He makes claims and then backs them up FULLY with citations, original text excerpts, and step-by-step reasoning. I enjoyed reading this VERY much.
My only initial hesitation was his claim that Lucretius mistranslated a certain term or concept. Uh oh, I thought. Lucretius WAS an Epicurean who understood both Greek and Latin (the latter as a first language). He knew what he wanted to say... BUT Dewitt did an excellent job of laying out why he thought Lucretius may have used the term he did in the cultural context of his time and because he was a poet.
Now, I'm still going to hold Dewitt accountable for unsubstantiated claims he makes in EaHP, but this essay was a welcome eye-opener on the professor's ability!
Yep! Hold him accountable; dispute his conclusions; and follow the evidence wherever it leads. But above all, don't ignore his suggestions as if he and they never existed, which is what it seems like the contemporary consensus is determined to do.
Forum Main Page - list of forums and subforums arranged by topic. Threads are posted according to relevant topics. The "Uncategorized subforum" contains threads which do not fall into any existing topic (also contains older "unfiled" threads which will soon be moved).
Search Tool - icon is located on the top right of every page. Note that the search box asks you what section of the forum you'd like to search. If you don't know, select "Everywhere."