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  1. EpicureanFriends - Home of Classical Epicurean Philosophy
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What holds me back from embracing EP

  • EricR
  • March 1, 2022 at 11:03 AM
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  • Online
    Don
    ΕΠΙΚΟΥΡΕΙΟΣ (Epicurist)
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    • March 2, 2022 at 5:51 PM
    • #21

    A nice YouTube summary of Lucian's A True Story.

  • Marco
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    • March 11, 2022 at 12:49 AM
    • #22

    The best way that I find to understand the teachings of Epicurus is to try to live them.

    And then evaluate the effects in terms of enjoying your life.

  • SimonC
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    • March 11, 2022 at 5:03 AM
    • #23

    That is very well put. A similar idea as disproving the Eleatics by walking across a room.

    As to the original question I think it boils down to the belief that the universe is fundamentally observable. I think this is essentially a dogma, but it is also unclear what someone who argues the opposite would be basing their assertions on if not the same senses.

  • Kalosyni
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    • March 11, 2022 at 11:21 AM
    • #24
    Quote from SimonC

    As to the original question I think it boils down to the belief that the universe is fundamentally observable

    And with this there is also a similar parallel to the belief in "free will", since they are both complex ideas that can't fall into an "all or nothing" conception. To insist that we have absolute free will would be incorrect, just as insisting that the universe is absolutely fundamentally observable.

    The human mind has some "hiccups" when it comes to observing things, as can be seen in optical illusions.

  • Cassius
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    • March 11, 2022 at 8:04 PM
    • #25

    I would add to Kalosyni's comment that in addition to what Simon said, as to "the universe is observable" comment, that part of what Simon is talking about is an understanding of "epistemology" - having a clear idea of what kind of evidence, and what amount of evidence, is sufficient for confidence in a conclusion. So yes I think Simon is correct and part of what we have to communicate is Epicurus' view of what is reasonable to expect in terms of evidence and how to process it.

  • DavidN
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    • July 20, 2022 at 3:24 AM
    • #26

    So were talking about the Criterion of Truth, and what amount and class of evidence beyond our own experience should be required to form such an opinion?

    "And those simple gifts, like other objects equally trivial — bread, oil, wine,
    milk — had regained for him, by their use in such religious service, that poetic,
    and as it were moral significance, which surely belongs to all the means of our
    daily life, could we but break through the veil of our familiarity with things by
    no means vulgar in themselves." -Marius the Epicurean

  • Godfrey
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    • July 20, 2022 at 2:23 PM
    • #27

    Also about how to reason from the observable to the non-observable.

  • Pacatus
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    • July 20, 2022 at 4:43 PM
    • #28

    Godfrey

    Logical inductive inference from the observable? With willingness to correct if the observables change?

    "We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content." (Vatican Saying 48)

  • Joshua
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    • July 20, 2022 at 6:27 PM
    • #29
    Quote

    So we're talking about the Criterion of Truth, and what amount and class of evidence beyond our own experience should be required to form such an opinion?

    This must necessarily vary with the nature of the claim being made, or the hypothesis being proposed.

    There's an interesting thought experiment in one of Patrick Rothfuss's books, which I will attempt to badly paraphrase from distance and memory:

    -----------------

    "Imagine a wild forest with three villages clinging to its edges. You travel to the first village, and the residents warn you not to go into those woods, for the place is haunted by demons and no one comes back alive.

    In the second village, you are again advised to keep a wide berth from the trees, for the forest is home to a powerful witch. All who go there fall under her spell, and are never seen again.

    At the third village they tell stories of men who were killed by werewolves in the night, and talk of the howling shrieks by moonlight that pierce the verdant gloom as darkness settles over the hamlet.

    Which of these is true? Neither of them? Neither, of course. But here's the real question:

    Would you go into those woods? Perhaps the witch and the demons are simply bandits or thieves, whose first and best weapon is fear? The howling beasts merely wolves, yet no less deadly for that? Maybe the forest is every bit as dangerous as they all say, though they all say it wrongly."

    -----------------

    The point, I think, is that mundane claims require no great amount of evidence, but fantastical claims demand a great deal more--a demand they seldom satisfy.

    I'd like to see someone draw a map of terra incognito and write, "I don't know what's here, but I'll warrant it isn't dragons."

  • DavidN
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    • July 20, 2022 at 8:09 PM
    • #30

    Godfrey In the realm of physics I'd argue that modern instruments extend our range of observations into realms previously unobservable.

    Pacatus And our willingness to change our standing beliefs as observations change I believe is part of the criterion of truth. It's one of the things I most like about Epicureanism, the anti-dogmatism of it.

    "And those simple gifts, like other objects equally trivial — bread, oil, wine,
    milk — had regained for him, by their use in such religious service, that poetic,
    and as it were moral significance, which surely belongs to all the means of our
    daily life, could we but break through the veil of our familiarity with things by
    no means vulgar in themselves." -Marius the Epicurean

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