Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin - Part Two

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    Welcome to episode 157, part two of a special two part Episode of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the only complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you too find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the study of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where you will find a discussion thread for each of our podcast episodes and many other topics.

    In the first episode of this series we introduced you to Dr Emily Austin, professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University, and author of the book "Living for Pleasure: an Epicurean Guide to Life."

    In part one Dr. Austin told us about how she became interested in Epicurus and decided to write her book. We began our discussion of the basic fundamentals of Epicurean philosophy, how Epicurus differs from the Stoics, and several questions that are frequently asked about how to pursue the desire for pleasure. In this part two we will continue that discussion, and dive further into how to apply Epicurean philosophy to modern life. Now lets return to the discussion.

    Time Stamps:

    1:36 - The difference in the Epicurean vs Stoic perspective on virtue.

    5:30 - The Epicurean world view derives from the Epicurean physics, and further distinguishing Epicurus from other schools.

    28:00 - How important is an interest in Epicruean science to appreciation of Epicurean philosophy?

    38:50 - A theory as to how Lucretius may have intended to end his poem.



  • Cassius January 19, 2023 at 10:16 AM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin (Part 2) NOT YET RELEASED” to “Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin (Part 2) (Not Yet Released)”.

    Episode 157 - part two of our very special interview with Dr. Emily Austin, is now available. In this episode we continue our discussion of the differences between Epicurus and Stoicism, and we dive deeper into other important aspects of the philosophy.

  • Cassius January 24, 2023 at 9:19 PM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin (Part 2) (Not Yet Released)” to “Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin - Part 2”.

  • Cassius January 31, 2023 at 7:03 AM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin - Part 2” to “Episode 157 - Lucretius Today Interviews Dr. Emily Austin - Part Two”.

    Her point about American life being ill-suited to community - particularly community living is as true as it is heartbreaking.

    Such living conditions as suburbia are rather inorganic and alien - working communally but living as atomized units. (One has to only look up "the father of suburbia" or something similar, to learn how putting us in little houses, preferably staring at TVs, was a top-down organized plan).

    Safe cities with good infrastructure (eg Tokyo) can work well for frequently meeting with friends, but I find American cities too dirty, dangerous, and dysfunctional for a pleasant life.

    That leaves me with the country, but I have learned that building new things is effectively made impossible by the existing laws and bringing in people for a community can get you federal level attention (as the Mormons and many others can also attest).

    Edited 3 times, last by Bryan (July 1, 2023 at 2:20 PM).

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