"Living for Pleasure" Book Study Group - Starting April 30, 2023 - Via Zoom

Hi Everyone,

We are starting up a new book study group on Emily Austin's book: "Living for Pleasure: an Epicurean Guide to Life" - via Zoom.

This is open to all forum members -- and -- it will be especially geared for newer members who are just starting out in their study of Epicurean philosophy.

We will discuss 4 chapters per meeting which will take a total of 6 weeks (since there are 24 chapters).

This is a heads up so that you can purchase your book in time for the first meeting.

Here is the Amazon link (for ease of reference):

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Pleasure-Epicurean-Guide-Guides/dp/0197558321

Martin, Cassius, and myself will be facilitating discussion.

The first four chapters are:

1. Maybe We're Doing It Wrong

2. Epicureanism, the Original Cast

3. Happiness, Theirs and Ours

4. Natural Hedonism

Please let us know if you are interested in attending by posting here in this thread.

Thank you Onenski, @TAC, and Cleveland Okie for your response. This thread will be functioning as the sign-up for the meeting, so you are all now on the list.

Anyone else who would like to attend please use this thread as an RSVP to let us know you would like to attend. We will send everyone a link to the Zoom meeting by private message on the day of the meeting.

I am aiming to post some disscussion questions on the first four chapters next week (will post them here in this thread).

Quote from LateLearner

I am interested. I bought the book but haven't read it yet.

Thanks LateLearner for your RSVP -- the first meeting will cover the first four chapters - 41 pages. Have you read any other books on Epicurean Philosophy or will this be your first? I am always interested to hear about any background regarding philosophy study or how you became interested in Epicurean philosophy?

I see another RSVP (thank you TauPhi)

Update on our meeting agenda:

Originally I had the idea of listing a few discussion questions beforehand, but I am now thinking we will take a more open approach for discussion. (I'll have some back-up discussion ideas on-hand just in case).

The Zoom will run about a hour long, and our tenative agenda for the first meeting is as follows:

1) 8:30 - 8:40 - welcoming everyone, introducing the facilitators, and then going around letting everyone else introduce themselves (very brief/easy-going)

2) 8:40 - 9:10 - a brief explanation of what we hope to accomplish and the format of the meeting, followed by diving into a presentation (by Joshua, Martin, and myself) of an overview of the first four chapters.

3) 9:10 - 9:25 - open it up for discussion

4) 9:25 - prepare for closing and good-byes

You can find a list of the highlights which we will touch on here in this thread:

Thread

"Living for Pleasure" Book group - Chapter Highlights

Living for Pleasure by Emily Austin - April 30th meeting

Chapters 1 - 4

Chapter 1 - Maybe We’re Doing it Wrong

• Imagining the pleasure of a perfect vacation
• Hedonism at first glance seems like a recipe for following destructive impulses and "giving license to our failure of self-control", but Epicurus is different
• Feelings of shame can come up around natural bodily desires – we both need and want to have the freedom to enjoy what brings us pleasure
• Pleasure is a sweeping term that includes everything

…

Kalosyni

April 18, 2023 at 9:01 PM

Cassius will also be present as facilitator as well, especially during the questions and open discussion segment.

This will be a fun way to encounter the basic foundations of Epicurean philosophy, and looking forward to seeing you all on April 30th.

Some great news!

Emily Austin will be able to join us for one of the sessions of the book study Zoom! It will potentially be on week 5 or 6 - so we'll be able to meet and and talk directly to the author!

One week from today -- on April 30th, we will start a 6-Week Long Book Review on "Living for Pleasure: an Epicurean Guide to Life" by Emily Austin -- Via Zoom.

We've had a number of sign-ups already.

If you've thought of attending and have not yet let us know, now is the time to RSVP here in this thread.

Looking forward to meeting you all soon. We will be sending out the Zoom link by private message the day before the meeting.

I want to thank all who showed up last night to our first book review meeting for Emily Austin's "Living for Pleasure". We had a total of seven attendees.

The group is still open, for any forum members who would like to join the group, just let us know here if you are interested...next meeting is Sunday, May 7th at 8:30 pm Eastern Time.

jdarraugh -- Thanks for letting us know, and looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting.