How to live the Epicurean life in today's society (brainstorming an authoritative list)

    Hoping we can start a new list here in this thread regarding the question of "How to live the Epicurean life in today's society".

    (Another thread was started by forum member Eoghan Gardiner presenting this question to ChatGPT...which had some interesting points, but also some incorrect ones. You can find that thread here. Rather than react to correct ChatGPT, here we can start from scratch (and if we want to incorporate some of the previously discussed ideas also).

    It might be important to consider:

    What makes you an Epicurean? What do Epicureans do that others do not do?

    And are there challenges to living an Epicurean life in today's society?

    What is different in our current time compared to Epicurus' time or Lucretius' time?

    If anyone wants to respond to the above questions, please do so. And I'll start thinking further on the "how to" list and post within the next week.

    Perhaps this list could be made into a pamplet, or something good for new forum members to read.

    Quote from Kalosyni

    Perhaps this list could be made into a pamplet, or something good for new forum members to read.

    Yes I suspect that ww have earlier threads on this, perhaps linked in the FAQ, so the challenge here is not only to come up with a list but make it findable and curated with new additions over time.

    Quote from Kalosyni

    And are there challenges to living an Epicurean life in today's society?

    Daily bombardment across the media aimed at stimulating (often likely subliminally) not only unnecessary but also unnatural desires.

    "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)

    Here is something that is being worked on (list by Cassius) which could jumpstart some practical application of Epicurean philosophy:

    Epicurean Lifestyle Examples And Tips

    Here is our collection of examples of those who have lived according to the philosophy of Epicurus. These real-world examples illustrate living an Epicurean lifestyle without erring either in the pursuit of luxury or in the pursuit of asceticism, but focusing instead on the pursuit of "pleasure."

    Epicurean Distinctive Lifestyle Aspects
    Epicurus Happiness through Study of nature and philosophical advocacy
    Polyaneus Proper perspectives on Happiness as more important than Geometry
    Atticus Exercising Friendship To All Sides Among Enemies
    Lucretius Epicurean Outreach through poetry and art
    Piso Supporting The Epicureans Financially and Pamphleteering
    Diogenes of Oinoanda Distributing Epicurean philosophy to the public
    Demetrius Advising Leaders In Difficult Times
    Cassius Longinus Taking actions for peace and security
    Zeno Leading the Epicurean school after Epicurus
    Philodemus Life Coaching On Anger, Property Management, Music, Logic, etc.

    These are historical examples, but then we could begin to think of how to adopt some of these for modern times.

    Quote from Kalosyni

    Here is something that is being worked on (list by Cassius) which could jumpstart some practical application of Epicurean philosophy:

    What she means there is that i am working on a new format for presenting the lifestyle issues by using the historical characters to illustrate how *they* embodied the desired characteristics. Sort of like a much-abbreviated Plutarch's Lives, but with the focus being one a couple of distinguishing attributes rather than a full bio.

    If anyone has any:

    1 - suggestions for further illustations, or

    2 - desire to compose a couple of paragraphs on how the life illustrates the virtue(s)

    then feel free to let me know and I will incorporate that into the finished product.

    By the way those "Distinctive Life Aspects" are very preliminary.

    I find a practice of "lectio divina" on the texts of Epicurus or even some of the in-depth messages here on this forum. Just reading over it slowly, thinking about what it could mean in different circumstances and really having a "conversation" with yourself about the text. For one it keeps EP on the mind. Rather than just a skim reading or reading for knowledge but filling your mind and chewing on the text, one of the only few good practices from Catholicism but it's far older than that.

Finding Things At EpicureanFriends.com

Here is a list of suggested search strategies:

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  • 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."
  • Search By Key Tags - curated to show frequently-searched topics.
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