Elli posted this video and her commentary on the Facebook Group today:
Today I noticed this video at youtube that is created by a lady who is philosophized and she is introduced her self (in a comment below) as a "neoplatonist". So, I left to her a comment based on Epicurus and his philosophy, and for the purpose to make some things more CLEAR.
<<Hello, dear lady. I am an epicurean-greek lady, and I have noticed somewhere that you wrote: "Ninon de Lenclos (1620, Paris - 1705) and her libertine approach - according to the famous hedonist thinker Epicurus of Samos - to a new philosophy of love".
Hold on a second dear, Epicurus was not a hedonist thinker as introduced by the many. Epicurus was not a hunter of all the pleasures/hedones. Since, we read in his epistle to Meneoceus the following important excerpt:
<<And since pleasure is the first good and natural to us, for this very reason we do not choose every pleasure, but sometimes we pass over many pleasures, when greater discomfort accrues to us as the result of them: and similarly we think many pains better than pleasures, since a greater pleasure comes to us when we have endured pains for a long time. Every pleasure then because of its natural kinship to us is good, yet not every pleasure is to be chosen: even as every pain also is an evil, yet not all are always of a nature to be avoided. Yet by a scale of comparison and by the consideration of advantages and disadvantages we must form our judgment on all these matters. For the good on certain occasions we treat as bad, and conversely the bad as good>>.
As for "romantic love", imo, is to love the IDEA of love (similar to Platos' world of IDEAS) and not the love that exists in reality of life with such thoughts and actions, and is balanced when is based on the MUTUAL BENEFIT, that is the balance to offer and taking pleasurable activities and things i.e. to share time and all goods that have quality and are called as values. E.g. the greatest value - good for Epicurus is friendship "φιλία" and this word is synonym with the word "αγάπη" i.e. LOVE - any kind of LOVE.
When any relationship is based on friendship ( love ) includes such gifts as : TRUST, CARE, HONESTY, and PRUDENCE, and prudence is higher than philosophy (as Epicurus said) that is the root of all virtues, and these choices- virtues are the means that are leading to a pleasurable living i.e. Eudaemonia that is the goal of all greek philosophers.
Pleasure/hedone, for Epicurus, and as long as pleasure exists, it means to not have agitation in the mind and pain in the body.
As for Ninon that claims that any romantic love is based on hypocricy she got used on this in accordance with the circumstances of her life to have company with all hypocrites and kings. Moreover, when someone proclaims that any kind of love is based on hypocricy, it is the same that when someone fears death in anticipation. Ninon fears love in anticipation, because she hung back and did not want to run risks to offer herself without hesitation, since she had in mind that men loved her because she was very beautiful. We see beauty sometimes is a curse and not a bless. But anyway, the hesitation of Ninon and her claims that "romantic love" is based on hypocricy, it is similar with the following saying on friendship, by Epicurus.
VS 28. We must not approve either those who are always ready for friendship, or those who hang back, but for friendship’s sake we must run risks.
And finally we have the epicurean Lucretius that was against the IDEALISM and the IDEA of love as introduced by Plato. But I see, that somewhere you claim that you are a "neoplatonist" and at the sametime your're introducing to the public Ninon de Lenclos as an epicurean? This leads to confusion my dear, and thank you very much!
From Lucretius DRN 4.1278-1287. [...And not through divine effect and the arrows of Venus it sometimes happens that a woman of inferior form is loved (i.e a woman that is not so beautiful like a mannequin). For sometimes a woman herself brings it about through her own actions and compliant ways (morigerique modis) and neatly groomed body that she easily accustoms you to live your life with her. For the rest, familiarity creates love (amor); for that which is beaten by a frequent blow, however lightly, yet after long lapse of time is conquered and gives way. Do you not also see that drops of water falling onto rocks after long lapse of time beat through the rocks ?...]>>
