Estimation of Category Breakdown of Extant Texts

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    I made this chart to illustrate an estimation of the breakdown of the extant texts into the catagories of Ethics, Canonics, and Natural Science. Are these percentages correct? Or would there be a better estimation of the breakdown?

  • Kalosyni June 23, 2024 at 12:39 PM

    Removed the label Unanswered Question

    Then the next question is how much time to invest in each category? But this will be different for each person, depending on how important they feel it is to know details, as well as if they enjoy the study of science.

    For myself, I'm thinking something like this, regarding how much time to invest:

    Natural Science - 20% (My reasoning is that every modern person went to school (and many of us went to college) and so we are already familiar with important aspects of science and physics. It actually might make sense to spend some time reviewing the modern understanding of the physics of atoms, etc, if we want accurate details on which to base our materialist view).

    Canonics - 20% (I am still currently in the process of trying to understand Epicurean canonics, and this section would also include how to make inferences.)

    Ethics - 60% (Vain is the word of the philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. (...and does not lead to a good life). This is where the importance is at, for me.)

    And, this is all relevant to creating teaching materials, because each person could put more or less importance on each category...thereby creating a very different outline for study.

    Yes every person probably needs a different percentage, depending on their background. As a general expectation, however, I doubt that much progress in the understanding of the ethics can occur without dealing with the canonics. And since the issue of "gods" is generally treated under physics/canonics, that another reason not to underestimate their importance.

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