Sunday Study Group via Zoom - Sundays @ 12:30pm EDT

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Western Hemisphere Zoom.  This Sunday, May 25, at 12:30 PM EDT, we will have another zoom meeting at a time more convenient for our non-USA participants.   This week we will combine general discussion with review of the question "What Would Epicurus Say About the Search For 'Meaning' In Life?" For more details check here.
    • New

    This thread is for discussing the potential of adding a regular Zoom for those who want an introductory level approach.

    Our current meetings are as follows:

    • Our First Monday session is a once per month meet and greet targeted at new participants.
    • Our Wednesday night EST meeting have been devoted to status updates on recent threads on the forum and going through the fragments in Bryan's work on Usener's Epicurea.

    (Our Twentieth session is only available for Level 03 and higher, and is a once per month commemoration of Epicurus and other early Epicureans, and we've been using it for advanced level general discussion of how we've pursued applying Epicurean principles over the last 30 days).

    The thought is that we need a regular series for those who mainly want to get "introduced" to the basics of the philosophy

    We've done several series in the past on the Principal Doctrines, the Vatican Sayings, Frances Wright's Book, DeWitt's book, and Emily Austin's book.

    The Principal Doctrines would likely be a good organizing theme for the topics, but we need to work in explanations from the other sources so the doctrines will be more clear to people new to the framework of ideas.

    We need to think about whether to do one per week or exactly how many per month, plus decide a time.

    Potentials include:

    -- "Second Sunday PD's Study Group" - Second Sunday of the month at 1pm ET (which should work for European time zone members and anyone in US who likes that time)
    -- "Last Monday or Last Tuesday PD's Study Group" - Last Monday of the month at 8pm ET

    -or-

    -- change the "First Monday" to start a half hour earlier - meet and greet for the first half hour, and then proceed to PD's study group.

    Let us know your thoughts on this here in the thread and we'll continue planning.

    • New

    I like the first Mondays idea and focusing on the Principal Doctrines, not just for new members and people new to the philosophy but having more experienced guides present to really sharpen and condense answers to the most basic questions that people have.

    The doctrines should be supported I think by references to the letters as much as possible. This is so that people's first conversations are about Epicurus own words and leaving the secondary sources and commentaries for later study and conversation.

    Be safe.

    • New

    While we may want to extend the time frame of the Monday night meeting, and set it up for Principal doctrines of other introductory material (as if the PD's can be fully appreciated by a brand new beginner!! ;) ) that isn't going to solve our need for something to offer people who can't make our eastern-US centered time zone.

    I'm pretty much ready to commit to a regular early-Sunday-afternoon session, which would be workable for most of the Western Hemisphere, because I really want to expand our forum participation into Europe. Even if many of our current participants aren't able to make it, I'm ok with starting largely from scratch with just a few people as we did in the past with our earlier meetings.

    So let me figure out which weekend makes sense to get started, and we'll see what we can put together.

    • New
    • Organizing is hard work, so thanks for thinking about this topic. Although I am reluctant to do so, may I suggest a couple of my thoughts on this type of zoom, considering that you may have discussed these ideas before I joined?
      • I'm thinking that probably most new members are readers, which is a rather solitary learning experience, and since there is such a rich collection of written materials here on the site, I'm wondering if a survey might be a way to ask, what further topics new members might want to discuss in a give and take zoom.
      • Then perhaps creating a syllabus for a set number of zooms, perhaps less than half a dozen, might help you get feedback.
      • And as far as timing: staggering possible dates among two or three start times along the way to get a grip on how many members can make one or more times might be helpful.
      • Lastly, Is there a way to record the zoom, and make it available for a set time so anyone missing it, can comment and perhaps revisit the discussion at the following zoom?

    Dave Tamanini

    Harrisburg, PA, USA

    • New

    I'm going to add an announcement box that I'll conduct a Zoom meeting this Sunday the 18th at 12:30 PM Eastern Time. I don't expect that most of our regulars will be there but they are of course welcome, and anyone who's new who would like to attend can post here or message me to ask for the link. I think Rolf will be there and we probably need one more session to deal getting to know people who don't regularly attend our existing zooms, with general discussion and questions, and then we'll work up a structure to go over an outline of the main topics in the future.

  • Kalosyni May 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Introductory Level Study Group via Zoom - Interest Level and Planning” to “Introductory Level Study Group via Zoom - Sundays @ 12:30pm EDT”.
    • New

    Just as a reminder we'll be doing our 12:30 PM EDT meeting again this Sunday 5/25 (in Central Europe that would be 6:30 PM CEST). For anyone whom this time is convenient, please feel free to join us.

    My current thought for organizing a plan for this and future "Western Hemisphere" discussions will be to devote approximately the first twenty minutes to "What's up in your Epicurean thinking lately?" - with the remainder of the time devoted to reviewing one of our Frequently Asked Questions. We can use the discussion to update the FAQ, and that will both provide good conversation and help us help build out the FAQ for everyone's future use.

    Why don't we start this week with "What Would Epicurus Say About the Search For 'Meaning' In Life?"


    The full FAQ is here:


    Note: We distribute the Zoom link via private conversation. If you have an account at EpicureanFriends and would like to attend, please message a moderator or ask for the link in this thread.

  • Cassius May 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Introductory Level Study Group via Zoom - Sundays @ 12:30pm EDT” to “Sunday Study Group via Zoom - Sundays @ 12:30pm EDT”.

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