Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 12:30 PM ET - Topic: "Planning For Upcoming Sunday Zooms"

    As of last week we completed going through our list of focus points, and this week I suggest we have more of an open format and take suggestions and comments on what our participants would like to see for future programming.

    If the conversation lags we'll take up the most recent two podcast episodes, which focused on the always-good-for-conversation issues of "absence of pain" and "what type of pleasure did Epicurus endorse?"

    However I doubt we'll need to rely on those backups. I'll appreciate it if all of our regulars would give some thought to what type of "programming" we should work to provide in our Zooms, and then next week after that we'll get started on a new series of topics and try to incorporate some of those ideas.

    • Today we had a great discussion on thoughts for future projects. The following are my notes from the discussion. Please remember this is my wording and not necessarily reflective of what the person said, but the list should be helpful for discussing this further.
      • Patrikios -- How was the school run in ancient times? Regular interactions daily/ Pamphlets/conversation starters. Topical focuses. "Optimal living framework. Balanced life, managed stress, friendships, life of well-being."
      • Raphael -- Email lists (lists have lower barriers to entry; inter-group conversations are always interesting). Raphael gets students through reviews others have written. The attraction of "Community" but avoidance of ghetto-ization.
      • Rolf -- Regular discussions of current thoughts and day to day experiences segment of each meeting? Developments in Natural Science. Travel related to philosophy. What's our "personal narrative?" What is an Epicurean role model? (What is our equivalent to Stoic / Marcus Aurelius "live like a Roman general")
      • Bryan -- Things to do in addition to (not in place of) our "letter writing." Regular social event (20th). Coordination/"consultations" (what would you do / support network) (Stoicism is always performative ;) )
      • Robert -- Continue to make available going through the core issues. Covering the known problem areas. "Dialog" with other philosophies is of interest to lots of people. Gassendi/Locke/Jefferson (modern variations) - Probably at some point need subgroups (Epicurean Women, etc. )
      • Kalosyni - Discuss relationship between virtue and Pleasure. Philodemus' surviving parts. History and abstractions are a turnoff for some. Need a senses of moving forward.
      • Joshua - Analogy to quarterly magazine devoted to topics (travel, medicine, city living, country living, death, youth, time, disaster, music etc...) Wiki focused on source materials.
      • Martin -- Food section? Great Epicurean "cooks" / "farmers"?

    It was great to hear everyone's thoughts today at the Zoom! We had a total of 9 of us in attendance.

    Here are a few rough notes that I took...I captured some different angles compared to Cassius' above list, and some points go beyond possible Zoom discussion topics into possible kinds of things to add to the Forum... (I will not state who said what).

    -- Zoom discussion topic - applying Epicureanism to everyday lives

    --Once every year (during summertime because that is when students have more free time) go back over core concepts

    -- the need for developing an "Epicurean personal narrative" (stoics have the "stoic warrior" personal narrative, and so what would Epicureans have (?) ...just being happy is not particularly exciting, so we need to have a action based personal narrative.

    --Little epitome vs Big Epitome

    --discuss natural science and scientific things such as astronomy

    --at the start of a meeting give everyone a chance to reflect and share how they applied Epicurean principals, such as hedonic calculus, etc, in the previous week

    --role models pointing to actual people who embody the lifestyle

    --a need to further develop the practical applications section of the forum

    --a catch-22 between theory and development of practical applications because the Epicurean philosophy is presented in abstract terms and not in specific practical actions, and any development of practical applications could easily turn into an "eclectic" interpretation of Epicurean philosophy.

    --contemplating theory is a kind of practice, especially regarding the "death is nothing to us" teaching within Epicureanism

    --Epicureans given praise for being friendly

    --discuss tips for developing and maintaining friendships

    --Compare what is known about Philodemus' texts and with what is in the Principal Doctrines/Vatican Sayings/Letter to Menoeceus

    --Cover difficult concepts such as static/kinetic pleasures, highest pleasures, freedom from pain, etc

    --add onto the forum "reviews" - people sharing about what they have learned and how it has helped them

    --improvement of memory and teaching the art of memory

    --the Epicurean view on music (and possibly other topics such as food, gardening, law, etc.)

    Quote from Cassius

    Philodendrons surviving parts.

    This made me laugh so hard I started to cough. Thank you Cassius for this sentence. I know it came about by mistake but it made my day. From now on, Philodemus will forever function as Philodendron in my mind. His surviving parts also make him a zombie in my mind. So there it is - a picture of a zombified plant roaming around and picking up its fallling pieces. And all it took to create this vision was three words. Perfect. Thanks a million.

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