Posts by Cassius

A good summary article on Philodemus from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Here is a video summary of our first A Few Days In Athens Book Review Session covering Frances Wright, the introduction, and chapter one.

Thanks to Alan Reyes for sending this - I have not watched it myself.

Quote from Scott

If the above points are made, EP and ATVs end up on level ground with respect to their final goals - EVERYONE is going after a good feeling, in the final analysis

Another initial comment:

I was reading / listening to some of the forthcoming chapters of "A Few Days In Athens" today, and I think Wright does a good job of setting out with emphasis how certain groups of people will never agree with this analysis, no matter how sweetly or clearly we state it. But I agree that this approach does and will appeal to a lot of people.

There's a lot of interesting analysis in that post and I will comment on it as soon as I can stop thinking about Four-Wheelers and other All Terrain Vehicles!

I await with great anticipation the comments of others here and I particularly want to see comments on this:

Quote from Kalosyni

Everything he writes is based on the context of the courtesan, and so it is absolutely not applicable to modern life.

Great post! My only fine tuning on what is posted so far is this:

Quote from Joshua

There is friendship, then; the greatest pleasure, and surest path to happiness

I think the second clause is almost exactly correct, but I would say that what Epicurus saying is that the whole the pleasure of having a friend is great, and such relationships are actually or at least virtually essential, I do not think that there is an absolute ranking of pleasures that would allow us to call friendship "the greatest pleasure."

A fine point I easily grant, but given our focus on explaining the nature of pleasure as accurately as possible. I think an important one.

Am I forgetting any passage that would justify exactly calling friendship "the greatest pleasure"?

We definitely need to expand the thread and be sure we touch on the explanation for the opening of Lucretius Book Two.

And I think we will also find more apt material on friendship in the Torquatus material in Book One of On Ends that we will tackle next week (section 65 et seq. If I recall correctly)

And yes there is much in Diogenes of Oinoanda to incorporate, in addition to "circumstantial evidence" and "logical implications" that may not be explicit

First and foremost in case a glitch in the site causes it to go down for more than a few minutes. We've been very lucky so far that the software has been very stable and your humble administrator has avoided some of his more hamfisted acts of technical stupidity.

Secondly, while you are right that we have no state secrets, it's less clear that we have no reason for anyone to dislike us. A large part of our safety has come through obscurity. Hopefully we won't always be so secure, at which point a number of Epicurean beliefs would make it less than popular everywhere and this subject of a malicious meddling.

Third (and this is not emergency backup) I do think some people like instant messangers for the notification abilities the website doesn't have, and the reason for threema is that I think we want to provide users with the ability to contact each other directly but also anonymously (if both agree) and Threema's no personal id architecture seems to suit that best.

Today at the suggestion of another user here I have started exploring THREEMA as an alternative messenger. The great advantage that Threema has over Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, and similar is that it does not require any identifying information like Telephone numbers (which Signal and Telegram require). The "disadvantage" is that there is a four dollar one time (lifetime) fee to join the network. I put "disadvantage" in quotes because I agree with Threema's argument -- that if you aren't paying something for the product, then "YOU are the product" because the only way such companies can stay in business is data mine your information. I also don't consider it a major disadvantage because the cost is minimal, and probably serves the good purpose of making sure that those who join are serious (to the extent that four dollars is "serious"). Threema is based in Switzerland where the European privacy laws seem to be considerably stronger than they currently are in the USA.

I have set up an EpicureanFriends group on Threema, but consistent with its privacy focus it's no possible to find it on a public directory. Someone who is currently a member has to add you to the group.

I will probably make a post about this on the front page, and if things continue to look good Threema will probably become my main backup alternative to the forum itself. I've been tempted to launch a Telegram channel, but I think in the end that this forum software does most of the communication we need, and if we want a second / backup solution to communicate when the forum is down or in an emergency, Threema makes the most sense.

If you use Threema and would like to be a part of the EpicureanFriends group there, and thereby be part of our emergency backup / instant messenger system, just send me a message and we will get you added. That way if anything ever happens to your account of the forum goes down for a period of time you'll have a way to stay in touch until we are back up.

A comparison of the major messengers from Threema's point of view is here.

I think we had another good session tonight. We'll eventually get these posted for future use but I am pleased with how things are going so thanks to everyone who participated.

Quote from Kalosyni

The words and phrasing are so different from modern english that it takes a lot of effort to unravel.

And that's a large part of the reason that we have the book review, to help unravel it!

Cassius Amicus is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Cassius Amicus' Zoom Meeting AFDIA Session TWO

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Link to be posted here by 745 pm

Joshua can you paste the text of that into a note here? Don't worry about the formatting

Good observation as to the labeling by characteristics!

Today's episode was one rant after another and Joshua's notes pasted above were critical to stoking the fires! I will get this edited and posted as soon as I can.

Quote from Kalosyni

So for modern Epicureans, we must look instead to modern psychology for help with our understanding of marriage and long-term relationships

I presume that's a reference to courtesans who are not usually available to day. But as for the rest of what Lucretius is saying I think that what he is saying is foundational and takes precedence even before modern psychology, all of which has to be conformed to correct philosophy , rather than the other way around.

That's because In my humble view modern psychology is as frequently or more a mess (with camps saying very opposite things) than modern philosophy.

Ok very good!

So it seems that with only a few exceptions that sort of prove the rule, the arch really is distinctly associable with Rome?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch#Classical_Persia_and_Greece

Don do you not find that "Les Epicureans" has less information in it that would help you determine how much confidence to put in the translation? I am thinking i remember that it's not heavily footnoted or referenced, so it's hard to know how much is reconstruction and how firm it is. Am I misremembering that?