Posts by Cassius

Note to self: I like memes/graphics with astronauts in them. I think it should be very hard to reconcile "astronaut" with the idea that Epicurus preached quietism, passivism, minimalism, and seclusion.

If I read this article correctly (admittedly I am skimming, because I refuse to devote more time to this) it ends with an endorsement of SKEPITISM. Wow. So the article appears to the another brick in the academic wall of shutting off all hope of pleasurable living by redefining pleasure as nothingness.

All moving toward the same negative goal, as if Epicurus were an angst-ridden snowflake whose only concern was to quell his own fears:

The typical modern call to passivism:

Great -- hope you are doing well!

I see we are back to normal avatar, with dog. Excellent! Dogs are always welcome too - instinctive Epicureans!!

Does that mean that you didn't do well? That would be surprising!

I have only started working on that "feature" of the forum so I hope to put up some more (and harder!) ones!

Caution to readers of this book as to Strodach's personal attitude toward Epicurus:

George Strodach: “Though based on the pleasure-pain principle, it [the life of the sectarian Epicurean] was not what we would ordinarily call a pleasant life. In Nietzche’s terms, it did not say YEA to life but NAY. It was largely negative, escapist, self-protective, and therapeutic. By withdrawing from the active concerns and responsibilities of the citizen, it remained socially and politically immature. These are the traits summed up by Gilbert Murray in his brilliant phrase “the failure of nerve.”” Introduction to “The Philosophy of Epicurus” / “The Art of Happiness.”

Thanks for the info! Last question for now: Are you based in the USA, or what country? (or at least hemisphere ) That's something i also like to keep track of for purposes of planning online "meetings" so as to pick reasonable times of day.

I am learning that the forum software we use is very complicated. If it appears to get confused, the best way to try to reset things is to clear your browser cache for the page and log in again. Unfortunately this process varies by browser so it's probably not much you use try to detail the process, but if you get strange responses or unexpected logouts, try the cache-clearing method. I have found it helps me.

Glad to have you Ataraxia and thank you for posting!

On the user name I probably should have put that on some kind of list to prevent it from being taken (hey I better do that for Epicurus!!!!) but since you claimed Ataraxia first then you get the gold star!

Do you mind saying how you came across the forum? Reddit/Facebook/Twitter or some other way? That would help in our outreach efforts.

Thank you again for posting and I look forward to getting to know you better.

Explanation from host provider:

Quote

Hello,

This morning we encountered a weird issue with LiteSpeed on server XXXXXXXX where it stopped and would not restart properly and continued to failed immediately after restart.

After much diagnosing, we have resolved the issue and LiteSpeed is now operating normally.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

If you have any additional issues or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Is your issue not resolved? Simply reply to this ticket at any time to reopen it.

Thank you,

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We have this morning had a period of three our four hours where the site went offline for reasons that are currently unknown to me. However in this case the forum software was clearly not at fault, as the related sites of NewEpicurean.com and ElementalEpicureanism.com were also down. All indications is that this was purely a hosting provider issue. I see no indication that any data or postings on the site were lost or compromised.

(1) I will investigate to determine whether we need to consider switching hosting providers.

(2) In the future we will need a backup communication system, such as Telegram, which I will also investigate. I have a Twitter account but probably a dedicated channel on something like Telegram (which Michele uses, in Italian) would be a good idea. We an also currently send private messages via Facebook, but I don't want to encourage anyone not using Facebook to start. My perception is that Telegram is the up-an-coming service and has eclipsed Whatsapp. If anyone wants to nominate another alternative, please do. Of course there is always old fashioned email, and we could set up a dedicated email list also. Right now I would not be able to email everyone who is a member here if the site were down, so we would need another email-list source in order to make that work.

Great! good news!

Also, Godfrey, when you get a chance to test conversations again, please let us know. We need to track down this bug until it is squashed.

It appears to me that Elli's suggestion of "occupied" as the final word of this doctrine is more accurate than Bailey's "...without allowing himself leisure."

However the "leisure" reference is the translation we see everywhere.

This is a thread to discuss which is more accurate.

Bailey:

Epicurus Wiki:

http://wiki.epicurism.info/Vatican_Saying_14/

And not only thank you for reporting the error, but thanks for the comment on getting back to the skype conference. I was worried that we had lost you for some reason!

Godfrey thank you for reporting this! I know that this past week I saw some glitches but I am not able to confirm this particular glitch. Could you try logging out, and then logging back in? In one situation that was weird for me that solved the issue.

I will post an announcement to see if others experience this.