Posts by Cassius

This project was first launched through this post. A direct link to the existing version of the outline is here.

The current version of the presentation is here.

The existing version of the chart is here.

The existing version of the outline is here.

The opening of Epicurus' letter to Herodotus:

For those who are unable to study carefully all my physical writings or to go into the longer treatises at all, I have myself prepared an epitome of the whole system, Herodotus, to preserve in the memory enough of the principal doctrines, to the end that on every occasion they may be able to aid themselves on the most important points, so far as they take up the study of Physics. Those who have made some advance in the survey of the entire system ought to fix in their minds under the principal headings an elementary outline of the whole treatment of the subject. For a comprehensive view is often required, the details but seldom.

To the former, then—the main heads—we must continually return, and must memorize them so far as to get a valid conception of the facts, as well as the means of discovering all the details exactly when once the general outlines are rightly understood and remembered; since it is the privilege of the mature student to make a ready use of his conceptions by referring every one of them to elementary facts and simple terms. For it is impossible to gather up the results of continuous diligent study of the entirety of things, unless we can embrace in short formulas and hold in mind all that might have been accurately expressed even to the minutest detail.

From the time I saw Thomas Jefferson's outline of Epicurean thought, and read the above words of Epicurus, I have considered it a central part of my Epicurean studies to produce my own outlines of the most important points.

Early last year, I made a central focus of the NewEpicurean web page an outline that I prepared by selecting key passages from the core texts and rearranging them in a logical progression. That outline, including an audio reading of them, is here.

Later last year, I decided to produce an outline in another format that would contain both the logical progression as well as a list of the sources on which the progression was based. That outline, in collapsible text format, is here.

This year, I am working to take these prior outlines and produce from them a modernized rendering of these same points. I will keep as closely as possible to the progression of thought contained in the earlier outlines, because I think the logical order of the progression is almost as important as the components themselves. When I produced my first outline, however, which I still consider to be the most important, I tried to stay as closely as possible to the wording as found in the Bailey, Munro, and other key translations. There is considerable controversy as to the meaning and implications of many passages, and I think it is best to drill back as close to the original sources as possible to keep things honest.

The tradeoff in staying so close to the translations, however, is that the wording seems artificial to modern readers, and the point often gets lost in the archaic manner of expression.

So my next step in summarizing the philosophy of Epicurus is to take the ancient pattern and update it in modern language. I've only just begun to get started with this, but I have prepared the raw outline and adopted a new program format which will allow the easy incorporation of graphics and hyperlinks as the work proceeds. For now, the work is going on here at this link:

http://newepicurean.com/message/The_Me…Epicureans.html You can also find it at the shorter Newepicurean.com/message, but linked in that way the initial text does not appear until you click the first item in the index.

At this point the page is still in very raw outline form, and I do not even have the broad reference notes that are included on each line of theFoundations outline. But this format seems to me to be the logical next step, with the outline index on the right serving as the briefest summary, then the text of each item containing the key points, which are themselves linked to the specific texts supporting the main statements.

I have much work to do before this is turned into something valuable, but even at this early stage I think the outline may be of help to some, so I am releasing it now. Many updates are ahead, and if anyone has suggestions for changes in the outline or supporting sources, please let me know.

Peace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be!

Happy Twentieth!

Today's thought comes from 3 Lucretius, where the poet discusses that the nature of the mind, no less than the nature of the body, produces consequences - some of which can be altered and some of which can not. Here is the Martin Ferguson Smith translation:

It is the same with human beings. Although education may give certain people equal refinement, it cannot obliterate the original traces of each individual’s natural disposition. We must not suppose that faults of character can be extirpated, and that it is possible to stop one person from being excessively prone to sudden fits of rage, another from succumbing a little too readily to fear, and a third from accepting certain situations more meekly than one should. And in many other respects people must differ in character and consequently in behavior. But for the moment I cannot explain the secret causes of this variety or find names for all the atomic conformations that give rise to it. What I see that I can affirm in this connection is that the surviving traces of our natural dispositions which philosophy is unable to erase, are so very faint that there is nothing to prevent us from living a life worthy of the gods.

The central point for discussion today is that there are things that we can change, and things that we cannot. We don't live in a fairy-tale world where we can choose to live forever, or where every disposition of character that arises from our makeup can be eradicated. On the other hand, we aren't playthings of the gods, or at the mercy of deterministic destiny, who have no free will whatsoever. An intelligent person who seeks to follow nature and live happily is able and willing to take both factors into account and work with both truths to achieve a happy life.

Such is the way Diogenes of Oinoanda thought, and it is why he addressed his inscription "to those who are well-constituted." Again, the Martin Ferguson Smith translation:
[observing that most people suffer from false notions about things and do not listen to the body] when it brings important and just [accusations] against the soul, alleging that it is unwarrantably mauled and maltreated by the soul and dragged to things which are not necessary (in fact, the wants of the body are small and easy to obtain — and the soul too can live well by sharing in their enjoyment — while those of the soul are both great and difficult to obtain and, besides being of no benefit to our nature, actually involve dangers). So (to reiterate what I was saying) observing that these people are in this predicament, I bewailed their behaviour and wept over the wasting of their lives, and I considered it the responsibility of a good man to give [benevolent] assistance, to the utmost of one's ability, to those of them who are well-constituted.

There are indeed many things in life that we cannot change, but there are also many things that we can. Philosophy is not magic. Epicurus gives us not magic, but a very real key - through the study of Nature and the avoidance of wishful and groundless speculation - to know the difference.
_________
As Seneca recorded: Sic fac omnia tamquam spectet Epicurus! So do all things as though watching were Epicurus!
And as Philodemus wrote: “I will be faithful to Epicurus, according to whom it has been my choice to live."

http://newepicurean.com/happy-epicurean-new-year/

Let me add my own "Happy New Year" greeting to everyone here. As I enter my sixth year of focused attention to studying the philosophy of Epicurus, there are a couple of points I would offer to those who are new here:

1. Early on, think carefully about the issue of "what is the goal of life?" That should be an obvious place to start, but people tend to develop strong convictions about this subconsciously, long before they arrive in our group. Rather than study Epicurus afresh, they presume that the answer is obvious, and that Epicurus simply offers a new path to a destination which is already familiar. Do you think the goal of life is "happiness", or "being a good person," or "serving others," or "helping humanity in general," or "living in accord with Nature?" No matter how educated and enlightened you may consider yourself to be, you'll still be faced with the issue of juggling the priority to give to each one. What happens when "happiness" and "courage" or "wisdom" or "altruism" seem to come into conflict? How do you choose between them? Many of our new readers are familiar with the answers given by Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, and many others come to us through Stoicism. Don't waste your time studying too much Epicurus until you understand how, and why, Epicurus gave a much different answer to the "goal of life" question than did these other philosophies. Many of you will find yourself so loyal to your preexisting view of the goal of life that you'll not be able to accept Epicurus' conclusions. No one likes to waste time (least of all those who have already made up their mind on this question) so visit that issue quickly.

2. Related to point one is the issue of the role of "reason" and "logic" in Epicurean philosophy. If Mr. Spock has been your hero since childhood and you cannot imagine that "reason" is not the most fundamental key to Epicurean philosophy, then you are going to be in for a rude awakening as you study the Epicurean "canon of truth." Although Spock was never my hero, I personally came from such a background where "reason" was held to be "the highest virtue," and this was among the biggest adjustments I had to make in the study of Epicurus. I made it through the transition myself, but many people don't.

3. Consider carefully the question of the meaning of the words "happiness" and "pleasure." Epicurus places "pleasure" at the center of his philosophy, but this does not mean that he considered "wine, women, and song" as the goal of life. The role of "reason" in life must be answered in relation to the role of the "senses." Epicurus held that any valid reasoning must be based on confirming sensations, and pleasure is the only sensation (faculty) given us by nature to judge what is truly desirable in life. "Reason" will never in a million years tell you why it is pleasing to look on the face of a friend that you love. This is a controversial orientation, so be prepared to learn that just about every aspect of Epicurean literature devoted to some aspect of the relationship of **pleasure** as the guide of life.

4. Don't gloss over the discussion of "atoms and void" as unimportant, and don't dismiss the discussion as obsolete science. Remember that a key insight of Epicurus is that "truth" does not come to us from the gods, or from abstract reasoning alone. The information we glean about the world around us does not come to us in mystical fashion. Instead, information comes to us in the form of flows of particles that travel from the objects around us and strike our senses. It is the job of our senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling to take those flows of particles and report to us what they receive. Here's the rub: thousands of years of commentators, followed by your high school philosophy teacher, have taught you that Epicurus held that "all sensations are true." Opponents of Epicurus think it's a slick trick to discourage his students by alleging that Epicurus held that whenever you think you see a rabbit (for instance) that means that a rabbit really is there. Epicurus held nothing of the sort, and if you'll refer to Lucretius you'll see extensive texts devoted to explaining not just the nature of the universe but also the nature of the illusions that result when we misjudge what our eyes tell us. For a philosophy that rejects divine revelation and abstract speculation as sufficient for deciding the most important questions in life, providing an understanding of the senses and our ability to trust them is obviously crucial. So keep in mind that atoms and void and "images" and the like are key to the understanding many of the most important questions of life, not just useless scientific speculation.

5. Last and maybe most importantly for this New Year's list, don't get discouraged by thinking that Epicurean philosophy offers you an infallible guide to successful living. Many who come to Epicurus from the religious or the pseudo-mystical philosophies - including the nonsense of Platonic "ideal forms" or Stoic "Divine Fire" or the "essences" of Aristotle - are expecting a "magic bullet" that will magically redeem the world from being a place where pain and death abound. Epicurus dealt with reality, and not fantasy, and he did not try to convince his students that they could erase the pain of life by telling themselves that pain does not exist, or that pain can be suppressed by willpower alone, or that men should shun emotion and withdraw into caves of isolation and introspection. No matter what your prior religious or philosophic background, you probably have been told that there is some kind of divine logic in the universe that will lead you to a state of mystical bliss - of which a moment spent in that bliss is worth a lifetime of study. Horsefeathers. You will not find in Epicurus a guarantee that all pain can be avoided, and you will not find a dispenser of divine "justice" who will ease the pain of those whose lives are truly "nasty, brutish, and short." But what Epicurus does offer is a system of understanding the universe and our role in it that - if employed correctly - gives us the best possible opportunity that we and our friends will be successful in maximizing the happiness of our lives.

So at the end of my fifth year of studying Epicurus, I am more confident than ever that Epicurean philosophy is something truly special that we would all profit from applying, and that it assists us all in happy living if we take the true message of Epicurus to the attention of all people of good faith and open mind who are willing to listen.

Cassius Amicus 12-20-2015 0 Comments
Peace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be!
Happy Twentieth!
As I get back to posting on a regular schedule after my recent trip, I've noticed several separate reasons to discuss the issue of "doubt" and how to address it. Another way of describing the same question is - "How do we deal with issues where we don't have enough evidence to be completely sure of a single 'right' answer?"
Make no mistake - the issue of how to deal with uncertainty is an area where Epicurean philosophy is regularly attacked. Some believe that it is deadly to be described as a "dogmatist," so they run from the fact that Diogenes Laertius recorded that Epicurus said that the wise man "will be a dogmatist [and] not a mere skeptic..."
The same issue has provided much opportunity to pick fun at Epicurean philosophy. We can trace this all the way back to Cicero, who wrote in "On The Nature of the Gods" that the Epicurean speaker "...began, in the confident manner (I need not say) that is customary with Epicureans, afraid of nothing so much as lest he should appear to have doubts about anything. One would have supposed he had just come down from the assembly of the gods in the intermundane spaces of Epicurus!"
Let's try to get behind this issue of "dogmatism" and "doubt," by looking at what Epicurus said and how he anticipated the criticism. After that we'll apply what we find to several current discussions.
If we still had it available, our best source on the issue of certainty and doubt would be the book Epicurus wrote on the "Canon of Truth." Cicero preserves for us (in De Finibus) that this book was regarded by the Epicureans as the "test of all our judgments," and that was held in such high esteem that it seemed to have fallen from heaven: "Besides, it is only by firmly grasping a well-established scientific system, observing the Rule or Canon that has fallen as it were from heaven so that all men may know it—only by making that Canon the test of all our judgments, that we can hope always to stand fast in our belief, unshaken by the eloquence of any man."
Note carefully here: Is this description of the Canon of Truth an assurance that the answer to every question may be found within it pages? Is it even an assurance that the answer to every question may be found by following the "method" described in that book? The answer to both questions is "no."
What we need to see at the start is that Epicurus understood that men are limited in their capacity, especially in their ability to gather evidence. While we have observed and learned far more today than did our ancestors, mankind will never be able to do more than speculate about those things which are totally beyond the reach of eyes and ears and radiotelescopes.
It is foundational Epicurean deduction - from the evidence that is available to us that nothing comes from nothing or goes to nothing - that the universe as a whole is eternal and boundless. Because it is eternal and boundless, there is no way that our observation can extend to its limit in time or space. As Lucretius' recorded in Book 1 of his poem, there are "limits and boundaries" to which mortals like ourselves must observe: "Therefore the living force of his soul gained the day: on he passed far beyond the flaming walls of the world and traversed throughout in mind and spirit the immeasurable universe; whence he returns a conqueror to tell us what can, what cannot come into being; in short on what principle each thing has its powers defined, its deep-set boundary mark." Some things can come into being, and some cannot, and among these deep-set boundary marks is that beings of limited life and experience can never grasp a universe that is limitless in time and space. Lucretius us telling us figuratively that Epicurus' mind addressed the issues that we can dream about when we look up at the night sky, and in the "flaming walls of the world" he is reminding us that "limits and boundaries" exist for us, if not for the universe as a whole.
We can gain much more insight into the lost volume on the Canon by studying the remains of Philodemus' "On Methods of Inference" found at Herculaneum, but short of consulting that work we can find several core ideas on certainty and doubt embedded in the Principle Doctrines (for my collection of the Bailey translation, see here
22. We must consider both the real purpose and all the evidence of direct perception, to which we always refer the conclusions of opinion; otherwise, all will be full of doubt and confusion.
23. If you fight against all sensations, you will have no standard by which to judge even those of them which you say are false.
24. If you reject any single sensation and fail to distinguish between the conclusion of opinion as to the appearance awaiting confirmation and that which is actually given by the sensation or feeling, or each intuitive apprehension of the mind, you will confound all other sensations as well with the same groundless opinion, so that you will reject every standard of judgment. And if among the mental images created by your opinion you affirm both that which awaits confirmation and that which does not, you will not escape error, since you will have preserved the whole cause of doubt in every judgment between what is right and what is wrong.
25. If on each occasion, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard when you are making a choice or an avoidance, your actions will not be consistent with your principles.
These four passages are very deep, but for purposes of this discussion we can make several key observations:

• Note the phrase "conclusions of opinion." While we may consider this phrase - for practical purposes - to be a synonym for "true," it would be better to consider it as "what we hold to be true" and even better to remember Pilate's question: What is truth? It is essential that we remember that Epicurean philosophy has previously shown us that we are not omnipotent gods who created the universe (such gods don't exist, and the universe as a whole is eternal, not "created"). Epicurus has previously shown us that the universe has no center, and it has no single absolute vantage point from which all questions can be viewed. From these prior observations, we know that there is no Platonic ("form-like") or Aristotelian ("essence-like") definition of "truth." Oh yes, there is a very great difference between "what we regard as true," and "what we regard as false," and anyone who needs to be reminded of that can place his hand on a red-hot stove to refresh his memory. But what is it that gives us the firm conclusion of opinion that an operating stove is hot, and not a place for one's hand? It is the very real experience of pain in touching the stove, and pleasure in the relief of pulling our hand away, that settles the question. We can debate til the cows come home the "real" nature of the experience, but it is pain and pleasure that ultimately settle for us the conclusions of opinion about how to live. And for those essential questions about how to live, no amount of "truth" through "logic" or "reason" can ever be sufficient.
• Note also, in the second of the two passages quoted above, the emphasis on not rejecting any sensation. Every sensation is entitled to respect, and must be considered in properly assembling a full picture of the situation. But in the end - sometimes that full picture is going to be inconclusive. That's what is meant by distinguish[ing] between the conclusion of opinion as to the appearance awaiting confirmation and that which is actually given by the sensation or feeling. Throughout life we are going to confront "appearance awaiting confirmation." So long as we have insufficient evidence to reach a "conclusion of opinion" then we must - in the word preserved for us by Diogenes Laertius - "wait" before affirming one or another conclusion to be true: "Opinion they also call conception or assumption, and declare it to be true and false; for it is true if it is subsequently confirmed or if it is not contradicted by evidence, and false if it is not subsequently confirmed or is contradicted by evidence. Hence the introduction of the phrase, “that which awaits” confirmation, e.g. to wait and get close to the tower and then learn what it looks like at close quarters." And make no mistake - sometimes we must wait a lifetime, and die never knowing the answer we would like to have.
• Finally, note the warning in the third of the quoted passages. Those of us who live in a world of triumphant Stoicism and Religion (and that means all of us) really need to take this to heart. The reason for the warning lies at the heart of the gigantic error that is Stoicism, and it constantly bedevils those (such as Cosma Raimondi) who have sought to cut away the cancer of Stoic overlay garbles the message of Epicurus. What is it that Epicurus is warning us to avoid? The error of that happens to you when, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard. In Epicurean philosophy we know that the end of nature is to pursue pleasure in living, and even those who have drunk from the fountain of Stoicism can understand, even if they fight the conclusion, that happiness is the "end" - the "goal" - the "purpose to pursue" that Nature has set for all living things. But what constantly confuses the issue is that men are tempted to refer their questions, not to the Natural goal of pleasurable living, but to "some other nearer standard." This, my friends, is the siren song of "virtue," at it is the hazard that the ancient Epicureans took upon themselves to demolish. (Diogenes of Oinoanda: "I say both now, and always, shouting out loudly, to all Greeks and non-Greeks, that pleasure is the highest end of life! The virtues, which are turned upside down by other philosophers, who transfer the virtues from “the means” to “the end”, are in no way the end in themselves! The virtues are not ends in themselves, but only the means to the end that Nature has set for us! This we affirm to be true in the strongest possible terms, and we take it as our starting point for how men should live. From here, let us suppose that someone asks a naive question. “Who do these virtues benefit?” “Or, for whose benefit should man live virtuously?” The obvious answer is, “man himself.” The virtues do not make provision for the birds flying past, enabling them to fly well, nor do they assist any other animal. The virtues do not desert the man in which they have been born, and in which they live. Rather, it is for the sake of the man that the virtues exist, and it is for the sake of man that the virtues exert their actions.")If you need a refresher on how virtue is a tool, and not a goal in itself, read the section devoted to this in "On Ends" or read Frances Wright's excellent book which is largely devoted to this question - "A Few Days In Athens." But for purposes of our present discussion, what is the form of "virtue" that the false philosophers have spun to divert men from reference to Nature's goal? "Virtue" comes in many forms to many people, but in this case "virtue" is the false hope of men like Plato and Aristotle that they can attain certainty without evidence through logic and reason alone. Oh, the defenders of those like Plato and Aristotle are quick to point out how hard it is to really reach truth, and they will insist that it takes a lifetime of their academic training in geometry, and their mastery of the rules of syllogisms and forms and essences. But whether they say it or not, what they fully intend their students to understand is that there is an absolute truth out there "somewhere," and that it can be found if their students devote their lives (and more importantly, their fortunes) to studying their particular method and theories. This is false, and a prescription for a wasted life. For an excellent essay on the waste involved in this, refer to Lucian's Epicurean-inspired HERMOTIMUS.

So what is our take-away today from this excursion? Let's set it up by referring to a passage from Epicurus' letter to Pythocles:
In the first place, remember that, like everything else, knowledge of celestial phenomena, whether taken along with other things or in isolation, has no other end in view than peace of mind and firm convictions. We do not seek to wrest by force what is impossible, nor to understand all matters equally well, nor make our treatment always as clear as when we discuss human life or explain the principles of physics in general—for instance, that the whole of being consists of bodies and intangible nature, or that the ultimate elements of things are indivisible, or any other proposition which admits only one explanation of the phenomena to be possible. But this is not the case with celestial phenomena: these at any rate admit of manifold causes for their occurrence and manifold accounts, none of them contradictory of sensation, of their nature. For in the study of nature we must not conform to empty assumptions and arbitrary laws, but follow the promptings of the facts; for our life has no need now of unreason and false opinion; our one need is untroubled existence. All things go on uninterruptedly, if all be explained by the method of plurality of causes in conformity with the facts, so soon as we duly understand what may be plausibly alleged respecting them. But when we pick and choose among them, rejecting one equally consistent with the phenomena, we clearly fall away from the study of nature altogether and tumble into myth.
Here's the nub of the error: When we have limited evidence, some people nevertheless proceed to pick and choose a favorite between competing theories. Such people plunge ahead even though each of the competing theories are equally consistent with the limited evidence at our disposal, and even though they do not have the evidence to truly have confidence that their decision is correct. And that's the very definition of the road to ruin. Thus Epicurus reminds us that we have no need for speculation and misplaced confidence ("false opinion") - our only real need (the only need Nature set for us) is for happy living. And what again is our proof that this is Nature's goal? As Cicero has preserved for us, the Epicurean observation is: "Strip mankind of sensation, and nothing remains; it follows that Nature herself is the judge of that which is in accordance with or contrary to nature. And what does Nature perceive or what does she judge of, beside pleasure and pain, to guide her actions of desire and of avoidance?"
In the end, there are going to be competing theories about questions of science where we have limited evidence. There are going to be periods when we think that the word "atom" is adequate to describe the ultimate particles of the universe, and there are going to be times (and languages and places) when other words are going to be assigned to the ultimate particles. Epicurus knew this and took pains to account for it in his philosophy. He warned us that while our knowledge of atoms and other scientific issues may change, there will remain ultimate "conclusions of opinion" that we can and should have confidence about. We can and should have confidence in our conclusion that the universe as a whole is eternal, that the universe as a whole is boundless in size, that the universe as a whole was not created by an omnipotent god, and that we can hope with confidence in the reliability of Nature because there are "ultimate particles" which cannot be subdivided infinitely - and which therefore support our confidence in our predictions about how those particles operate. Make no mistake, there are two issues to recognize here, and both are correct: (1) There are limits to our knowledge about things on which we have little or no evidence, but also (2) We can have confidence in our conclusions about those things which are near and important to us. Both of these observations are true and they coexist happily if we understand them - they are not at war with one another and our minds need not be consumed with anxiety about them.
The passage from the letter to Pythocles was the first of several spurs to my writing this post, but there are two others I want to mention as well. The second is a page from a blog entry on Epicurus which recently came to my attention. It reads:
The following eight counsels are a basic guide to Epicurean living.
1) Don’t fear God.
2) Don’t worry about death.
3) Don’t fear pain.
4) Live simply.
5) Pursue pleasure wisely.
6) Make friends and be a good friend.
7) Be honest in your business and private life.
Avoid fame and political ambition.
I'm taking this particular entry out of context and I want to emphasize that the blog I am quoting from contains much good material. But a list like this highlights what I think is the key error to avoid, as warned against in Doctrine 25: If on each occasion, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard when you are making a choice or an avoidance, your actions will not be consistent with your principles.
Of this list, in my view point five is well expressed and captures the essence of Epicurean philosophy as we are discussing it here. Yes - "pursue pleasure wisely," and this is because: [W]hat does Nature perceive or what does she judge of, beside pleasure and pain, to guide her actions of desire and of avoidance?" But even here we have to be sure we are careful with the phrasing, and if we fail to do so we fall into the error of Doctrine 25. What does it mean to say "pursue pleasure wisely?" Is there a tension within this sentence? Does "Wisdom" amount to some other standard which tells us to pursue something other than pleasure? If so, what is that standard?
The answer of course is not to idolize "wisdom," as do the Stoics, but to refer back to the Epicurean core observation: And what does Nature perceive or what does she judge of, beside pleasure and pain, to guide her actions of desire and of avoidance?" There is no tension in the conclusion that we should pursue pleasure wisely. Even at those times when we avoid pleasure and we choose pain, we do so because the end result will be greater pleasure, and not because there is some standard that overrules and replaces pleasurable living as our ultimate goal. "No one rejects, dislikes or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" (On Ends)
Given the ultimate truth of the observation cited as number 5 in the list - ultimate because the pursuit of pleasure is the foundation of life set by Nature - every one of the other seven observations - stated as written - will on occasion be insufficient or flatly wrong! They are not stated in the way they are stated in the Epicurean literature, and let's look at how and why:
1) Don’t fear God. - Don't fear god? Don't fear god? What is a "god?" What is our appropriate attitude toward higher beings? These are critical issues of fact which are addressed by Epicurus, and those issues are far more important than telling us not to "fear god." To many of us, this summary sounds like something right out of Sunday School - because of course we are told, "Why should we fear god? God is love." No, it's true that Epicurus taught that we need not "fear god," but that's not the place an Epicurean starts or ends the analysis. For the details, check Principal Doctrine One and the letter to Menoeceus.
2) Don’t worry about death. - Don't worry about death? Don't worry about death? Again, this summary obscures the deeper issues. Of course there's no need to fear anything about the state of being dead, because we feel nothing after we cease to live. But just as it is true that "death is nothing to us" it is also true that life is everything to us because only while we are living are we able to experience pleasure. And it is quite legitimate - in fact the height of wisdom - to be careful about the way you live your life so that your happiness can extend as long as possible. If thinking about precautions to take against death constitutes "worrying about death," then darn right you should "worry about death." Check the full text of Principal Doctrine Two, which says nothing about "not worrying about death."
3) Don’t fear pain. - Don't fear pain? Again, what we here is a much-too-simplified rendition, this time of Doctrines three and four. Without digressing too far into what those two doctrines are really addressing, we can once again repeat the core truth: "What does Nature perceive or what does she judge of, beside pleasure and pain, to guide her actions of desire and of avoidance?" It is certainly true that there are limits to pain, and it is important for us to keep those limits in mind. But pain itself is CERTAINLY something to be avoided when possible, as Nature tells us, and pain is to be chosen only when it leads to pleasure or helps us to avoid worse pain. Telling us not to "fear" pain sounds like a Stoic telling us to be courageous in the face of some evil force. The truth is that pain is real, and it is to be avoided when possible. If you don't "fear" what will happen if you get too close to that hot stove, then you quite simply aren't thinking rationally, and your only hope is that the burning you get will shock you to your senses.
4) Live simply. - Oh the sadness of the need to continue to deal with this, because it is one of the most common misunderstandings that arises from studying Epicurus from a Stoic perspective. For those who find it hard to understand the danger of Stoicism and "virtue," and who think that there are absolute paths to happiness (such as "living simply), the answer is this: Never, ever forget VS63: There is also a limit in simple living, and he who fails to understand this falls into an error as great as that of the man who gives way to extravagance.
6) Make friends and be a good friend. - Yes, true - but only with those who are willing to be your friends. Many are not willing to be your friend, and for those situations we need to remember that Epicurus warned us in several passages, including: VS28. Those who are overly eager to make friends are not to be approved; nor yet should you approve those who avoid friendship, for risks must be run for its sake. PD32. Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm.
7) Be honest in your business and private life. - Always be honest? Always be honest even with those who seek to harm you? That is pure Ciceronian "On Duties" mixed with Stoicism. There is no such absolute command to "honesty" in dealings with all people in Epicurean philosophy. Once again, refer to PD32: Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm. And if you're stuck in Stoicism and keep wondering if there are any "categorical imperatives in morality," remember: PD33. There never was such a thing as absolute justice, but only agreements made in mutual dealings among men in whatever places at various times providing against the infliction or suffering of harm. Nature's goal is pleasurable living, and artificial rules like "always be honest" can never take the place of Nature's goal, no matter how much we think we are smarter than Nature, or that we would have done a better job if the universe had been set up "our" way. Would you like a lesson on that? Check Nietzsche on Stoicism's "fraud of words."
Avoid fame and political ambition. - "Avoiding" fame and political ambition is actually a pretty good summary, since the word "avoid" is commonly understood to have exceptions. But there is a strong misconception that Epicurus advised passivism and living as a hermit, and this formulation plays right into that error. There are many ways to explain this, but I'll rest today with this advice: If you thing that "living unknown" is an absolute command, go look up the context in which the phrase is found in the texts. Look for the background on how Epicurus explained it. Go ahead. You won't find a recorded context or the explanation! That phrase has either been pulled out of context - or for all we know fabricated. We have zero - none whatsoever - explanation for the way Epicurus himself applied it - if indeed he used that exact phrase at all.
The third and last observation that prompted this post was a post at the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook page on a passage from Epicurus which features a Greek word that seems to have no direct modern translation. The word is: “τρικύλιστος" [trikilistos] and there have been varying interpretations among the academics about its meaning. (For an essay on the question by Norman Dewitt, see the same thread at the Facebook group.) The discussion is relevant here because the context in which Elli P. raised it is very similar to what we are discussing here. We have limited information about a word - something that we'd like to know about - so what do we do since we don't have Epicurus here to ask? The answer is that we do exactly what Elli did in that post - we analyze the evidence that we do have, and then we look to see where that leaves us. In this case, Elli - who is a native Greek speaker - arrives at a different conclusion than did DeWitt, who may have been a great scholar, but who also was a Canadian and not a native Greek speaker. DeWitt cites a number of good observations for his conclusion, but we should not ignore the fact that those who speak modern Greek will have insights into the language that are not available to those who are not native speakers. We are left with competing opinions of fact about the precise word, which we need to judge in the total context of our overall knowledge of Epicurean philosophy. What is primarily important, and which we know with confidence from many passages, is that Epicurus taught the importance of friendship, and that we will go to great lengths to maintain it because we experience the greatest happiness with our friends. Whether we find ourselves in circumstances in which we can pursue pleasure relatively unhindered, or whether we are in circumstances (even a wheelchair) where we have hindrances, the ultimate fact remains that life is about pursuing pleasure intelligently. We can confidently keep an open mind about the meaning of the archaic word because we are certain that - regardless of what it referred to 2000 years ago - we understand that the meaning relates to the importance of pursuing pleasure through friendship.
And so to bring this to a close, let me recall the title of the post: "Doubt Is Unpleasant, But It's Not The Worst Enemy." Doubt is like many other unpleasant experiences in life - as much as we may try, it cannot always be avoided. We will never know all the secrets of the infinite and eternal universe, but we can place that lack of knowledge in the back of our minds and proceed with life because we can have confidence in our basic role in that universe: Nature has created us to pursue happy living.
Nature has not created us with a guarantee of happy living, and nature has not created us with a guarantee that we will have perfect knowledge of everything. These are facts which we can never forget.
So what is far worse than doubt? Refer back to PD 25: If on each occasion, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard when you are making a choice or an avoidance, your actions will not be consistent with your principles.
What's worse than doubt is letting yourself be diverted by "virtue" or by false standards of "truth" that have never existed and can never exist. Doubt may be unpleasant, but it's part of life, and it can be placed in context. It's far worse to lose site of your goal, or never even try to achieve it, in the name of "virtue" or false standards of certainty. At all costs avoid the fate of Brutus, who at the end of his life was left to lament: "O wretched Virtue, thou wert but a name, and yet I worshiped thee as real indeed..."

Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 11/14/15! To subscribe (at no cost) click here.
This is the one hundred and thirty-second in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the study and productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM!

When many people today think of Epicurean philosophy and its emphasis on "pleasure," they tend to focus on Epicurus' advice to tailor our lifestyles toward a long-term view where pleasure can be sustainable over time, rather than pursuing temporary peaks of momentary pleasure which often lead to misery. That is a very true and valuable observation, but if it is all one takes away from the study of Epicurus, some very important points will be missed.
Some of those who study Epicurus move to the next stage, where they learn that Epicurus gave a powerful critique of religion based on deductions from natural science. Starting with the observation that nothing comes from nothing, and then adding that nothing goes to nothing, Epicurus set out a firm, understandable, and persuasive basis for grasping that the universe was not created at a single moment in time as the plaything of a god, but in fact that the universe is composed of elements that are themselves eternal, everlastingingly rearranging themselves according to the laws of nature that arise from the properties of those elements. This understanding is the essential launching-pad for freeing ourselves from fear of superstition that we are at the mercy of gods.
But on a weekend where another Islamic terrorist atrocity has been committed in Paris, this is a good time to remember the relationship of these two fundamental Epicurean insights.
Epicurus was the type of philosopher who integrated his ideas into a consistent whole, one supporting the other, with nothing retained in the system that was not important and fundamentally related to the other.
In the case of "pleasure" and "the true nature of the gods," Epicurus saw a crucial relationship: Not only is the world wrong in asserting that theuniverse was created by gods, the world is wrong in thinking that these gods control the destiny of men.
Epicurus held that the universe as a whole operates, and that individual worlds come into existence and fall apart again, according to the mechanical laws that govern the properties and movements of the elements of which the worlds consist. But Epicurus also saw that men and higher living beings do not act mechanically and totally predictably. From this observation he knew that there were other forces at work in the universe that have the capacity to break free from strict determinism.
We know this elemental capacity that can break free of determinism by the name that comes down to us through Lucretius - The Swerve. But Epicurus went further, and observed that the free actions of living beings was not chaotic, but was itself coordinated by something that gives rise to all the forms of life we see around us. What was that coordinating force?The faculty of living beings to experience pleasure, accompanied by the corresponding faculty of experiencing pain.
It is this force of nature - pleasure as personified by Venus - which Lucretius addresses when he says "Since thou then art sole mistress of the nature of things and without thee nothing rises up into the divine borders of light, nothing grows to be glad or lovely...."
When one stops and thinks, it is easy to see that neither pleasure nor pain are inherent, intrinsic qualities. Neither pain nor pleasure exist in a particular object by the very "essence" of that object, as Aristotle, for instance, might have said. For example, bombs and bullets such as were unleashed on innocent people this weekend in Paris can both have beneficial and life-promoting uses when employed for the defense of the innocent, or when used to prevent the innocent from being attacked in the first place. A piece of the finest chocolate cake can be the greatest pleasure to a hungry vigorous man, or the worst torture to the emaciated dying man whose throat is too tight and dry to eat it. There is nothing in bullets or bombs that make them inherently painful in all circumstances, and nothing in chocolate cake that makes it inherently pleasing in all circumstances.
When Epicurus delivered the world from fear of the gods, he did not leave us adrift with no motive, no guidance, and no mechanism to discern our proper path in nature. The hatred that religions have always felt toward pleasure - a hatred shared by the stoic-like philosophers who suppress emotion along with all joy in life - is motivated by the reverse of Epicurus' insight.
The enemies of pleasure are not so stupid as to think that sex or a piece chocolate cake are the tools of Satan or the path to insanity, but they are happy for those who are not smart enough to see through their argument to think so. The enemies of pleasure know why they fight it - because pleasure is in fact the most imporant faculty given to men - more important than seeing or hearing or any other - because it is only by pleasure that we receive the ultimate guidance of nature on how to live our lives. It isthis ultimate guidance that the religions and stoic philosophies seek to replace with "holiness" or "virtue" - and which they fear the most, because the faculty of pleasure is the living repudiation of their own rejection of this world in favor of their own dreams. No matter whether those dreams are based in religious words of "god is great" or whether "reason is the highest virtue," the common theme is that these men try to convince you that nature has left you adrift and helpless, dependent on their own exclusive insights into how to live.

In our Epicurean discussions we have quoted this before, but here is a good time to remember the words of another self-declared Epicurean. Thomas Jefferson saw through the posturing of false philosophy and false religion, and tried to tell people that neither are necessary for them to understand how to live. Instead, Jefferson wrote, nature has given us a "moral sense" - not a sense grounded in syllogisms or in revelation, but in the very natuer of man:
"He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his Nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality, and not the [beautiful], truth, &c., as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, & often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.

Praying and holding candles appears to be way many in the western world's have decided to respond to their worst enemies - by begging for mercy, rather than standing up for their right to pursue happiness as Nature created them to do. But that's not the path that Epicurus blazed for us, and it's not the path that Lucretius set out for us as the Epicurean example of how to live. It's time to recall that before Lucretius wrote the words at the head of this column - "So much does religion have the power to persuade to evil deeds" - he also wrote these other words, telling us about a man of Greece who refused to bow and kneel to false religion:

When human life to open view lay foully prostrate upon earth, crushed down under the weight of religion, who showed her head from the quarters of heaven with hideous aspect, lowering upon mortals, a man of Greece ventured first to lift up his mortal eyes to her face, and was first to withstand her to her face.
This man neither stories of gods nor thunderbolts nor heaven with threatening roar could quell: these things only chafed the more the eager courage of his soul, filling him with desire to be the first to burst the fast bars of nature’s portals.
Therefore the living force of his soul gained the day: on he passed, far beyond the flaming walls of the world, and traversed throughout in mind and spirit the immeasurable universe; And from there he returns a conqueror, to tell us what can, and what cannot come into being; in short, on what principle each thing has its powers defined, its deep-set boundary mark.

Therefore religion is put underfoot and trampled upon in turn; and we his victory brings level with heaven.
These are not the words of men who cowered in their caves at the face of danger, or who stood silent against lies about nature and the gods. These are the philosophical leaders who taught us the only thing worth fighting for is our right to live happily. Only by remembering the path that Epicurus blazed does the remnant of free, happy, Western Civilization have a chance to save itself the latest onslaught of religious zealotry and false philosophy that we have been fighting for two thousand years.

From the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group this week:
We've had a very active week at the Facebook group this week, with far too much for me to do justice to here. Special thanks go to Tadit Anderson for several very substantive posts, including this one on Benjamin Farrington, author of a book on Epicurus and on politics in the ancient world. Alexander D. started a helpful thread on "what brought about your interest in Epicurus," and Hiram started a thread to welcome new members. Justin F. posted a link to a blog entry he wrote on an Epicurean theme, and then as the week ended we had an ongoing series of posts on the Paris terrorist attack. Thanks to all who participated this week! We have much to talk about and we appreciate all who post comments, questions, or links to information of relevance to our study of Epicurus.

Recent Posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	Dawn of A New Age Of EpicurusIf you follow the world of politics, the last ten days in the USA have provided an important reminder: where passions run high, truth is often the first casualty. If…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of October – Tips on Epicurean Reasoning from PhilodemusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! Every day, not just the Twentieth, is a good day to remember that Epicurean philosophy teaches a…
	The Epicurean “Method of Analogy” in Philodemus, And Its Vital Importance to UsWhat do we do when we are confronted by differences of opinion among people who believe very strongly in their ideals, even though those ideals vary tremendously from person to…
	“This Week In Epicurean Philosophy”For the last several years (one hundred and twenty five weeks, to be exact) I have been producing a short weekly summary of notable links and discussions on the Facebook…
	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 11/7/15! To subscribe (at no cost) click here.
This is the one hundred and thirty-first in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the study and productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
The Proper Starting Point
Recently in another philosophy forum I observed a debate over the best place to start in organizing one's outlook on life. The poster was an experienced reader in philosophy and knew the official drill - that ethics is secondary to metaphysics (the nature of the universe) and to epistemology (the science of how we have confidence in what we claim to know). Nevertheless, the poster wanted to challenge that sequence and assert that it is naive to give priority to metaphysics and epistemology, because as a matter of indisputable fact the great majority of people first decide what they wish to be true in ethics - generally because they "feel" their position to be right.
Having selected their preferred ethical positions, such people simply shop around for whatever metaphysical or epistemological viewpoints seem to strike their fancy at the moment, flipping often from one viewpoint to another. As a result, these people tend to conclude that metaphysics and epistemology are of less importance, and the very names of these branches of philosophy fade into the background of their minds.
It takes only a brief study to see how dramatically Epicurus disagreed with this majority viewpoint. Whether one chooses to read the letters of Epicurus, the poem of Lucretius, or the inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda, the conclusion is inescapable. The Epicurean thought process focused did not start with ethics, but started first on studying the nature of the universe, checked immediately by studying the question of how it is our observations about the universe can be deemed to be reliable.
In a primitive world where superstition held the upper hand, it was critically important to understand that atoms and void, and not gods, provided the laws of motion and activity. It was no less important to show that despite the illusions and possibilities of error, Nature has provided us with mechanisms - faculties of observation - that can be trusted to produce reliable results. The ancient Epicureans knew that they had no hope of confidence in their theories if they could not break free of blind fear of the gods and of skeptical know-nothing philosphies. And so the only way to break free from those errors was to discover the true nature of the universe and the true nature of knowlege. It was on these foundations, and not on their personal wishes, that the Epicurean founders erected the only major Western system of thought anchored firmly in the nature of things.
In the modern world we have flattered ourselves to believe that we no longer need these Epicurean starting points. Throwing caution to the wind and leaning fully on the promises of public education, men and women of science have entrusted generations of children to teachers who were often steeped in the same skepticism and religion which Epicurus had rebelled against.
I find it difficult to believe that many people can still have confidence in a rosy outlook arising from modern education. Across the globe Western civilization faces challenges from anti-scientific cultural orientations, and the establishments of the West seem only to compete in rushing toward their own destruction.
In this environment there is a great need to remind people that long before Greco-Roman civilization was itself overcome by other-worldly cultural influences two thousand years ago, the antidote to mysticism had been developed in Athens. One man had stood up and shown toe way to defeat both skeptical know-nothings in philosophy and the zealotry in religious mysticism.
As we face those same two challenges again today, we ought to stop and look at the method of argument Epicurus chose to wage his battle. Epicurus did not start by selecting an ethical system to suit his taste. Not only did he want nothing less than the truth, Epicurus knew that only reasoned argument based on observation was enough to give one confidence that a system preferred by Nature actually existed.
Many of us find great personal comfort in studying Epicurus and learning that the standards of the modern commercial, centralized, mystical, and yet also skeptical world are not the only standards that one can choose to follow. But even as we find personal comfort in knowing that there is nothing to fear in death, that the gods do not choose our fate, and that real happiness is possible living life here on earth, many of us face fear and anxiety worrying about the future of our relatives and friends in a world spinning out of control.
The philosophy of Epicurus can show the way forward to both personal and community happiness. Epicurean philosophy was not defeated because it was wrong, but because having the right ideas is never sufficient for living successfully. Living successfully requires action, and as the years went by in the ancient world, those who fought for Epicurean ways of life did not develop the actions required to stem the tide of mysticism and skepticiam.
Today, Epicurean philosophy can lead to successful action only when it is properly understood. Much work needs to be done to show the world that Epicurus pointed toward happiness, not stoic emotionlessness, as the goal of life. Likewise, people must come to see that the Epicurean method leads to confidence that our actions can be effective, not resignation that we are the playthings of fate.
The proper place to start is to begin to follow the path first staked out thousand years ago - the trail blazed by Epicurus.
Also from the Facebook Group this week:
At the Epicurean Facebook group this week Illka V. posted that we should soon have access to an excellent new lecture by Stephen Greenblatt, author of "The Swerve." We also received some good news this week that even though the full Epicurus.info site is not yet back up, important parts of it are available by checking at least two other locations where mirrors have been established.
Also, Jason B. linked to an inspiring life outlook by a 92-year old lady that rings with Epicurean perspective, and Leonard M. linked to a Yale lecture on Roman influences in the later development of Athens.
Recent Posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	Dawn of A New Age Of EpicurusIf you follow the world of politics, the last ten days in the USA have provided an important reminder: where passions run high, truth is often the first casualty. If…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of October – Tips on Epicurean Reasoning from PhilodemusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! Every day, not just the Twentieth, is a good day to remember that Epicurean philosophy teaches a…
	The Epicurean “Method of Analogy” in Philodemus, And Its Vital Importance to UsWhat do we do when we are confronted by differences of opinion among people who believe very strongly in their ideals, even though those ideals vary tremendously from person to…
	“This Week In Epicurean Philosophy”For the last several years (one hundred and twenty five weeks, to be exact) I have been producing a short weekly summary of notable links and discussions on the Facebook…
	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

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Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 10/31/15! To subscribe (at no cost) click here.
This is the one hundred and thirtieth in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the study and productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
Dawn of A New Age of Epicurus

If you follow the world of politics, the last ten days in the USA have provided an important reminder: where passions run high, truth is often the first casualty. If you are of a liberal political persuasion, you have been outraged by the treatment of Hillary Clinton by the Republican Congress. If you are of conservative persuasion, you have been outraged by hostile reporters at the Republican presidential debate.
No matter how badly you feel about the distortions and misrepresentations you have witnessed, stop for a moment and think. How would you feel about a similar campaign of deliberate distortion and misrepresentation that lasted, not ten days, but two thousand years? What if the target of those lies was not an ordinary politician, but the leading philosopher of Western Civilization, who had stood up heroically, and almost alone, against the forces of false religion and false philosophy which had kept the world before his time in darkness?
If you can imagine the anger you you would feel, but if you also think that this obstacle would not intimidate you, but would spur you on to search out the truth with even more strength, then you are ready for the world of Epicurean philosophy.
Almost all that is truly known about the philosophy of Epicurus is contained in Book X of the "Lives and Opinions of the Philosophers" written by Diogenes Laertius in ancient Greece, in the poem "On the Nature of Things" written by Lucretius in ancient Rome, and in the fragmented inscription dug up from the wallstones erected by Diogenes of Oinoanda in ancient Asia Minor. None of these works are so lengthy, or so difficult, that you cannot master them for yourself. With very few exceptions, these sources are the only documents left to us by the men who understood Epicurean philosophy, who supported it, and who intended to convey it with accuracy and fairness.
But contrary to these reliable texts, a torrent of intentional misrepresentation and negligent error has been delivered for two thousand years. In every direction you look, whether in the ancient world by Cicero or Plutarch, or in the modern world by Wikipedia or the slickest websites, you will find commentary prepared by people who were (or are) avowed enemies of core Epicurean doctrines. These anti-Epicurean commentaries have had one purpose: to tear down, disrupt, and confuse those who would look to Epicurus for philosophic guidance.
But the world is changing. Modern technology is allowing the scattered few who sense the truth about Epicurus to communicate easily with one another. Modern technology is allowing those who wish to learn the truth for themselves to find and share the hidden gems of analysis that still exist, rediscovered through digital scanning, and recovered from centuries of dormancy on the dusty shelves of libraries from around the world.
In recent years the NewEpicurean.com has had a small role to play in encouraging the rediscovery of Epicurus, but the work has hardly begun. With the help of modern technology and internet collaboration, we've only begun to reconstitute a body of work that accurately conveys the true teachings of Epicurus for themselves. In other corners of the internet, such as the Facebook Epicurean Philosophy Group and Facebook Epicurus Page, the Society of Epicurus, and the active Epicurean groups in Greece, other activists are advancing the work of bringing back true Epicurean doctrine and practices.
But these activists need your help.
The great majority of commentary which young people come across in their studies fails to convey the core insights of Epicurean philosophy. Traditional denunciations of Epicurus abound, and even those commentators who commend Epicurus do so for reasons of their own that Epicurus would find abhorrent. Modern students need access to the small number of sources and commentaries that present Epicurean ideas accurately, professionally, and persuasively. Such resources do exist, both in the ancient texts and with modern commentators such as Frances Wright and Norman DeWitt, but it will take time and effort to compile these materials and present them for modern use on the internet.
So here's the challenge: Please consider volunteering in our efforts. Hiram Crespo has put much work into the Society of Epicurus, and we have active discussions going on daily on the Epicurus Page and the Epicurean Philosophy Group on Facebook. Let us know, either by private email or by public posting, how we can help you help us in advancing the message of Epicurean philosophy.
With your help, we can all profit from the study of Nature as guided by Epicurus, and with work and persistence, we can all be a part of the dawn of a new age of Epicurus.
Note: The photo above come with permission and our appreciation from Noel Daemen, located in Maastricht in The Netherlands, where he works with Daemen3dprojecten.nl.
Also From the Facebook Group this week:
There were several excellent posts this week on the Facebook group, including those by Jason B. discussing the meaning of the existence of life and on evolution to see things "as they really are", and by Georges M. on Lucretius.
Also, Christos Yapijakis, leader of the Garden of Epicurus group in Athens, Greece, penned a tribute to the recently deceased Erik Anderson, former proprietor of the Epicurus.info web page.

	Dawn of A New Age Of EpicurusIf you follow the world of politics, the last ten days in the USA have provided an important reminder: where passions run high, truth is often the first casualty. If…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of October – Tips on Epicurean Reasoning from PhilodemusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! Every day, not just the Twentieth, is a good day to remember that Epicurean philosophy teaches a…
	The Epicurean “Method of Analogy” in Philodemus, And Its Vital Importance to UsWhat do we do when we are confronted by differences of opinion among people who believe very strongly in their ideals, even though those ideals vary tremendously from person to…
	“This Week In Epicurean Philosophy”For the last several years (one hundred and twenty five weeks, to be exact) I have been producing a short weekly summary of notable links and discussions on the Facebook…
	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com
To change your subscription, click here.

Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 10/24/15! To subscribe (at no cost) click here.
This is the one hundred and twenty-ninth in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the study and productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
The History of Remembering Epicurus on "the Twentieth"
This past week contained the twentieth of October, and one of our Facebook Group readers asked about the reasons for posting "Happy Twentieth. This is a question we receive often, so rather than simply list the link in this newsletter, let's cite the references, starting with the main one from the will of Epicurus:
"And from the revenues made over by me to Amynomachus and Timocrates let them to the best of their power in consultation with Hermarchus make separate provision for the funeral offerings to my father, mother, and brothers, and for the customary celebration of my birthday on the tenth day of Gamelion in each year, and for the meeting of all my School held every month on the twentieth day to commemorate Metrodorus and myself according to the rules now in force. Let them also join in celebrating the day in Poseideon which commemorates my brothers, and likewise the day in Metageitnion which commemorates Polyaenus, as I have done previously."
Norman DeWitt described the history this way in Epicurus and His Philosophy, Chapter 2:
"At any rate, in the dispositions made long afterward in his will for the perpetuation of his own memory, the date was fixed, not for the anniversary day of his birth, which fell on the seventh, but at the twentieth, the day that marked the final initiations at Eleusis. The twentieth was also sacred to Apollo, which gave it an additional sanctity. Such notoriety eventually attached itself to these monthly memorial gatherings that Epicureans were dubbed "Twentyers" by way of derision."
Further, there is record in the poetry of the Epicurean Philodemus that documents the tradition:
Tomorrow, dearest Piso, your cultured companion drags you
To his humble shack at three o'clock
To feed you your annual dinner on the Twentieth. If you'll miss
Sow's udders and Bromius' Chian wine,
Still you'll see your faithful companions and hear
Things far more sweet than the Phaeacians' land.
And if you ever turn your gaze on us too, Piso,
We'll have a richer Twentieth, instead of a humble one.
In addition to the "happy twentieth" greetings you see in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook group, Hiram Crespo has written an excellent article on how modern Epicureans might continue the tradition.
Also From the Facebook Group this week:
On 10/17 Alexander R. linked to an article on decision-making and quantum theory.

On 10/18, I posted about Cicero's Tusculun Disputations, where Cicero had one of his character say a line to the effect that: "he would prefer to agree with Plato and be wrong than to agree with certain philosophers and be right." Norman DeWitt construes the philososphers referred to as Epicureans, but the line doesn't specifically refer to Epicurus, so the context has to be taken into account. The closest school referred to just before the particular reference is Pythagorean, but the context makes pretty clear that Plato was agreeing with the Pythagoreans that the soul survives death, so the Pythagoreans aren't the ones being contrasted to Plato. The entire thrust of passages before this, however, is an argument against those who assert that the soul perishes at death, so (and/or maybe Democritus) seems to be the leading candidate for that position.'
Also on 10/18, Victor H. linked to an interesting article on the Hippocratic Oath.
On 10/20 Steve K posted about the "Epicurean Manifesto."
Also on 10/20 we had the complete exchange with George M. about the Twentieth.
Hiram Crespo's "The Epicurean Revival" was posted about this time last year, and relinked this past week in our group.
And finally on 10/20, George M.'s post led to a post about the "weak and beggarly elements."
On 10/23 Uwe F. linked to an article on Lucretius and his persuasive abilities.
Rounding out the week, Ilkka V. posted a new article to the Menoeceus blog, this one on the important topic of definitions in philosophical discussions.
Recent significant posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of October – Tips on Epicurean Reasoning from PhilodemusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! Every day, not just the Twentieth, is a good day to remember that Epicurean philosophy teaches a…
	The Epicurean “Method of Analogy” in Philodemus, And Its Vital Importance to UsWhat do we do when we are confronted by differences of opinion among people who believe very strongly in their ideals, even though those ideals vary tremendously from person to…
	“This Week In Epicurean Philosophy”For the last several years (one hundred and twenty five weeks, to be exact) I have been producing a short weekly summary of notable links and discussions on the Facebook…
	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of September! – An Overview of the Letter to HerodotusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! This month for the Twentieth, I offer a quick outline of the major points of…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com
To change your subscription, click here.

View this newsletter online.
Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 10/17/15! To subscribe (at no cost) click here.
This is the one hundred and twenty-eighth in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the study and productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
Note Re: Epicurus.info and the Epicurus wiki.
Over the last two weeks we've mentioned the death of Erik Anderson, founder of the Epicurus.info website and the associated wiki, two of the most helpful Epicurean sites on the internet. As of this writing those sites are still offline, but they can be accessed at https://web.archive.org/web/20141217100328/http://epicurus.info/and https://web.archive.org/web/2014053015….info/Main_Page .
This Week: Applying Epicurus To Modern Problems.
Before we can apply Epicurus to our own lives, we first have to understand his advice, and that is not always as easy as it first appears. We all know that Epicurus considered pleasure to be the guide of life, but just as in any other philosophy (or in any religion) there are plenty of questions about how that should be done. We often run into situations where there are competing demands and priorities, and we need to know how to approach those situations where the evidence for what we should do is conflicting.
That's the reason for the recent post entitled "The Epicurean Method of Analogy in Philodemus, and its Vital Importance to Us." Epicurus didn't just pick an unconventional goal of life at random, he claimed that the goal of life, and the method for living it properly, all derive from the nature of the universe. The atomistic view of the universe that Epicurus taught led him to stress that thinking itself is a function of the atoms, and must operate consistently with the elements if it is to be successful.
Thus by the time Herculaneum as destroyed and the Epicurean library was buried in the debris, Philodemus had produced a work highlighting the differences between Epicurean methods of thinking and those of other schools. The part of the work that survived has been translated by Phillip and Estelle De Lacy, and the result, with an excellent commentary, is easily accessible at the link featured in the article.
Only one small part of Philodemus' work is featured in the recent blog post, and there is much more to be learned from Philodemus' argument. But the bottom line is that successful rational thinking is not reserved for the gods, or for the experts in syllogistic logic. It is essential for happy living that we have confidence in the results of our thinking, and that's exactly what we can achieve if base our thinking on the evidence nature gives to us, and not on the opinions of other men.
Also From the Facebook Group this week:
This past week at the Epicurean Philosophy Group contained a post onthe hypothetical content of modern ceremonies for important life events based on Epicurean principles.
Also, in the most-diiscussed post of the week, Jason B. posted about how modern psychological problems might be addressed using Epicurean principles.

Recent significant posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of September! – An Overview of the Letter to HerodotusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! This month for the Twentieth, I offer a quick outline of the major points of…
	Fundamentals of Epicurean Philosophy – An Outline(Click on the bullet to the left of each item to expand.) This outline represents my latest aid to discussing Epicurus with people who are new to the philosophy. I can't…
	All Dressed Up But No Place To GoThanks to Alexander R. for linking to this video at the Science Channel, which alleges that the robot in this example is well on its way to learning emotional associations.…
	A Season Of The Year To Remember Fallen EpicureansChecking back over the last four years, it seems that late in August of odd-numbered years I have resubmitted the following post on "A Season of the Year To Remember Fallen…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

To change your subscription, click here.

View this newsletter online.
Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 10/10/15! To subscribe (at no cost) click here.
This is the one hundred and twenty-seventh in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the study and productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
This week: more on how we console ourselves to the death of loved ones.
Last week we marked the death of Erik Anderson, founder of the Epicurus.info website, as recorded in his obituary. This week, I am still caught up in thinking about how short life is, and how important it is for us to make the best use of the time that we have. As I also mentioned last week in discussing Erik's death, a very close friend of my own died last week. This past week has been spent meeting with his widow and hearing about my friend's final months struggling with a heart condition that should have been curable, and that has kept the issue of reconciling with death front and center in my mind.
There are many ancient Epicurean passages that deal with the loss of a loved one to death, but a longer passage that stands out was written in the 1800's by Frances Wright and given to Epicurus to say in chapter ten of A Few Days In Athens stands out. If you haven't yet read A Few Days In Athens, I hope this extended quote will encourage you to take the plunge:
"But there is yet a pain, which the wisest and the best of men cannot escape; that all of us, my sons, have felt, or have to feel. Do not your hearts whisper it? Do you not tell me, that in death there is yet a sting? That ere he aim at us, he may level the beloved of our soul? The father, whose tender care hath reared our infant minds — the brother, whom the same breast hath nourished, and the same roof sheltered, with whom, side by side, we have grown like two plants by a river, sucking life from the same fountain and strength from the same sun — the child whose gay prattle delights our ears, or whose opening understanding fixes our hopes — the friend of our choice, with whom we have exchanged hearts, and shared all our pains and pleasures, whose eye hath reflected the tear of sympathy, whose hand hath smoothed the couch of sickness. Ah! my sons, here indeed is a pain — a pain that cuts into the soul. There are masters that will tell you otherwise; who will tell you that it is unworthy of a man to mourn even here. But such, my sons, speak not the truth of experience or philosophy, but the subtleties of sophistry and pride. He who feels not the loss, hath never felt the possession. He who knows not the grief, hath never known the joy. See the price of a friend in the duties we render him, and the sacrifices we make to him, and which, in making, we count not sacrifices, but pleasures. We sorrow for his sorrow; we supply his wants, or, if we cannot, we share them. We follow him to exile. We close ourselves in his prison; we soothe him in sickness; we strengthen him in death: nay, if it be possible, we throw down our life for his. Oh! What a treasure is that for which we do so much! And is it forbidden to us to mourn its loss? If it be, the power is not with us to obey.
Should we, then, to avoid the evil, forego the good? Shall we shut love from our hearts, that we may not feel the pain of his departure? No; happiness forbids it. Experience forbids it. Let him who hath laid on the pyre the dearest of his soul, who hath washed the urn with the bitterest tears of grief — let him say if his heart hath ever formed the wish that it had never shrined within it him whom he now deplores. Let him say if the pleasures of the sweet communion of his former days doth not still live in his remembrance. If he love not to recall the image of the departed, the tones of his voice, the words of his discourse, the deeds of his kindness, the amiable virtues of his life. If, while he weeps the loss of his friend, he smiles not to think that he once possessed him. He who knows not friendship, knows not the purest pleasure of earth. Yet if fate deprive us of it, though we grieve, we do not sink; Philosophy is still at hand, and she upholds us with fortitude. And think, my sons, perhaps in the very evil we dread, there is a good; perhaps the very uncertainty of the tenure gives it value in our eyes; perhaps all our pleasures take their zest from the known possibility of their interruption. What were the glories of the sun, if we knew not the gloom of darkness? What the refreshing breezes of morning and evening, if we felt not the fervors of noon? Should we value the lovely-flower, if it bloomed eternally; or the luscious fruit, if it hung always on the bough? Are not the smiles of the heavens more beautiful in contrast with their frowns, and the delights of the seasons more grateful from their vicissitudes? Let us then be slow to blame nature, for perhaps in her apparent errors there is hidden a wisdom. Let us not quarrel with fate, for perhaps in our evils lie the seeds of our good. Were our body never subject to sickness, we might be insensible to the joy of health. Were our life eternal, our tranquillity might sink into inaction. Were our friendship not threatened with interruption, it might want much of its tenderness. This, then, my sons, is our duty, for this is our interest and our happiness; to seek our pleasures from the hands of the virtues, and for the pain which may befall us, to submit to it with patience, or bear up against it with fortitude. To walk, in short, through life innocently and tranquilly; and to look on death as its gentle termination, which it becomes us to meet with ready minds, neither regretting the past, nor anxious for the future.”
From the Facebook Group this week:
This past week Hiram posted a link to a great collection of Epicurean "memes" and pamphlets which can be used to share information about Epicurus in graphic form. One of the materials listed there is a PDF ofNorman DeWitt's Philosophy for the Millions, an excellent introduction to the significance of Epicurus and his philosophy.
Uwe F. posted a link to an interesting article on Lucretius' choice of style for persuasion.
Hiram also posted a link to an upcoming release by Michael Onfrey entitled "A Hedonist Manifesto: The Power to Exist." This is the English translation of a book that was published in French a number of years ago, and it's right on target with many isssues of interest to the student of Epicurus. From the Amazon page: "Onfray attacks Platonic idealism and its manifestation in Judaic, Christian, and Islamic belief. He warns of the lure of attachment to the purportedly eternal, immutable truths of idealism, which detracts from the immediacy of the world and our bodily existence. Insisting that philosophy is a practice that operates in a real, material space, Onfray enlists Epicurus and Democritus to undermine idealist and theological metaphysics; Nietzsche, Bentham, and Mill to dismantle idealist ethics; and Palante and Bourdieu to collapse crypto-fascist neoliberalism. In their place, he constructs a positive, hedonistic ethics that enlarges on the work of the New Atheists to promote a joyful approach to our lives in this, our only, world."
Hiram also posted a link to a very good video on Richard Dawkins on how we should deal with assertions by religion which by nature cannot be proved. Dawkins emphasizes that relativism is not a sufficient response to religion, a point of view we often hear expressed as "everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

Recent significant posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of September! – An Overview of the Letter to HerodotusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! This month for the Twentieth, I offer a quick outline of the major points of…
	Fundamentals of Epicurean Philosophy – An Outline(Click on the bullet to the left of each item to expand.) This outline represents my latest aid to discussing Epicurus with people who are new to the philosophy. I can't…
	All Dressed Up But No Place To GoThanks to Alexander R. for linking to this video at the Science Channel, which alleges that the robot in this example is well on its way to learning emotional associations.…
	A Season Of The Year To Remember Fallen EpicureansChecking back over the last four years, it seems that late in August of odd-numbered years I have resubmitted the following post on "A Season of the Year To Remember Fallen…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

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Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for the week of 10/3/15! To subscribe click here.
This is the one hundred and twenty-sixth in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. At the Epicurean Philosophy Group we are dedicated to the productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life. Our goal is also, in the words of Lucian, to "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
This week we mark the death of Erik Anderson, founder of the Epicurus.info website:
Although the event happened in July, most of us have just learned about the death of Erik Anderson this past week, after a group member foundthis obituary. Many of us, definitely including me, learned a lot about Epicurus from the material that Erik edited and collected at his websites Epicurus.info and the associated Epicurus.wiki. I never had the pleasure of knowing Erik myself except in a very few cordial emails, but this selection from his obituary classically describes the kind of upbeat, searching personality who is attracted to the study of Nature and to Epicurean ideas:
"From an early age, Erik was fascinated by the stars. (He built his first telescope at age 14.) He co-authored (with Charles Francis Ph.D.) a number of papers that appeared in academic journals, including the Royal Astronomical Society, most focused on their alternative theory of the motions of spiral galaxies. An article on his work appeared in the Ashland Tidings. He ran a successful business, astrostudio.org, from which he produced best-selling moon calendars and stellar images calendars. His book Vistas of Many Worlds featured Erik’s beautiful computer-generated images. A past president of Southern Oregon Skywatchers, Erik could often be seen helping star-gazers to find the twin stars and the moons of Jupiter. Erik was an avid reader, mainly of classic philosophy, an enthusiastic hiker, and a formidable Trivia and Scrabble player. Most of all, he was a caring friend to many who will greatly miss him for his friendliness, his wit, his remarkable intelligence and his questing spirit."
Unfortunately the obituary is all I know about the circumstances of Erik's death, but we do know a little more about the aftermath. The main reason that most of us learned about Erik's death is that for the last few weeks Epicurus.info and the Epicurus wiki shortly thereafter have become unavailable. Several of us are working to see what can be done to change that, but in the meantime you may want to bookmark these links at the "Wayback Machine" on archive.org. For the present, you can find copies of Epicurus.info here and the Epicurus wiki here.
One avenue that may open to get those sites back on line seems to be taking shape with another of the leading students of Epicurus on the internet, Peter St Andre. Peter is working to see if the sites can be brought back, and he would make a great curator of Erik's sites given his own expertise Epicurus. If you're not familiar with Peter's work, you might want to check out his page.
The impact of Erik's death has taken on additional significance to me personally, as this weekend a close personal friend of many years passed away unexpectedly. Both these events emphasize to me that it is among the most important insights of Epicurean philosophy that we must live while we live, and that life comes to an end all too quickly. Regardless of any other of the many factors that support Epicurean conclusions, we should consider it of the greatest urgency to live our lives fully while we can. To paraphrase Lucretius, divine pleasure is the guide of the living. Those who are now dead need no guides or anything else, because they have ceased to exist. Erik has left us a sterling example of someone who has lived fully by engaging life at the deepest philosophical level.
As we think about this event, we should remember PD40: "As many as possess the power to procure complete immunity from their neighbours, these also live most pleasantly with one another, since they have the most certain pledge of security, and after they have enjoyed the fullest intimacy,they do not lament the previous departure of a dead friend, as though he were to be pitied."
All of us will eventually meet the same end as Erik, so he is no more to be pitied than are we ourselves. Our goal should be as was recorded in VS. 47: "I have anticipated thee, Fortune, and entrenched myself against all thy secret attacks. And I will not give myself up as captive to thee or to any other circumstance; but when it is time for me to go, spitting contempt on life and on those who vainly cling to it, I will leave life crying aloud a glorious triumph-song that I have lived well."
From the Facebook Group this week:
This past week Hiram has suggested a campaign to have Epicurus honored by Google with one of their "doodles." Considering the number of people who see that graphic the benefit would be immense, so please check Hiram's suggestion here.
Also this week Ilkka posted a major new article on his Menoeceus blog. The article addresses an early blog post by a writer who wanted to discusses "problems with Epicureanism and Naturalism." Ilkka cuts through a lot of confusion in the earlier article - here's an example: The LavalSubjects author writes: "Epicureanism teaches that by “good” we mean pleasure and “bad” we mean pain. In other words, pleasure, for the epicurean is the ethical principle." Of course this requires that the reader immediately understand that Epicurus clearly advised that sometimes we choose pain and avoid pleasure, and writers who are not versed in Epicurus have a very difficult time understanding that Epicurean advice to pure pleasure wisely does not elevate wisdom to a status that it can never hope to carry - that of being an abstraction higher than pleasure to which pleasure herself must bow. The writer assumes that there must be a "THE ethical principle" above all others, and only if you study Epicurus for yourself are you likely to understand that Epicurus calls you to separate from the crowd and reject that frame of reference. Ilkka does a very good job of unwinding these and other confusions in the original article. Be sure to check out Ilkka's article for the full commentary.

Recent significant posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of September! – An Overview of the Letter to HerodotusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! This month for the Twentieth, I offer a quick outline of the major points of…
	Fundamentals of Epicurean Philosophy – An Outline(Click on the bullet to the left of each item to expand.) This outline represents my latest aid to discussing Epicurus with people who are new to the philosophy. I can't…
	All Dressed Up But No Place To GoThanks to Alexander R. for linking to this video at the Science Channel, which alleges that the robot in this example is well on its way to learning emotional associations.…
	A Season Of The Year To Remember Fallen EpicureansChecking back over the last four years, it seems that late in August of odd-numbered years I have resubmitted the following post on "A Season of the Year To Remember Fallen…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can also be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com.

Welcome to This Week in Epicurean Philosophy for September 26, 2015

ALL READERS PLEASE NOTE: This week we are upgrading to a new format. We will continue to post all updates to the Facebook groups and Twitter feed, but we are starting a new email subscription list for updates so you can receive copies of all newsletters (and at your option, each post at NewEpicurean.com) in your local email. To ensure proper delivery please subscribe (for free of course) by clicking here. There will no doubt be some glitches as we adopt the new system so please feel free to report all comments and suggestions. We hope this new format will lend itself to greater substance and an increased "shareability" factor that will lead to continued growth of the worldwide Epicurean community.
THIS WEEK IN EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY - 09/26/2015
- This is the one hundred and twenty-fifth in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. Our home base for discussion is the Facebook Epicurean Philosophy Group. Copies of these posts, and a current list of links to active Epicurean websites can be found at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com. For even more choices in discussing Epicurean philosophy, check the list of sites included at the end of this newsletter.
- At the Facebook Epicurean Philosophy Group we welcome all participants and lurkers. If you apply to participate (through the normal Facebook process) and don't receive a reply promptly, please send an email to an admin about your interest in the group. Our group is dedicated to the productive discussion of Epicurean Philosophy and its application to daily life, and in so doing we want to also, in the words of Lucian, "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"
- Along with our format change this week there will be additional changes to the weekly newsletter. We'll continue to point to the best of the posting going on in the Facebook group, and we'll also include links and commentary to items that might not have made it to a posting on the Facebook group. Hopefully these changes will make the newsletter more useful in spreading the word about the true philosophy of Epicurus.
- Here are the latest major posts at the Facebook Group this week:
- This past week contained the Twentieth of September, which (as Epicurean students know) was the date of the month which Epicurus requested that his students memorialize as a special date for the observation of Epicurean philosophy and recollection of the founders. As usual we had several special posts commenorating the date, including one from Steve K. commenting on an Epicurus-related Existentialist comic and my own post with a summary of major points from the letter to Herodotus. Also on the 20th, Elli P. posted a very interesting article on Asclepiades of Bithynia and his relationship to Hippocrates.
- On the 21st I posted a link to remind everyone of the unashamed Epicurean connection to the common pig (an extremely smart animal), as confirmed by several ancient references including the poet Horace.
- On the 21st I also posted a graphic listing a number of importantEpicurean quotations involving "time" and our attitude toward it.
- As an example of what I think is the high quality of our group's posting and research into Epicurus, we had two posts this week that produced an important find for those interested in getting Epicurean theory as accurately as possible. First I posted on Cicero's attacks on Epicurus in On Ends, noting that we regularly cite the good comments and we need to be able to deal with the bad comments too. That post led directly to an importand find, thanks to Pangiotis A. We have located an posted a copy of an important research work from 1938: Mary Porter Packer's "Cicero's Presentation of Epicurean Ethics." This is a well-documented and researched work which blows the lid off of the respect that many people accord to Cicero's interpretations of Epicurean ethics. Norman Dewitt mildly criticized the article for being too easy on Cicero's motives, but the conclusion that Cicero cannot be relied on at face value is of importance regardless of Cicero's motive. Here is how Packer summarized her own opinion: ""Cicero was himself a man of action whose personal standards and inclinations resulted in a life of high integrity and devotion to public service. A life of tranquil equilibrium, even if good and useful, would not have appealed to his nature. He was therefore temperamentally out of sympathy with the Epicurean ideal, and was confirmed in his attitude by the price which he had paid for his own devotion to public interests, and partly perhaps by contict with certain nominal Epicureans of his own day (see above pp. 64-65, 94-97, 115-116). It would seem that these influences worked in a circle, so that Cicero by his disinclination toward the ideals of Epicureanism is blinded toward much in the doctrine with which he must have agreed; and by his failure to realize much that he could have agreed with in theory, he is led to assume for the doctrine certain inconsistencies and vicious tendencies which were in no degree inherent in ‘the system. The respect which he admits for certain individual Epicureans, and even for certain tenets of their philosophy, might well have led him to re-examine his own conclusions concerning the system as a whole. In the light of the above study it is fair to say that Cicero's treatment of Epicurean ethics is an untrustworthy source from which to seek a fundamental understanding of the philosophy." This is a very important work that would be helpful to anyone interested in learning more about Epicurean ethics.
- On the 23rd Yiannis T. posted a link to an article on David Hume, which has some very interesting commentary on Hume's views that are helpful in evaluating Epicurean ideas. Hume is often compared to Epicurus, but there are tremendously important differences of viewpoint as well, and this is a good article for bring out those differences and similarities.
- On the 24th Elli posted a link to an interesting couch! In a similar vein, Elli posted to an article on something that doesn't sound like a good use of time.
- Earlier today (the 26th) Hiram posted a challenge to all of us to see if we can get Google to honor Epicurus. Please check it out and see if you can help. Hiram also posted a link to an article discussing Sam Harris' views on pleasure.

- Here are the major recent posts at NewEpicurean.com:

	“Quantity” Does Not Equal “Type”The diagram associated with this post is intended to dramatize the question: Does any quantity of a thing ever change that thing into its opposite? When Epicurus stated that there…
	Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of September! – An Overview of the Letter to HerodotusPeace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! This month for the Twentieth, I offer a quick outline of the major points of…
	Fundamentals of Epicurean Philosophy – An Outline(Click on the bullet to the left of each item to expand.) This outline represents my latest aid to discussing Epicurus with people who are new to the philosophy. I can't…
	All Dressed Up But No Place To GoThanks to Alexander R. for linking to this video at the Science Channel, which alleges that the robot in this example is well on its way to learning emotional associations.…
	A Season Of The Year To Remember Fallen EpicureansChecking back over the last four years, it seems that late in August of odd-numbered years I have resubmitted the following post on "A Season of the Year To Remember Fallen…

Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group!
- - - Live Well!
= = = = = NOTES = = = = =
Resources for Epicurean Philosophy On The Internet

There are many find Epicurean websites on the internet, so be sure you are aware of the main ones. This newsletter is brought to you by https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.NewEpicurean.com. Two other very active and important websites are SocietyofEpicurus.com and Menoeceus.blogspot.com
There is also an active website in Greece (mostly in the Greek language) at Epicuros.net. Please be sure to check the list at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.net for a full list, and let us know if other sites should be mentioned here.
Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:1- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)
2 - If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times." 3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)
4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/ Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.
5 - If your interest is primarily on the scientific research side, such as implications of quantum mechanics and related theories, be sure to check out "Epicurean Touchpoints" at Facebook.
Please be sure to check out the list of websites at http://www.epicuruscentral.wordpress.net/ for the latest available sites. If you know of sites that should be mentioned here, please send me an email.
This email newsletter is brought to you by NewEpicurean.com. Please check our page and also https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com for links to other Epicurean websites worldwide.

★★ THIS WEEK IN EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY - 09/19/2015 ★★

★★ This is the one hundred and twenty-fourth in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. Our home base for discussion is https://www.facebook.com/groups/EpicureanPhilosophy Copies of these posts, and links to active Epicurean websites, are stored at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com, and other discussion cites are referenced at the end of this post.

★★ We welcome all participants and lurkers. If you apply to participate and don't receive a reply promptly, please send an email to an admin about your interest in the group. We are here to discuss Epicurean Philosophy, have fun, and in the words of Lucian, "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"

★★Today I'd like to highlight a new post by Alexander R. in the group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…89980677717560/ ) and explain why I think it's significant. The topic is essentially how we should consider whether and how concepts of "condensed - rarified" and "kinetic - static" apply to pleasure. Alexander's comments highlight the issue from the perspective that Alexander regularly posts on - physics issues, including the movement of particles.

Here's the point that I want to emphasize: Alexander has a keen interest in Epicurean theory in part because he is oriented toward the physics, and he knows that the implications of physics go far beyond "dry" science. Many of our participants come to our group knowing a little about Epicurus' ethics, but virtually nothing about Epicurus' "physics" or his theories of knowledge. If this situation describes you, you owe it to yourself to spend some time understanding why Epicurus was concerned about these deeper issues. With just a little effort I think you'll begin to see why they are so important.

I think we all can recognize that the question "can we know anything?" is closely related to the ethics questions that most of us find interesting. After all, if we can't know anything with confidence, then how can we have any confidence in any decisions we make on how to live?

And how did Epicurus attack the question of how we know anything? He attacked it by looking for the *mechanism* by which we gather informations - the mechanism by which our senses operate. And the key to this mechanism is the topic of "images." As dry as that might sound, the essential point of "images" is nothing more than to address the point of how we learn things. The point is that GODS do not plant ideas in our minds, and neither are we born with ideas fully-formed in our minds. We don't learn things by looking for FORMS in heaven, as Plato taught, or for "essences" built into the objects around us, as Aristotle taught. Our job in learning isn't dependent on revelation from gods, nor is it dependent on "logic" after we somehow tune our minds with the essences around us. The job of learning is wrapped up in understanding how our senses operate - how "images" travel from objects to us, and how we interpret those images even when they are not clear.

The work of unravelling how these "images" work relys on our understanding the nature of the images and how they move, and that is a matter of "physics." In other words, we have to grasp a basic understanding of the concept of particles and how they move if we are to have any confidence that we can rely on this mechanism to gather knowledge. If those particles are at the mercy of gods, then WE are at the mercy of gods, and all hope of confidence in living without fear of the gods is essentially gone.

So Epicurus wants you to understand enough physics to see that our senses operate through the motion of particles. And he also wants you to know that not only your sight and hearing, but the entire universe as well, operates through the properties and the motion of those particles. That's why you need to know enough about particles to realize that they aren't "divine" and they are in fact "eternal" - that they therefore weren't created by any god.

And only if you know the basics of this issue will you have enough confidence to laugh at St. Paul, in Galatians 4:9, when he says: "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?"

From this you ought to begin to see that the "physics" of Epicurus was hardly "dry" at all. Unlike our modern particle physicists, who often seem to live in a world of their own, Epicurus considered a series of basic observations about the nature of the elements to be essential for anyone's understanding of how to live happily.

In order to make this review of basic principles of nature easier to grasp, I have continued to work this week on my latest "outline" which summarizes these issues and their implications. The latest version will always be here: http://newepicurean.com/major-observat…phy-an-outline/

So if you're one of many who knows something about Epicurean ethics but little about the foundations of the Epicurean view of Nature or Knowledge, I hope you'll take a few minutes to review the first two bullet points on Nature and Knowledge, and these should help you to think about the connection of "physics" to the Epicurean conclusions on how to live.

★★ Moving on, here are the rest of the highlights of this week's posts:

★★On Sep 15, Elli posted a cute video illustrating an Epicurean and Platonist at the Agora. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…87462297969398/

★★On Sep 16, I posted a link to a news article on a court ruling allowing the religious ceremony of "Kaparos" to continue in New York over the objections of animal rights advocates. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…88556217860006/

★★ On Sep 17, Alexander linked to an article on how quantum theory may relate to human decisionmaking. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…88955844486710/

★★ On Sep 15 I linked to my blog post announcing the "outline" as discussed above. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…87735334608761/

★★Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/EpicureanPhilosophy/ or hop around the internet world of Epicurean Philosophy by checking the links here: EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com

Live Well!
Cassius Amicus

★★Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:

1- If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times" that you can find by searching facebook.

2- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)

3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)

4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.EpicureanFriends.com. Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.

This outline represents my latest aid to discussing Epicurus with people who are new to the philosophy. I can't represent that I have stated or ordered each and every one of these points in exactly the same way that an ancient Epicurean would have done, but I hope I have covered the main points and that others may find this useful. If you see points I have left out, or you think deserve correction or amplification, please let me know.

One other purpose I hope to serve here is to provide a list of major points that can be used to be sure new readers get the full scope of the foundation. Often it seems that Epicurus is discussed solely in terms of a couple of simple ethical points, and it is important to see how the big picture ties together by remembering that his ethics are built squarely on his view of the universe and his theory of knowledge.

I have prepared this in the form of a "collapsible" outline which might make looking at the major points easier, but as you drill down through each item I have attempted to cite major points of reference for each one. I hope to work further on this and provide it in an easier-to-read format. For the time being, I have been struggling to figure out how to include an outline like this (written in javascript) in Wordpress, and I am afraid the format may prove hard to read on mobile devices. I will see if I can improve that in the near future, but in the meantime if you have limited screen size you might find this most readable if you click HERE.

**THIS WEEK IN EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY - 09/12/2015***

** This is the one hundred and twenty-third in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. Our home base for discussion is https://www.facebook.com/groups/EpicureanPhilosophy Copies of these posts, and links to active Epicurean websites, are stored at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com, and other discussion cites are referenced at the end of this post.

** We welcome all participants and lurkers. If you apply to participate and don't receive a reply promptly, please send an email to an admin about your interest in the group. We are here to discuss Epicurean Philosophy, have fun, and in the words of Lucian, "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"

**Today before jumping into the rest of the week's posts, I'd like to highlight the new outline of "Major Observations and Conclusions of Epicurean Philosophy" I just posted to the group. I hope this is useful to all, especially to the newcomers to the group who don't know a full list of the important principles and how they fit together. Feel free to comment in the thread if you have comments or suggestions on making the outline better. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…85738701475091/

** Here are the highlights of this week's posts:

**On Sep 6, Elli posted an interesting video of a "catfight" and linked to my "Catius' Cat" poem. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…81782188537409/

**Also on Sep 6, Hiram started a thread welcoming new members: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…81873705194924/

**On Sep 7, Elli, posted a graphic with Vatican Saying 54 - that we must not pretend to study philosophy, but study it in reality, for it is not the appearance of health that we need, but real health. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…82303475151947/

**On Sep 7, Uwe F. posted a link to an article on Epicurus in Italian. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006796486247

**Also on Sep 7, Dragan posted a link to Aesop's fable of "the Flies and the Honey-Pot" which provided some good discussion. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…82303055151989/

**On Sep 12, Hiram posted a link to an article on Philodemus. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…85361041512857/

**Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/EpicureanPhilosophy/ or hop around the internet world of Epicurean Philosophy by checking the links here: EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com
*
Live Well!
Cassius Amicus
**Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:
1- If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times" that you can find by searching facebook.

2- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)

3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)

4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.EpicureanFriends.com. Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.

**THIS WEEK IN EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY - 09/05/2015***

** This is the one hundred and twenty-second in a series of weekly reports on news from the world of Epicurean Philosophy. Our home base for discussion is https://www.facebook.com/groups/EpicureanPhilosophy Copies of these posts, and links to active Epicurean websites, are stored at EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com, and other discussion cites are referenced at the end of this post.

** We welcome all participants and lurkers. If you apply to participate and don't receive a reply promptly, please send an email to an admin about your interest in the group. We are here to discuss Epicurean Philosophy, have fun, and in the words of Lucian, "strike a blow for Epicurus - that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him!"

** Here are the highlights of this week's posts:

**On Aug 30, Alexander R. forwarded a link about "Robots Learning Like Humans" which served as the basis for a post on "All Dressed Up But No Place to Go" discussing the crucial role of pleasure and pain as Nature's stop and go signals. Robot inventors can instruct robots to consider some events as "pleasurable" and some events as "painful," but can the robots really "experience" pleasure and pain? The question serves as a great introduction to the pre-eminent role which Epicurus assigned to them in the Epicurean canon. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…78889212160040/

** On August 31 I posted a link to an article in which the phrase "seeing is believing" is discussed by philosopher Leonard Peikoff. Peikoff's comments on this limited point seem largely sound despite his grounding in a non-Epicurean philosopy. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…79365322112429/

** On Sep 30 I posted a copy of an article entitled "Paralysis In A Risk-Free Society" which contains interesting discussion of the issues involved in weighing pleasure vs. pain. Most choices to pursue any pleasure involve some amount of pain as the price of pursuing it, and it is an important question to consider the amount of "risk" we are willing to take in order to experience greater pleasure. When the price is clear, the calculus can be relatively clear, but what happens in those many situations when the full price of a pleasure is not clear, and may vary? https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…80252088690419/

** It's been another relatively slow week, but things should pick up soon as we all begin to settle into the fall season (at least in the northern hemisphere). Keep in mind that the coming seven days includes September 11, a time of year particularly frought with danger in some locales. Be Safe!

**Thanks to all who participated in the Facebook forum this week. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please add a comment or participate in the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/EpicureanPhilosophy/ or hop around the internet world of Epicurean Philosophy by checking the links here: EpicurusCentral.wordpress.com
*
Live Well!
Cassius Amicus
**Options for those who wish to discuss Epicurus on the internet include:

1- If you are someone whose views are fully formed, and you've combined several disparate viewpoints into your own personal mix, and you mainly want to talk casually to other people of the same eclectic type, there are several excellent facebook groups including EPISTOBUZEN and "Epicureanism for Modern Times" that you can find by searching facebook.

2- If you are focused primarily on Epicurus, and you want to participate in a forum where people will defend Epicurus strongly from all challenges, then you have two Facebook options. Our open and main group, entitled simply "Epicurean Philosophy," is the home base of this post. Anyone can read the posts there, and all you have to do is ask in order to join. (Note that there is an "About" and a "Sticky" post with our forum rules.)

3 - If you prefer to post in a "private" group where your posts are not readable by outsiders, we have "Epicurean Private Garden." Because it is a private group, you cannot find it by searching, and you have to email one of our admins in the open group if you wish to join. Please note that our About and Sticky Post rules in the private forum are the same as the open forum, and the private forum will be moderated to the same standards as the open forum (or perhaps slightly tighter!)

4 - If you are not only focused primarily on Epicurus, but you wish to assist with a forum platform where pro-Epicurean activists can build for the future, check out https://www.epicureanfriends.com/www.EpicureanFriends.com. Work is starting on a FAQ and other resources. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved members can create new posts or comment.