Posts by Matt

Thank you Cassius! Thank you for always welcoming me back to the Garden.

It has been a long road, my own experiments with what I’ve learned about Epicurus and his conclusions have shown me that they are indeed true.

I hope to be back full swing in the community and be contributor as I was years ago.

Life is feeling.

It’s amazing how events happen in life that truly reemphasize the reality of this truth (even terrible experiences). Epicurus’s greatest ally was and always will be experience as a testament to this fact.

Thanks Martin! It's good to be back. I've found I'm happiest among the Epicurean community and living the philosophy. So I can't deny it anymore!

Hello friends,

Around 2016 I found the Facebook EP group. At that time I was completely unaware of exactly what it was I was going to be getting into. I already believed I had a deep grasp of "philosophy"...specifically neoplatonic philosophy and a myriad of idealistic systems that ranged from the religious to the mystical. But I was unhappy with all of it.

I happened upon the Epicureans and their Garden. The Garden's walls were high, but there was a welcoming sign at the entrance.

So I went in and I listened and learned about a philosophy that I was completely unaware of. The people of the Garden were very passionate about the philosophy and their founder. I befriended some of the core members who let me into their circle. At that time I would've called myself an Epicurean.

I now saw the walls of the Garden from the inside and I welcomed new members as they crossed the threshold. I battled Stoics and religionists of all types, I had a penchant for Epicurean debate.

Time went on and I still carried with me my "former" ideas. Ideas about divinity, about religion, about metaphysics, about mysticism. Things I had picked up from those other systems. What I didn't realize was that when I tried to push the two worlds together, I became less Epicurean and more of an eclectic. My former religious guilt told me to leave the Garden. So after being graciously welcomed, I left the company of friends to re-pursue my former idealistic habits and religious speculations. I was now on the other side, yet again, of the Garden's Wall. The philosophy of Epicurus and the friendships that I had made still burned in me and I made several attempts to bridge the gap between my idealistic philosophical meanderings and the Epicurean community. All of which were mostly disastrous. In my experience, you cannot mix the two worlds and have a synthesized Epicurean philosophy.

In the time since I left, I would often fall back on my Epicurean experience and the philosophy I learned so much about. It seems that even though outwardly I had attempted to reject it, EP was securely now a part of my mental makeup.

Well here I am, reminiscing about the past, and now looking forward to the future. Do I now consider myself an Epicurean? Yes I do. Whether it is a label I give myself or one given by an outside observer, my sympathies and core philosophical doctrines fall back to Epicurus.

The walls of the Garden are high for a reason, they separate two worlds. Two very distinct worlds.

So you'll see me now on the inside of the Garden and I plan to be very, very active going forward as I once was years ago. I am yet again ready to "strike a blow" for Epicurus.

Hi friends,

So the last few weeks have been rough. I caught “the virus” as did my wife and daughter. After months of being very careful our one calculated risk, our babysitter, let us know she had symptoms. Shortly thereafter so did we.

I had two weeks of fevers and pneumonia and the classic loss of taste and smell (which is apparently neurological).

During this time, I did reflect on my Epicurean understanding of how critically important pleasure is to a healthy life.

My smell and taste were entirely gone (mostly back now) and I began to think what a permanent condition would be like? A life deprived of sensual pleasure. Simple pleasure, something we all take for granted. Smell and taste, sight and hearing...touch. When the prospect becomes even remotely real that even one of these senses will be gone permanently a sort of anxiety and depression sets in.

Now I’m sure the Stoic will give a certain answer to that situation that will rob all sensual pleasures of purpose, living secure in their “mind citadel”...but frankly I must say no amount of Stoic counsel would’ve relieved my concern for not being able to acquire pleasures that I have become accustomed to. I speculated on how I might react to something like this being permanent...I thought perhaps I could attempt to compensate with other positive pleasures to make up for that which was lost. But even then though I could do that, the simple pleasures I am so accustomed to seemed so much greater and I found myself willing to trade any more exotic pleasures for my former senses. Pleasure is critical to a normative, healthy physical and mental state, no matter how simple or minor it may seem.

Anyway, this is just sort of where my head was at. Epicurean philosophy has “real” application for real life situations that occur. I can say that since I’ve been involved with EP, I’ve had a few of these life situations come up and EP has been exceptionally poignant and useful for reflection.

Absolutely, I would enjoy reviving the discussion if the mood hits everyone.

After a long couple weeks of feeling so unbelievably bad, I have had some time to reflect on what “pleasure” means to a healthy life. I will post in the forum a little later on the subject.

I am even "more" late commenting. I was tied up earlier in November then in December I caught the infamous virus that put me out of commission for two weeks...awful...just awful.

The "god" discussion has been one that I've taken part in for the last few years. So much has been written about it, but often leaves us divided. For my part I have vacillated greatly in what I believe Epicurus thought about the gods. I think truly, as it was in his time, exactly as he posited: the being (if it exists) is blessed and indestructible has no trouble, therefore gives no trouble.

What a person does with this information beyond this first premise is entirely up to them. If believing in the idea of a god gives you comfort and pleasure...so be it. But you may potentially end up speculating or imagining a deity that may evolve into something that does not give you pleasure, therefore ruining a very specific Epicurean idea.

I don't do much speculating on this subject anymore since it becomes fruitless very very quickly and leaves parties divided unnecessarily.

My philosophy is no philosophy these days. Life becomes much quieter when you don’t have other people’s speculations bouncing about in your consciousness.

Yeah, Neoplatonism and Stoicism deal in principles that eventually become unintelligible. The One is both immanent and transcendent, both outside reality and at the same time manifests as reality itself. Infinitely complex and yet can be reduced to extreme simplicity.

I understood Plotinus and his Enneads and for years I considered him to be great thinker. However, in the end his system is just another bump in the road of a long line of philosophical systems that bear no fruit. He was just that... “a great thinker” and nothing more.

Hello Epicureans,

Your renewed discourse here has summoned me. Haha

I smell Neoplatonism cooking in here. It smells a lot like a seafood curry and cigarette smoke in an apartment complex.😀

Hope all is well.

Matt

Things are good, just taking a couple of classes. Things are fairly quiet at the moment.

Yes, I'll need to do some refresher training. I wan't sure who Polyaenus was so I got dinged on that a couple of times. Then I blanked on who preceded who Zeno or Epicurus.

I figured I'd swing by and change things up!

Yeeesh...I've been away from here for awhile. I'm rusty!

I will say that some of the metrics and visual products that have been produced lately in this forum have been exceptionally detailed. The quality of work is awesome.

I’ve only taken a cursory glance at the article, I’d love to take more time to look at it and dust off my Epicurean discussion skills. ?

Clearly the copy and pasting needs to cease if there is going to be any real dialogue. Also, the picture quotes too. Otherwise it’s just anti-intellectual bullying.

Some ground rules need to laid out and there need to be rules about using peripheral sources that are not Epicurean that are irrelevant like Liantinis.

There can be no further dialogue if these simple expectations are not met.

Thank you Cassius .

For the record I’m out. Cassius

Elli, I’m all set with responses from sources other than your own brain. Either just have a dialogue with me in your own voice or we are finished with this discussion.

I don’t want to hear any more about Liantinis or Cavafy in response to the Notre Dame fire. Please.

I’m not sure how you can misinterpret the pejorative “Jew Greek” but I guess it’s whatever you want to see.

He was assuredly an anti-Semite Obviously others pointed it out because there was a Q&A about whether or not he was an “anti-Semite.”

Liantinis, a sad martyr with a messianic complex. Judging from what little is available to English speakers is that he was an ugly anti-Semite academic that hated the “New Greeks” or “Jew Greeks” of modern times. Wrote volumes to the superiority of Greek culture.

Then he unceremoniously marched off into the mountains to kill himself after writing a melodramatic suicide note:

“My last act has the meaning of protest for the evil that we, the adults, prepare for the innocent new generations that are coming. We live our life eating their flesh. A very bad evil. My unhappiness for this crime kills me."

I see now how you replace the Christ for the melodramatic self proclaimed martyr of Liantinis. One for one.

Such a disgrace and dishonor to leave behind his family for his own vanity.