Posts by Joshua

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  • Updated TimeTable of the Epicurean World

    Thank You!

    Quote from Cassius

    Also for future reference, you indicated this morning that you found a better "keyword" to use in searching for something like this better than "timeline." Do you recall what that was?

    Well, that's the trouble; there is the Gantt Chart which is infuriatingly close to what we need, and may actually be helpful in feeding a growing table of data into a chart maker. But it has it's downsides. For one thing, the resulting chart will almost always be longer vertically than horizontally, which means a pretty massive file for the amount of data presented.

    Also, every one I've seen has the labels in a column on the left rather in the chart itself.

    I just don't know how to search for this;

    File:Timeline of Indian history.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
    commons.wikimedia.org

    without finding a lot of this:

    Economy of the United States - Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org

  • Updated TimeTable of the Epicurean World

    I'm wondering if Eikadistes and Don can help clear up the succession of scholarchs for me. I was going by the link to the table posted by Cassius in #1, but then I found this list by Nate at Society of Epicurus and some of the dates don't match.

    Protrarchus isn't mentioned at all in the table Cassius linked to, but does appear in SoFE list. The dates for Apollodorus are completely conflicting.

    Nate, should I go with the list you posted at SoFE? It looks more complete.

  • Welcome Novem!

    Welcome, Novem!

    That was a really interesting and informative introduction!

    The fact is that we all took different roads that led to our interest in Epicurean Philosophy, and your grounding in utilitarianism is probably an advantage that a lot of us don't have.

    I'm glad to see that you enjoyed Emily Austin's book, our interview with her was a lot of fun.

    As for Epicurus' views on the gods and other controversial issues, we don't hold people to much of a litmus test (other than the no-politics rule, and no proselytizing). We have frequent discussions about all of these things, and nobody is asked to leave their brain at the door--people are more than capable of arguing in good faith!

    Welcome to the forum!

  • In Memoriam T. Lucretii Cari

    Two more October dates; today, Oct. 30 is the anniversary of the death of Poggio Bracciolini in 1459. Tomorrow, October 31st, is the anniversary of the opening of the Leiden University Library in 1587. Poggio was the first to bring Lucretius back in to circulation, but the two most important 9th century medieval manuscripts--the Quadratus and the Oblongus--are housed in the Library at Leiden.

    • Oct. 15th to 31st
      • 15th; T. Lucretius Carus death
      • 19th; Marsilio Ficino born (started writing a commentary on Lucretius but burned it out of fear)
      • 21st; Hermann Usener death
      • 23rd;Hermann Usener born
      • 24th; Vesuvius Eruption preserves Villa of the Papyri
      • 29th; H. A. J. Munro born
      • 30th; Poggio Bracciolini born
      • 31st; Opening of the Leiden University Library

  • Ancient Greek/Roman Customs, Culture, and Clothing

    The idealized garb of philosophers among the Greeks was taken from the symbols of Cynicism: a cloak to keep off the elements, a bag or purse to hold all of one's worldly possessions, and a staff for walking. The staff and purse are shown on the Boscoreale treasure's philosophy cup. No cloak was necessary here--all of the figures on the cup are skeletons, underlining the link between philosophy and death.

    But Epicurus was not a Cynic. He also didn't hold forth publicly in the regimented world of the gymnasiarchs. Presumably he wore what was handy, some of it purchased and some, perhaps, gifted.

    Plato's Academy mosaic - Wikipedia
    en.m.wikipedia.org

    This mosaic from Herculaneum is thought to depict Greek philosophers as Romans would have imagined them.

  • Greek Atomism and subatomic particles. 'Atomos' and 'Ameres'

    A lot of it was fairly impressive for it's time. Compare, for instance, the atomism of Epicurus and Democritus with the cosmos of Aristotle's elements or essences;

    AtomismAristotelianism
    Law of InertiaCorrectly intuited that Force equals Mass times Acceleration. The atoms are in constant motion. Force is only required to accelerate or decelerate bodies, or to change their course. *Note that the swerve of the atoms is not consistent with this general principle.Wrongly inferred that Force equals Mass times Velocity. Matter is naturally at rest; Motion ceases shortly after force is no longer applied.

    Matter Falling    		The speed of atomic motion is uniform.Heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
    Description of MatterOf the atoms, their are an infinite number of each kind of atom, but the kinds are merely innumerable. All atoms have three properties inseparable from their nature as atoms--weight, shape, and size. Objects are made of one of the five classical elements. Air, fire, and aether naturally rise. Earth and water fall.
    Extraterrestrial bodiesEverything that exists everywhere is composed of atoms and void. There are other worlds like ours, and other living things spread across the cosmos.The heavenly bodies are made of aether, the quintessence or fifth essence, and aether is perfect. It gives to those bodies the most perfectly rounded shape--the sphere.
    Nature vs Mind"There is no purposiveness in Nature, but in the processes of nonpurposive creation she has brought into being a purposive creature, man. For him, being capable of reason, a telos is conceivable." -Norman DeWitt"It is manifest that the soul is also the final cause of its body. For Nature, like mind, always does whatever it does for the sake of something, which something is its end." -Aristotle, On the Soul

  • Episode 197 -LucretiusToday Interviews Dr. Marcelo Boeri

    Quote

    But I suspect he would have disagreed with Pericles.

    Interestingly, there is an epigraph in the Greek Anthology attributed to Menander;

    "Hail, you twin born sons of Neocles, the one of whom saved his country from slavery, the other from folly."

    The first was Themistocles and the second was Epicurus. Both were Athenian citizens, both had fathers named Neocles, both chose the Ceramicus--part cemetary, part potter's quarter--as their public haunt, and both appealed to the lower classes who had been left behind by the aristocracy (in the case of Themistocles) and their state-sponsored male-only Gymnasia (in the case of Epicurus).

    Menander was born within a year of Epicurus, and pre-deceased him by twenty years, but it is anyone's guess as to whether the epigraph is genuine.

  • Episode 196 - The Epicurean Arguments In Cicero's On Ends - Book Two - Part 06

  • In Memoriam T. Lucretii Cari

    And in case anyone is curious about the other inscription in Jonson's copy, it is also from Ovid;

    Quote

    explicat ut causas rapidi Lucretius ignis,

    casurumque triplex vaticinatur opus,

    [...] though Lucretius explains the cause of impetuous fire,

    and predicts the triple death of earth, water, air [...]

    In addition to Jonson's copy, we also have surviving copies belonging to Niccolo Niccoli, Machiavelli, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Jefferson, and more.

  • In Memoriam T. Lucretii Cari

    Photo: English Poet Ben Jonson's Copy of Lucretius with Acid Stain

    Today is the anniversary of the traditional date of the death of Lucretius, which, according to the 4th century grammarian Aelius Donatus, occurred on the same day that Virgil assumed the Toga Virilis on his 17th birthday.


    Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas

    Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum

    Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari

    Happy is he who is able to know the causes of things,

    And who has trampled beneath his feet all fear,

    Inexorable fate, and the din of the devouring underworld

    -Publius Vergilius Maro


    carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti,

    exitio terras cum dabit una dies

    Then shall perish the verses of sublime Lucretius,

    When that day shall consign the world to destruction

    -Publius Ovidius Naso

Finding Things At EpicureanFriends.com

What's the best strategy for finding things on EpicureanFriends.com? Here's a suggested search strategy:

  • First, familiarize yourself with the list of forums. The best way to find threads related to a particular topic is to look in the relevant forum. Over the years most people have tried to start threads according to forum topic, and we regularly move threads from our "general discussion" area over to forums with more descriptive titles.
  • Use the "Search" facility at the top right of every page. Note that the search box asks you what section of the forum you'd like to search. If you don't know, select "Everywhere." Also check the "Search Assistance" page.
  • Use the "Tag" facility, starting with the "Key Tags By Topic" in the right hand navigation pane, or using the "Search By Tag" page, or the "Tag Overview" page which contains a list of all tags alphabetically. We curate the available tags to keep them to a manageable number that is descriptive of frequently-searched topics.