I'm fascinated by how rapidly the physics (motion) turns into an ethics issue (pleasure). A good demonstration of how they're inextricably linked.
Posts by Don
We are now requiring that new registrants confirm their request for an account by email. Once you complete the "Sign Up" process to set up your user name and password, please send an email to the New Accounts Administator to obtain new account approval.
Regularly Checking In On A Small Screen Device? Bookmark THIS page!
-
-
Aristotle: Motion and its Place in Nature | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Not sure how much it helps, but it's a start.
-
I doubt I'll be much of a contributor
That was my initial intention 3 years ago. We encourage questions and whatever level of participation you feel comfortable with.Welcome aboard!
-
I still have LOTS to read
LOL! Welcome to the club
-
Welcome!
-
Welcome, Goblin!
Your mention of IDRlabs encouraged me to look it up online. Here's what I can up with in the philosopher test.
Here's the text below the image:
Epicurus: Epicurus advised his followers to live simple lives. For example, their food and drink consisted mainly of bread and water, with cheese as a rare indulgence. Having been much misunderstood by posterity, Epicurus actually counseled that intense pleasures were to be avoided because they were often followed by pain – either from overindulgence or from losing access to the pleasures again. Likewise, Epicurus held that stronger and more uncommon pleasures would, at the same time, make common and less potent pleasures less pleasant, thereby robbing the man who indulges in the rarefied pleasures of the opportunity to enjoy a simple, quiet life.
***
Not the best description of the philosophy, but hey at least he was in the list! Plus, I may have gamed a few questions to get the answer I wanted.
-
Democritus' statement as worded is easy to understand as nihilistic - as saying that nothing exists unless we agree it exists other than atoms and void.
For me, it doesn't read that way. I've always taken it as a bare statement of fact. To try and imbue existence - let's get personal, your existence or mine - with some transcendent or ultimate meaning is, by definition, a meaningless endeavor. We're ALL, at the core, temporary patterns of atoms in the void. But not JUST atoms and void. We do have a real life and interact with real things in a real cosmos at the macro level of everyday existence. We don't experience ourselves as atoms and void, but we should keep that thought at the back of our minds, especially when we hear "God has a plan for me" or "The Universe is showing me a path." We give our lives meaning, and we can experience a pleasurable existence. But that doesn't mean we aren't, at our foundation, atoms moving in the void (or whatever modern paraphrase one wants to use).
-
I was going to go back and quote and respond directly, but this thread has grown. So, I'll just add my two drachmas worth. Those is my understanding after talking with Dr Glidden:
I really liked Dr. Glidden's "sensations are true*to their cause*." That is the best, succinct explanation of "all sensations are true" that I've heard. It makes perfect sense. Epicurus was "dogmatic" in the sense that we can make statements about the world, we can take a stand. Why? Because our senses are reacting to real things in the world. Our sensations are the result of our bodies being impacted by real things external to us. Those things impact our senses. Our sensations are true to their causes *out there in the real world external to us.*
But sensations are just raw data. Light hitting our retinas. Vibrations in the air. Molecules on the breeze. And so on. Prolepseis allow the recognition of patterns to be pulled out of the chaos. A prolepsis is a particular pattern, initially vague then reinforced over time. It's important to repeat that Forte Lab blog: "What the mind is doing when it “recognizes” an image is not matching it against a database of static images." Don't ask me to explain yet! Still trying to understand. But they important point is that prolepseis involve neither discursive thought nor conceptual thinking. It's quick, and gets quicker as we mature. But we recognize faces, for example, well before we "know" what a face is. And I think our pattern recognition faculty can be seen to work automatically when we see how it can be short circuited with the snake/stick example or the fact of Pareidolia:
Pareidolia - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgWe see faces everywhere!!! We can't help ourselves.
I'll leave it there for reactions.
This is your brain detecting patterns: It is different from other kinds of learning, study showsDetecting patterns is an important part of how humans learn and make decisions. Now, researchers have seen what is happening in people's brains as they first…www.sciencedaily.com -
Maybe pertinent...
A Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind - Forte LabsIn 2006, inventor Ray Kurzweil released the book The Singularity Is Near (Amazon Affiliate Link), with a bold prediction that by the year 2049 we'd enterfortelabs.com -
-
The best source I've found for transcriptions and images of papyri is:
-
For example...
I looked up the titles of the papyri numbers (p.herc.#) elsewhere.
-
Oh that link is cool!!
FYI:
P.Herc. 89 = Philodemus, On God's.
P.Herc. 118 = Philodemus, On Epicurus.
P.Herc. 1005= Philodemus, To... (This is the one with the Tetrapharmakos in)
P.Herc. 1044 = Life of Philonides of Laodicea
-
-
This epic zoo escape story shows how fantastically smart orangutans can be.Fu Manchu was on the loose.Adult male orangutans grow big jowls, like this gentleman from a German zoo. Photo by Oliver Lang/AFP/Getty Images.Fu was an adult…www.upworthy.com
-
"On the Good King According to Homer" in Greek and Latin.
Not the most helpful for us, but posting here to provide an idea of the condition of the papyrus. You can take a look at the Greek text and see the are fragments at the beginning but a good amount of in relatively good shape.
Also:
23.1.Fish | Society for Classical Studies
Jeffrey Fishwww.baylor.eduThe Closing Columns of Philodemus’ ON THE GOOD KING ACCORDING TO HOMER, PHERC. 1507 COLS. 95-98 (= COLS. 40-43 DORANDI)This article presents a reedition of the nal columns of Philodemus’ On the Good King According to Homer (columns 95-98 = cols. 40-43 Dorandi). In the nal…www.academia.eduOdysseus and the EpicureansOdysseus was one of the classic role models for the Stoics. And he was my favorite mythological hero when I was a kid. Both excellent reasons for this…howtobeastoic.wordpress.com -
Not all politicians are Sisyphus: What Roman Epicureans were taught about politics,” in Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition, ed. J. Fish and K. Sanders (Cambridge) 2011 72-104When it comes to political involvement, some of our most important sources on early Epicureanism frame the question in terms regularly employed by their Stoic…www.academia.edu
-
I would recommend studying and discussing the Letter to Menoceus, the Principal Doctrines, The Vatican Sayings, and the Torquatus section of Cicero's On Ends.
If I may, in addition to the more scholarly/narrative translations, I'll offer my translation and commentary of the Menoikeus letter if you're interested:
Epicurus's Letter to Menoikeus - A New Translation with Commentary
An in-depth translation and commentary of Epicurus's Letter to Menoikeus.
-
It's been around for awhile, but it keeps falling off my radar.
-
https://www.amazon.com/Epicureanism-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/019968832X
Has anyone read Catherine Wilson's other book? I'll admit I have not. Any reviews welcomed.
QuoteProduct Description
Epicureanism is commonly associated with a carefree view of life and the pursuit of pleasures, particularly the pleasures of the table. However it was a complex and distinctive system of philosophy that emphasized simplicity and moderation, and considered nature to consist of atoms and the void. Epicureanism is a school of thought whose legacy continues to reverberate today.
In this Very Short Introduction, Catherine Wilson explains the key ideas of the School, comparing them with those of the rival Stoics and with Kantian ethics, and tracing their influence on the development of scientific and political thought from Locke, Newton, and Galileo to Rousseau, Marx, Bentham, and Mill. She discusses the adoption and adaptation of Epicurean motifs in science, morality, and politics from the 17th Century onwards and contextualises the significance of Epicureanism in modern life.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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.