Posts by GnothiSeauton

We had our philosophy evening last Thursday and used a portion of this podcast as a discussion point. It went really well. Fortunately, we had in attendance, Mark, the young man who first introduced me to Epicurus as a counterpoint to Stoicism. He had a solid understanding of Epicurus and shared it with the group, helping to inspire a number of interesting questions/discussions. However, despite my best efforts (and our group guidelines) to keep folks focused on the philosophy, we had a couple participants who wanted to argue about its merits and connect it with contemporary society. People appear to be trained these days to lead with judgement rather than curiosity.

One particular point of contention regarded the avoidance of sexual relations. We emphasized that the principal should be seen today as a note of caution to be recognized (as opposed to dogma) as a number of participants agreed that sexual encounters had indeed ended up causing a lot of anxiety and loss of friendship in their lives.

We regained our focus by explaining that Epicurean thought is not a rigid list of laws enforced by some kind of authority (police force - their term), but rather guidelines to help one seek a pleasureful life no matter their position in society. Did we get this right?

I was reminded by the guidelines here to avoid argumentation regarding virtues, political positions, etc. It's a tough standard, but one that is essential if a group ever expects to engage in an enlightened conversation with the intent of understanding philosophy.

Looking forward to using more of the material from this site for future discussions. Thanks again for putting so much work into this valuable resource.

Don, what a remarkable piece of work you have accomplished. Your explanation of the problems concerning translation bring into focus for me a more contemporary work of literature, Arthur Rimbaud's poetry. Originally written in French, his poems lose their power when one stumbles through them in English despite the best efforts of the translator (Wallace Fowlie). Your passion for embracing the original Greek reminds me that in order to truly understand the ancient wisdom available to us, one must dive into the original.

This is a fabulous podcast and post discussion. It helps put into context what happiness is. Thank you. I'll be playing this podcast for our philosophy group next Thursday.

Thanks everyone for the welcoming notes. What a supportive place here. Don, I'll definitely check out Austin's Living for Pleasure. Yes, love that mosaic! And thanks for the reading/viewing suggestions, Kalosyni.

Hello Fellow Iconoclastic Thinkers (the name of our monthly philosophy group established about a year ago). Feeling a deep hole in my heart for lack of a proper education in philosophy (I graduated from the University of California WITHOUT taking a philosophy course), I established our little philosophy group to help me and others fill the need for a truly comprehensive understanding of the world. I learned of Epicurus only recently after one of our sessions. I am especially impressed how Epicurus fills the voids left by the Stoics. I'm looking forward to the adventure here.

Edit: I just ordered a hardback copy of Dewitt's “Epicurus and His Philosophy” from Abe Books, the online used book store. Excited to read it as I have several other books I'm currently reading on Epicurus. I found this forum during a web search.