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Epicurus

Welcome to our Online Community of Epicureans, where we study Epicurus, apply Epicurean philosophy to our own lives, and "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."


Our website is primarily a discussion forum where students of Epicurean philosophy communicate among themselves. Most pages are organized around specific topics, in addition to which we have an ever-increasing number of graphics, files, and other resources to assist you in your study. All are welcome to read the forums and apply for membership, but only friends of Epicurean Philosophy in accord with our Not Neo-Epicurean, But Epicurean and our Posting Policy statements are granted full posting privileges.


There are many places on the internet whether other philosophies can be studied, but few if any which are dedicated exclusively to the Epicurus. We work hard to keep the forum both friendly to all but also firmly Epicurean, so if you are looking for a truly supportive community of Epicurean Friends, you've come to the right place. For an audio sample of the friendly and supportive atmosphere we try to cultivate, check out one of our recent Lucretius Today podcasts.


Usage Tips: As you scroll down this page you will see a taste of each of our major sections: We have a TimeLine where people can post short Facebook-like comments, a Forum section where the deeper philosophic discussions take place, a Gallery of our recent graphics, an Articles section for our longer presentations, and a Documents section of our recommended files. The best way to keep track of new posts is to Register for an account, which will allow the site to notify you of new material and also allow you to subscribe to email updates. We also recommend our New User Page for a brief introduction to Epicurus and the purpose of our forum. For regular users we have optimized the Dashboard as the place to bookmark for the most efficient return visits. New and regular users alike may enjoy taking one of our Quizzes about Epicurean Philosophy.


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    2. Herculaneum documentary 1

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    2. Vice article on Stoicism (mentions Epicurus) 2

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    2. Third Annual Epicurean Festival Coming Up In Italy 2

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    2. How Blessed and Imperishable Are Used in the Bible 8

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    2. In Our Time: Epicureanism (BBC) 7

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    2. Episode Ten - The Void And Its Nature 4

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    2. Episode Twelve - Nothing But Combinations Of Matter And Void 7

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    2. The "Non-Aggression Principle" And Its Relationship To Epicurean Philosophy 10

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    2. Memmius and Lucretius

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Table of Key Discussions
Physics: Canonics: Ethics:
Materiality:  All Things Are Composed Of Ultimate Particles and Void
 Epicurean Methods of Reasoning And Determining Truth
 Pleasure As the Highest Good
Epicurean Gods And Life Elsewhere In The Universe
 (1) The Five Senses
 Virtue As Instrumental To Pleasure
The Impossibility of Life After Death
 (2) The Feelings of Pleasure and Pain
 The Relationship of Pleasure To Absence of Pain And Disturbance
The Existence of "the Swerve"
 (3) The Anticipations / Preconceptions
 Emotion In Epicurean Philosophy
The Universe As Eternal In Time
 The Trustworthiness of the Senses
 Engagement With The Non-Epicurean World
The Universe As Infinite In Space
 The Significance of "Images"
 Agency / Free Will
The Universe As Having No Center
Friendship in Epicurean Philosophy
The Impossibility of Infinite Divisibility
 Justice in Epicurean Philosophy

Dealing With Adversity
Featured Images From Our Gallery
  • Not Neo-Epicurean, But Epicurean

    Not Neo-Epicurean, But Epicurean

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  • Autun mosaic from The House of the Greek Authors, Musée Rolin

    Autun mosaic from The House of the Greek Authors, Musée Rolin

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  • On Living Unknown While Locating Your School In A High Traffic Area

    On Living Unknown While Locating Your School In A High Traffic Area

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  • Epicurus Greece Stamp 2019

    Epicurus Greece Stamp 2019

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  • Death Is Nothing To Us

    Death Is Nothing To Us

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  • Plato's Metaphysical Contradiction

    Plato's Metaphysical Contradiction

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  • Epicurus Skipping Mysticism

    Epicurus Skipping Mysticism

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  • Plato's Distracted Boyfriend

    Plato's Distracted Boyfriend

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  • Concepts As Black As Hell

    Concepts As Black As Hell

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  • PD9 - Just As All Colors Are Colorful

    PD9 - Just As All Colors Are Colorful

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  • Principal Doctrine Six

    Principal Doctrine Six

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  • PD3 - The Fullness of Pleasure Model

    PD3 - The Fullness of Pleasure Model

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Featured Content From Our Articles
Featured
Articles Of General Interest
Epicurus Answers Four of the Great Questions of Human Life
Several conversations lately have led me to want to produce a new article on what I would contend are some of the most important take-aways from the teachings of Epicurus. These are the points with which I would start if I were talking about Epicurus today with someone new. I prepared this for distribution at Twitter and similar places, and the link best formatted sharing is at EpicurusMagazine.com.

Epicurus Answers Four of the Great Questions of Human Life


Many people know a little about…


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Cassius
Thanks 1
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Featured
Articles On Canonics
"Challenging Ataraxia" - By Haris Dimitriadis
Haris Dimitriadis is author of “The Pleasant Life – The Philosophy of Epicurus.” Born in Greece, Haris studied Mathematics at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki as well as Economics at the London School of Economics. His career spanned the business and banking industries and has settled into retirement. Through climbing the corporate ladder he found it brought little peace of mind and turned his attention to the philosophy of Epicurus. Haris can be contacted through his website
…


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Cassius
Featured
Articles On Canonics
Caricatures to the Left of Them, Caricatures to the Right of Them, Caricatures In Front of Them, Volleyed and Thundered

As much as Epicurus advised against devoting life to politics, it appears that the politicians cannot return the favor and leave Epicurus alone. On both left and right, partisans of every cause except that of Epicurus himself feel compelled to enlist Epicurus as a saint or a demon, for or against their own preferred political position. The result can leave us feeling like Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade, facing volleys not of cannons but of false accusations against Epicurus from left,…


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Cassius
Love 3
Featured
Elli's Articles
On the Ill Health of Epicurus vs The Insanity of the Modern World (In The Pandemic Of Coronavirus).
From Diogenes Laertius, Book 10 (The Biography of Epicurus), we read something that may lead us again to revisit the matter of the apparent chronic ill health of Epicurus, and how the great philosopher confronted and dealt with serious bodily health issues.

Here is the excerpt by Diogenes Laertius: “Timocrates, the brother of Metrodorus, in his treatise entitled the Merry Guests, and this Timocrates had been a disciple in his school, though he afterwards abandoned it; and he says that he…


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elli
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Featured
Articles On Ethics
Michele Pinto: "Friendship: A Natural And Necessary Desire"

Inspired by the considerations on the Epicurean friendship of Phillp Mithis in the book "The Ethical Theory of Epicurus - The pleasures of Invulnerability," I want to summarize the thought of Epicurus on friendship, trying to use his own words as much as possible, and adding mine where necessary. I am indebted to Carlo Diano because his thematic collection of Epicurus's maxims was essential. The first Epicurean festival, whose general theme was about friendship, was also very useful. I thank

…


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Cassius
Love 2
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Featured
Articles Of General Interest
Political Division In The Promotion of Epicurean Philosophy: A Prescription For Disaster
[Cassius: I write the following article clearly stating that it is my own personal opinion, without representation that it is or should be "the Epicurean position." I do not believe that I or anyone else has the ability to say what political positions every person applying Epicurean principles will take, and indeed that is the point of this article. I am writing this mainly to those of us who consider ourselves to be actively promoting Epicurean philosophy. I believe strongly that everyone,…


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Cassius
Love 1
Featured
Articles Of General Interest
Not Neo-Epicurean, But Epicurean

The following is a short summary of principles which are important for understanding Epicurus and participating in discussion at the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook Group. It is not intended to address all aspects of Epicurean philosophy. As time allows we will supplement the citations below with more citations and explanatory articles.

1. Not “flourishing,” “human potential,” “self-actualization,” or “meaningfulness,” but happiness grounded in the feeling of pleasure.

2. Not "absence of pain" as a…


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Cassius
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Elayne's Articles
On Pain, Pleasure, and Happiness

Not "absence of pain" as a full statement of the goal of life, but “the Feelings are two, pleasure and pain” and “Pleasure is the beginning and the end of a happy life.”




Brief: The feelings are only two, pleasure and pain—there is no third state such as neutral, and there are no “fancy pleasures” which are different from regular pleasures. Because there is no neutral, reducing pain in life is only possible if there is a corresponding increase in pleasure. The extent of pleasure can…


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Elayne
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Featured
Elli's Articles
"Free Will In Epicurean Philosophy" - by Dimitris Liarmakopoulos

PREFACE 1.

We often confuse the issue of the possibility of free will exercising with the issue of its existence. When we are unable to exercise it we say with sloppiness that it does not exist. This "I want but I can’t or I don’t want but I am forced" puts into testing our individual self-esteem. But any coercion and enforcement exists precisely because there is free will and some of the people have the power to exercise it, usually at the expense of the others.

We have extreme and…


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elli
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Featured
Elli's Articles
We And The Stoics Today - Or: “To Those from the Stoa”

WE AND THE STOICS TODAY, or “To Those from the Stoa”

by Dimitris Liarmakopoulos, member of the Epicurean Garden in Thessaloniki
27.11.2015



A proposition about Stoicism on an Epicurean website causes at least reasonable questions. At a minimum, when an informal agreement in the Garden is in place, and silently applied to the eight years of its progress, we should not make propositions about the rival philosophical schools, but only sporadic references to the need of epicureans’ better…


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elli
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Featured
Articles On Ethics
A Comparison Chart: Stoic vs. Epicurean Philosophy

This chart comparing the major features of Stoicism vs Epicurean philosophy is a continuing work in progress! It is currently hosted at a Google Docs page to make editing easier. Feel free to make comments and suggestions in the Forum thread associated with this article. Click on this link to go to the chart: Reference: Comparison Chart of Epicurean and Stoic Views


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Cassius
Featured
Articles On Ethics
The Full Cup / Fullness of Pleasure Model

“It is observed too that in his treatise On the Ethical End he writes in these terms : “I know not how to conceive the good, apart from the pleasures of taste, of sex, of sound, and the pleasures of beautiful form.”
– Diogenes Laertius, Book X


There are many challenges in interpreting Epicurean philosophy relate to the proper interpretation of Epicurus’ view of pleasure as the goal of life. When Epicureans used the term “pleasure,” did they mean “pleasure” as ordinary people define…


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Cassius
Featured Files From Our Documents
  1. Featured

    Wenham - On Cicero's Interpretation of Katastematic Pleasure in Epicurus

    • Cassius
    Every so often I like to remind people of two particularly important articles in our "files" section here.
    • 22 Downloads
    • 0 Comments
  2. Featured

    Nikolsky - Epicurus On Pleasure

    • Cassius
    One of the most important articles on this site: Boris Nikolsky Details Why The Kinetic/Katestematic Distinction Is Not Epicurean
    • 35 Downloads
    • 3 Comments
  3. Featured

    Riley - The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates

    • Cassius
    Details of the Epicurean Criticism of Socrates for his character and method of teaching.
    • 8 Downloads
    • 3 Comments
  4. Featured

    Major Characteristics of the Epicurean View of Life

    • Cassius
    This is a list of major characteristics of the Epicurean view of life.
    • 44 Downloads
    • 0 Comments
  5. Featured

    Application of the Fundamentals of Nature

    • Cassius
    This is number two in a series of handouts on the Fundamentals of Nature and Key Doctrines.
    • 23 Downloads
    • 0 Comments
  6. Featured

    "Organization and Procedure in Epicurean Groups" - Norman DeWitt - 1936

    • Cassius
    DeWitt's summary of what is known about organization and procedure in ancient Epicurean Groups as published in the July 1936 edition of Classical Philology.
    • 29 Downloads
    • 1 Comment
Featured MultiMedia

Foundations of Epicurean Philosophy

For a detailed summary of Epicurean Philosophy assembled from the passages of the ancient texts, see the video below. The text of this narrative is available at the wiki here.


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Nate's Allegory of the Oasis

Read about Nate's "Allegory of the Oasis" graphic and make suggestions or comments here.