The Epicurean Viewpoint
Now I ask you: what is the “Epicurean Viewpoint”?
- It is the view that we gain from looking through the Canon of Epicurus.
- If our viewpoint was gained through the Platonic Dialectic, it would have been a Platonic view.
- And if our viewpoint came through the use of Dialectical Materialism, it would be a Marxist view.
And now, where will we look to gain this Epicurean viewpoint?
- I suggest we take it straight from Epicurus himself.
But there are many
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A Neighbor And His Dog
I have a story to tell you about a neighbor and his dog, but first I would like to share with you some thoughts on Epicurean Doctrine 40: “As many as possess the power to procure complete security from their neighbors, these also live most pleasantly with one another, since they have the most certain pledge of guarantee, and after they have enjoyed the fullest intimacy, they do not lament the previous departure of a dead friend, as though he were to be
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I think it's important that we begin to present Epicurean philosophy through podcasts and other audio-video means, so as a test I put together this basic Youtube presentation. I haven't edited the sound and this includes all the unprofessional "uhs" that come with someone who has no podcasting experience. Despite that, however, I think this presentation might be useful, so I am making it available here. The slide presentation itself can be found and downloaded at
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Understanding Epicurus takes considerable effort, but not because the doctrines are difficult - they're not! The problem is that Epicurean philosophy has been heavily criticized for more than two thousand years, and most of the articles and commentary that have been produced over that time are by people who are critical of it and have no desire to present the philosophy clearly and fully. The only book-length work that even attempts to do so is Norman DeWitt's "Epicurus and His
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One of the abilities of the EpicureanFriends.com forum software is that it handles the publishing of longer "Articles" that can then be tagged and featured for various uses around the site, such as on the home page, where they will receive greater attention than standard Forum posts. This feature is intended to be reserved for articles of a longer and more enduring significance than regular forum posts, such as those featured at present, which focus on significant academic articles.
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This chart is a 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
My title for this article may be melodramatic for effect, but it is essentially the theme of Boris Nikolsky's article "Epicurus On Pleasure" available here in our Files Section. The effect I am hoping for is only this: that all fans of Epicurus who want to understand the meaning of the term "ataraxia" read this article in full. The article is thorough and well-documented, and in turn it is based on the even more though "The Greeks on Pleasure" by Gosling & Taylor. I hope I have now
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“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
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With the assistance of input from the Facebook group, I have been working on a list of basic “attitude” or “life premise” divergences that separate Epicurean v Stoic views.
I have made liberal use of “scare quotes” to reference controversies, and I refer my stoic friends to the chart at the end of the post for references. With that caveat, here is the list
…You have been deceived.
If you are hearing these words in the early years of the twenty-first century, then you have already wasted much of your life dealing with nonsense.
If you are surrounded by people who are called “religious,” then you have wasted your time dealing with people who claim that a god created the universe; that a god determined the course of your life before you were born; that a god will tell you what to do while you are alive, and that a god will punish or reward you
…In
a recent conversation to the Garden of Thessaloniki, a question was raised
whether the Epicureans could participate as a party to the political scene of
the Country. The friend George Kaplanis replied that this could not be done,
because Epicurean philosophy is not an ideology, and as a philosophy is or
should be in the background of politics, in the same way that philosophy,
although not a science, is in the background of all sciences.
If philosophy provides science with the method of
…The purpose of this proposition is a brief introduction to the Canon of Epicurus that will help us to use it in our everyday life. There are, of course, studies on logical issues, which are very advanced and are based on studies of brain function, mathematical formulas etc. These are extremely important issues, but we, who do not study Logic in universities, should have help in our everyday life on this field.
When we were at school, we used to call as Canon the ruler that helped us to draw a
…For the 6th Panhellenic Symposium of Epicurean Philosophy that was held by the Epicurean Gardens of Athens and Thessaloniki, February 2018
1. (OPENING - TWO MINUTES VIDEO WITH FAVORITE MELODIES)
I wonder how one starts up an online communication and how he can introduce himself...
You Tarzan, me Jane ! Primitive stuff…
You an American, me an Hellene ! Nationalities, countries, races, origins, roots ... tangle!
You Cassius, me Elli. OK, some nicknames or names… so what ??
How do you do
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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
…Hi to all the epicurean friends ,
To a Greek website called as "psychology now. gr" I found an interesting article that I translated into english.
Since 2012 Nordic countries have been ranked steadily as the happiest countries in the world, and there are not just a few times when other countries are often look to them for guidance when it comes to nurturing the well-being of their people. But are the Scandinavians the happier people indeed?
A recent study overturns what we have known till
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