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    2. Episode 347 - EATAQ29 - Not Yet Recorded

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    2. Welcome Andy! 2

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    2. Overview of Epicurean Philosophy - Quick Visual 6

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    2. Episode 346 - EATAQ28 - Epicurean Defense Of The Senses Against Plato's Cave Analogy 2

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    2. The Kharites (Charites) or Graces

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    2. Discussion Of The Article: "The Completeness Argument, Cicero's Knowledge Of It, And The Epicurean Response"

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    2. Complexity, Contradictions, and "Testing Out" Epicurean Philosophy 3

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    2. Welcome EpicuriousDavid! 10

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    2. Desires necessary for Happiness. 6

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    2. Episode 345 - EATAQ27 - We Can't Find True and Complete Happiness Unless We Have Knowledge Of What True and Complete Happiness Is 2

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    2. Happiness Happens Month

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    2. Hermarchus project 2

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    2. Heads up: New Book Coming in 2027 3

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    2. Modern cosmologists and theoretical physicists who think the universe is spatially infinite 1

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    2. "Healthy Hedonism - Why Feeling Good Is Good For You" - Book By Erica Oberg 7

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    2. Opening Discussion of Kelly Arenson's "Health And Hedonism In Plato And Epicurus" 16

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    Three Key Aspects of Epicurean Philosophy

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  • Keeping it Fun - Epicurus vs His Philosophical Opponents

    Keeping it Fun - Epicurus vs His Philosophical Opponents

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Recent Articles (All Articles Sorted By Date)

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The Completeness Argument, Cicero's Knowledge Of It, And The Epicurean Response

COMPLETENESS.jpg

The Completeness Argument

One of the oldest objections to placing the highest good in anything other than virtue runs like this: the good must be complete — whole, finished, lacking nothing — and cannot be a process, a becoming, or anything that admits of growth or degree. A thing that is still developing toward some end is not yet that end; it is only on the way to it. Plato gives this argument its classic statement, distinguishing genesis (becoming, a process aimed at…
Cassius
August 7, 2026 at 10:17 AM

Questions? Ask The Epicureans

We recognize that not everyone who visits our page is ready, willing, or able to register a full account at EpicureanFriends.

For those who would prefer to submit questions to us by email, we've set up a "Question Line" at Questions@epicureanfriends.com .

Send us an email with your question, and if we find it to be of general interest we'll set up a thread and our participants here can discuss what they think might be the best answers to your topic.

We can't promise to respond to each one, but if…
Cassius
April 16, 2026 at 7:07 AM
Like 1

25 Mind Viruses Cured By Epicurean Philosophy

View on substack here.

Throughout history, philosophers, priests, and political authorities have promoted ideas about life, reality, and human nature that sound profound but are in fact deeply mistaken — and whose effect, whether intended or not, is to make ordinary people feel guilty, fearful, and dependent on outside authorities for guidance. These ideas spread from generation to generation the way a virus spreads through a population: not because they are true, but because they are…
Cassius
April 10, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Thanks 1

Major Doctrines Of Classical Epicurean Philosophy

This page presents a summary of Classical Epicurean Philosophy . For additional citations to Epicurean texts, click here.


Nothing Comes From Nothing Or Goes To Nothing Supernaturally

Working solely with the science available two thousand years ago, Epicurus observed that nothing ever arises from nothing, and nothing is ever completely destroyed to nothing. From this Epicurus deduced the existence of atoms - elemental particles moving through empty space from which over time all things are made…
Cassius
May 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Like 1

A Gate To Be Burst: "Absence of Pain"

It is interesting to think about what Lucretius had in mind in Book One of “On The Nature of Things” when he spoke about Epicurus "yearning to be the first to burst through the close-set bolts upon the gates of nature." What kind of gates was he talking about? Who bolted them? How do those gates keep us from Nature?

I can't be sure which gates Lucretius had in mind, but I can suggest one "gate" that is particularly in need of bursting, as it stands directly in the way of a better understanding…
Cassius
February 12, 2024 at 1:26 PM
1

Recent Files From the EpicureanFriends.com Filebase

  1. Life And Works Of Hermarchus of Mytilene

    • Cassius
    • July 31, 2026 at 12:39 PM
    New This is the second installment of the Co-founders of the Garden project. Unfortunately, it is also the last one since there's not enough transmitted material about Polyaenus of Lampsacus to create a similar compilation about him.
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  2. The Life And Works of Metrodorus of Lampsacus

    • Cassius
    • July 21, 2026 at 9:49 PM
    New Tau Phi's Collection of the Works of Metrodorus.
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  3. LeGrande - The Divine Epicurus

    • Cassius
    • June 5, 2026 at 6:03 AM
    Digital transcription by Tau Phi
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  4. No Politics*

    • Eikadistes
    • May 18, 2026 at 6:25 PM
    "Epíkouros did not ban slavery, but he did free slaves. He did not reform jail, but he did post bail. He did not legalize women’s choices, but he did publish female voices. He did not manage the State, but he did transfer his estate..."
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Recent Level 3 User Timeline Entries (Click Here To View All Or Post)

All Blog Entries

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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece
The Letter of Epicurus to His Mother

Diogenes of Oinoanda (fr. 125–126) – Free rendering

Mother, concerning everything that troubles you, I want you to form clear and confident thoughts. The images we…


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Elli
June 19, 2026 at 2:31 PM
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Cassius' Blog
"For this reason we call pleasure the beginning and end of the blessed life." — Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus

Is The "Emphasis" In Epicurean Philosophy On Relief From Pain?

In a separate article I have…


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Cassius
June 5, 2026 at 1:35 PM
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Cassius' Blog

Introduction: A Very Old Argument

The intelligent design argument is one of the oldest and most persistent claims in the history of human thought. In its simplest form it says: the world we observe is…


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Cassius
April 28, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Cassius' Blog

Introduction: A Story About the Sun That Is Really About Everything

In a recent scholarly essay, T.H.M. Gellar-Goad takes up one of the most ridiculed positions in the history of ancient philosophy:…


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Cassius
April 27, 2026 at 9:52 AM
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Cassius' Blog
This post is also available on Substack.

One of the deepest and most consequential divisions in the history of philosophy runs not between optimism and pessimism, or between free will and determinism,…


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Cassius
March 31, 2026 at 10:24 AM
1
Cassius' Blog

There are as many opinions about happiness as there are people. Everyone has their own idea of what happiness is or should be. Some say that we should look to religion for happiness. Others say that

…


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Cassius
December 23, 2025 at 3:49 PM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece
E.S. XXXVI (36) The life of Epicurus, when compared with that of other philosophers, seems almost legendary thanks to the calmness and self-sufficiency that distinguished him.

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In Mytilene, where…


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Elli
December 16, 2025 at 2:56 AM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece
An Analysis of a Father’s Death Sentence Against His Own Son - Torquatus and the Roman Recasting of Epicurean Philosophy.

Titus Manlius Torquatus, as portrayed in Cicero’s De Finibus, appears as a…


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Elli
November 18, 2025 at 2:34 PM
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The Uncertainty of Science and the Certainty of Faith

By Dimitris Altas, cardiologist and member of the Analysis and Experiential Application Team of Epicurean Philosophy Today [(…


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Elli
May 24, 2025 at 3:47 AM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece
"Epicurean Philosophy and the Deception of Modern Globalist Ideologues", by Elli Pensa



When you write a book and reference Epicurean philosophy as if it were nothing more than…“stones, bricks,…


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Elli
May 4, 2025 at 9:56 AM
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Cassius' Blog
It is interesting to think about what Lucretius had in mind in Book One of “On The Nature of Things” when he spoke about Epicurus "yearning to be the first to burst through the close-set bolts upon…


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Cassius
February 11, 2024 at 6:20 AM
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Cassius' Blog
Here is a listing of ten key steps of Epicurean reasoning. There is nothing magic about this grouping but it's an effort to combine a manageable set of key points with important citations supporting…


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Cassius
November 28, 2022 at 8:10 AM
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Cassius' Blog
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…


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Cassius
April 20, 2021 at 10:58 AM
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Cassius' Blog
Friends, recent discussions have prompted me to finally get around to clarifying my own take on Epicurean Philosophy, which I have named "Hedonic Pragmatics"-- a new philosophy that is still closely…


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Elayne
November 22, 2020 at 10:52 AM
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Cassius' Blog
JC:


Hi Cassius. I'm sorry to badger you about this again, but I'm still trying to get my head around the pleasure principle. From my reading, all scholars agree that Epicurus divides pleasure into…


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Cassius
September 26, 2019 at 4:06 PM
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Cassius' Blog
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…


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Elayne
July 15, 2019 at 7:31 PM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece

Epicurean Philosophy or Epicureanism?

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…


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Elli
June 16, 2019 at 8:41 AM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece

"The Canon of Epicurus In Everyday Life"

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,…


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Elli
June 16, 2019 at 8:37 AM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece

“Online Communication With Cassius”

For the 6th Panhellenic Symposium of Epicurean Philosophy that was held by the Epicurean Gardens of Athens and Thessaloniki, February 2018



1.     (OPENING - TWO…


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Elli
May 31, 2019 at 3:34 PM
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Featured
Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece

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.…


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Elli
May 17, 2019 at 4:31 PM
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Elli's Blog - Articles By Elli Pensa And Other Friends of Epicurus in Greece

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…


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Elli
April 2, 2019 at 5:54 PM
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Recent Blog Entries

Recent Lucretius Today Podcasts

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    2. Episode 347 - EATAQ29 - Not Yet Recorded

      • Cassius
      • August 14, 2026 at 6:49 PM
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    2. Episode 346 - EATAQ28 - Epicurean Defense Of The Senses Against Plato's Cave Analogy 2

      • Cassius
      • August 14, 2026 at 8:50 AM
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      235
      2

    4. Cassius

      August 14, 2026 at 8:50 AM

    2. Episode 345 - EATAQ27 - We Can't Find True and Complete Happiness Unless We Have Knowledge Of What True and Complete Happiness Is 2

      • Cassius
      • August 6, 2026 at 5:09 PM
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    4. Cassius

      August 6, 2026 at 5:09 PM

    2. Episode 344 - EATAQ26 - What Is Our Mind's Role In Determining Truth? 5

      • Cassius
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    4. Cassius

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    2. Episode 343 - EATAQ25 - In The Search For Knowledge, Is "Probable" Good Enough? 1

      • Cassius
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    4. Cassius

      July 21, 2026 at 2:32 PM

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Life At EpicureanFriends.com - Rules Of The Forum

Not Neo-Epicurean, But Epicurean
  1. Not "flourishing," "human potential," "self-actualization," or "meaningfulness," but happiness grounded in the feeling of pleasure.
  2. 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."
  3. Not virtue for the sake of virtue, but virtue as instrumental for the attainment of pleasure.
  4. Not "the greatest good for the greatest number," but "Every desire must be confronted with this question: What will happen to me if the object of my desire is accomplished and what if it is not?"
  5. Not "humanism," "transhumanism," "individualism," "collectivism," "egoism," "altruism," "social progress," "Marxism," "democracy," "tyranny," or any "one size fits all" political ideal of any kind, but social structure based on friendship which "is formed and maintained by means of a community of life among those who have reached the fullness of pleasure."
  6. Not "hard determinism," but "some things happen from necessity, some from chance, and others through our own choice."
  7. Not "supernaturalism," but "materialism."
  8. Not "supernatural gods," or "life after death," but confidence in a fully material universe and "for those men for whom wisdom is possible, such men may truly live as gods."
  9. Not only "short term hedonism," but "it is to continuous pleasures that I invite you."
  10. Not "rationalism," but "all reason is dependent upon sensations."
  11. Not fearful of death nor careless of losing life, but valuing life for the opportunity of pleasure it brings.
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Blog Entries On Ethics

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Cassius' Blog

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…


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Cassius
January 20, 2018 at 10:04 AM