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  • Don

    Post
    It seems to me two things are getting conflated here. Let me sort them out, for myself if not for anyone else.
    What is good or bad for me personally is determined by whether the action or thought elicits pleasure or pain for me, either in the short or…

  • Cassius

    Post
    At this moment on first scanning of this material I can't tell whether Aurelian's personal view is of the "ascetic" version of Epicurus, which I think most of us here will agree is incorrect history, but I can definitely tell that his level of research…

  • Cassius

    Thread
    This comes from Facebook - I hope we can encourage him to post here as well:


    I am very pleased to announce the publication of my book: Epicurus in the Underworld. Heresy, atheism and hedonism in the Middle Ages, published by Fayard, Paris (in French).…

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Twitter Users?.
    Post
    This is a rather nerdy but informative discussion of the state of the "fediverse" applications that I was reading last night: https://linuxreviews.org/Fediverse

    I gather that the technology is pretty much in place to set up independent services, even…

  • Cassius

    Thread
    [ADMIN NOTE: The first several posts here were copied from a thread about Buddhism, but they focus on the issue of death and they belong here too, as they are a good way to start the discussion of dealing with death of loved ones.]


    Let me state…

  • A_Gardner

    Replied to the thread Twitter Users?.
    Post
    (Quote from Cassius)

    I actually haven't heard of these apps, so I will have to look into them. I am always on the lookout for such methods of communication and social media options, and would be more than willing to explore them.

    I've been following the…

  • Cassius

    Post
    Well we definitely want to get this wording as accurate as possible to avoid having to backtrack immediately in an explanation.

    However, at the same time, I doubt that the subtle difference between feelings or sensation or a similar word is the most…

  • Don

    Post
    (Quote from Cassius)

    I appreciate that. I'm giving it all she's got, Captain :)

    The word in question is ἀναίσθητος anaisthētos. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/h…rior=a)naisqhte/w#lexicon
    Look like any English word? It's the basis of "anaesthesia" when we…

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Twitter Users?.
    Post
    A_Gardner do you also use Mastodon or Pleroma or any "fediverse" app? Along the lines of the original post I would like to establish beachheads in the "open source" world to be sure we are as insulated as possible from censorship. Any thoughts on any…

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Twitter Users?.
    Post
    Absolutely I would be happy for you to do so!

  • A_Gardner

    Replied to the thread Twitter Users?.
    Post
    (Quote from Cassius)

    That's definitely a start! Thank you, and I'll be following shortly. I can also retweet your content and hopefully do a little promotion that way if you're alright with that.

    Also, would you be opposed if I shared some of the…

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Twitter Users?.
    Post
    A_Gardner I have a twitter account under the name NewEpicurean, but all that ever gets posted there is a mirror of what is posted at NewEpcurean.com, which for the last year has meant nothing but the weekly dates to the Lucretius podcast.

    …

  • Cassius

    Post
    Yes Don and while I have the highest respect and gratitude for your translations, when the "classical experts" seem to agree that some kind of "feeling" or "sensation" is the better translation, we'll need to take a position on whether THEY are the ones…

  • Elayne

    Post
    How would you know what was good or bad without the feeling, though? With just sensation and no feeling of pain or pleasure? That doesn't make any sense.

  • A_Gardner

    Posted the thread Twitter Users?.
    Thread
    Good morning all!

    I'm running a Twitter account focusing on philosophy, self-improvement, and spirituality and I'm wanting to follow others with such interests.

    In looking for ideas to share and discuss (as much as a tweet allows) I've come across a…

  • Don

    Post
    Here's the Greek:
    Ὁ θάνατος οὐδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς· τὸ γὰρ διαλυθὲν ἀναισθητεῖ· τὸ δ’ ἀναισθητοῦν οὐδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς.
    Ὁ θάνατος οὐδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς· literally "Death is nothing for us."
    διαλυθὲν - passive aorist of διαλυω 2. to dissolve into its elements, to break up
    …

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread One year?.
    Post
    Wow the time does fly! Thank you for all your contributions Don - seems like you and several others all got active at nearly the same time, and the last year or so has been one of our most productive periods. If you could just find a way to replicate…

  • Cassius

    Post
    That is a very good point Elayne and something that needs to be considered, especially when writing an explanation of the point. In stating the four in most succinct form, however, I think it is important to stay a closely as possible to the wording of…

  • Elayne

    Post
    Well, considering we are not equating sensation with feelings, wouldn't it be more accurate to say all good and evil consist of individual feelings? Vs the senses, which are not the value-assigning functions? With "individual" as a reminder that nothing…

  • Don

    Posted the thread One year?.
    Thread
    I see it was a year ago today that I joined the forum. So, 799 posts later, it appears time certainly flies! On this day, I want to express my gratitude for @Cassius's efforts in maintaining this platform, and to all my Epicurean Friends for pleasurable…

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Epicurus vs the Cyreniacs.
    Post
    "For our nature [wants what] is better for our soul. Moreover, the soul is manifestly more [powerful] than the body; for it [has] control of the extreme and supremacy over the other [feelings], as indeed we revealed it [above.] [So if], through paying…

  • Cassius

    Thread
    FourStatements2black.pngThe purpose of this thread will be to accumulate text citations in support of four key assertions of Epicurean philosophy. This first post will contain a table of the assertions with passages from the texts supporting each…

  • Cassius

    Post
    To avoid sidetracking this thread, I am going to start a new thread to document text citations that support each of these four assertions:

    1 - No supernatural gods
    2 - No life after death
    3 - Pleasure as the goal or beginning and end of blessed life
    4.…

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Alt-tech outreach.
    Post
    I don't want to get this thread off the track of its focus on expansion of Epicurean activity on other internet platforms. However I want to insert this pointer to another thread that will discuss something I think is important to any such effort,…

  • Cassius

    Post
    Three years after starting this thread my current thought is that a critical component of any local group or online initiative is going to be keeping the focus on just a couple of core unifying ideas and working hard to keep political division and…

  • michelepinto

    Replied to the thread Epicurean Food Trivia - Garum?.
    Post
    (Quote from Cassius)

    No, we do not use it.

  • JJElbert

    Replied to the thread Epicurean Food Trivia - Garum?.
    Post
    Although it occurs to me now that I haven't even taken Lucretius into account. 🤔

  • JJElbert

    Replied to the thread Epicurean Food Trivia - Garum?.
    Post
    Since we're on the subject, I did recently have a conversation with a young man from Texas who tells me that cow udders are a delicacy in those parts. With a decent bottle of red, one, though of modest means, might nevertheless dine like an aristocrat.
    …

  • Cassius

    Replied to the thread Epicurean Food Trivia - Garum?.
    Post
    Thank you Michele - is this kind of thing still regularly used in Italy?

  • michelepinto

    Replied to the thread Epicurean Food Trivia - Garum?.
    Post
    Here your garum:
    https://www.amazon.it/Sicilia-…rum&qid=1614202830&sr=8-2
    But garum was roman not greek

Key Discussions Table

Physics: Canonics: Ethics:
Materiality:  Ultimate Particles and Void
 The Three Components of The Epicurean Canon Pleasure As the Highest Good
Epicurean Gods And Life Elsewhere In The Universe
 Epicurean Logic And Reason Virtue As Instrumental To Pleasure
The Impossibility of Life After Death
 The Trustworthiness of the Senses The Relationship of Pleasure To Absence of Pain And Disturbance
The Existence of "the Swerve"
 Knowledge And Truth Emotion In Epicurean Philosophy
The Universe As Eternal In Time
 The Significance of "Images" Engagement With The Non-Epicurean World
The Universe As Infinite In Space
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

Recent Articles From Our EpicureanFriends Blogs

Elayne's Articles
A New Personal Philosophy: Hedonic Pragmatics
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 connected to Epicurean Philosophy. I think what I've said would be fully supported by Epicurus, but I can't prove that. The major point of difference is that I have moved prolepses out of the Canon and into a group of processing functions of the brain.

I needed to lay out the fundamentals in my…


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Elayne
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Articles Topics of General Interest
Parsing The Wikipedia Introduction To Epicurus As Of February 6, 2020
Below is the Wikipedia introduction to Epicurus as of 02/06/20. I will highlight in red, and add a footnote to each statement which I contend is in serious need of correction or amplification.

(Quote)

[1] Calling Epicurus a "sage" adds nothing, but injects confusion, suggesting that this term denotes some status that is important the reader should know about in this context, which is not correct.

[2] Eating simple means and discussing a wide variety of philosophical subject is what they were…


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Cassius
Love 2
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Featured
Articles On Canonics
"Challenging Ataraxia" - By Haris Dimitriadis
Selection_999(871).jpg
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
…


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Cassius