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Martin
PostApril 15, 2026 at 6:36 AM Here are my answers to Cassius' questions:
Gravity is one of four fundamental forces which can be considered as independent and their own entities in easy-to-understand models. There is a unified theory for the other three forces. Moreover, there are… -
wbernys
April 15, 2026 at 1:29 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Aeneadum!.Post[…]
Nope, sorry. My father has quit cigarettes after a long time though. I think the first tenet that we are powerless over out addiction would be completely rejected and is actually harmful. Recognizing that we do have power over our lives is… -
wbernys
PostApril 15, 2026 at 1:08 AM Reviews like this are why i don't bother reading anything critical of Epicurus anymore, NOT because i think their CANNOT be good criticisms of Epicurus, but because they always state something that is direct opposite of what he says in his doctrines… -
Aeneadum
April 14, 2026 at 10:39 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Aeneadum!.PostHas any one here used Epicurus as their Higher Power in a 12 step setting, or know of anyone who has?
(I would hope no one simply points out that the Tetrapharmakon contradicts the many mentions of a God in the 12 Steps. In practice, many atheists apply… -
Godfrey
April 14, 2026 at 10:00 PM Replied to the thread Emily Austin's "LIving For Pleasure" Wins Award. (H/T to Lowri for finding this!).PostDoes this apply to widowers, too?
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Cassius
April 14, 2026 at 9:07 PM Replied to the thread Emily Austin's "LIving For Pleasure" Wins Award. (H/T to Lowri for finding this!).PostFor some reason this following verse escaped my attention til now and I thought i would drop it here:
I guess we better be careful about recommending Emily Austin's book to widows!1 Timothy 5-6: But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she
… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 8:08 PM As we continue to discuss some of these issues I want to restate what I think are ultimate issues in Epicurean physics from which no retreat makes sense:
The first issue is whether matter is INFINITELY divisible. Epicurus says no in part because of the… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 5:50 PM There is also this that Klavan has written on Epicurus:
https://antigonejournal.com/2025/05/epicureanism-then-and-now/
And here is how Claude summarizes his views:
Here is a detailed account of Spencer Klavan's evaluation of Epicurean philosophy, drawn from… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 5:47 PM Eikadistes apparently the preface contains commentary - not sure about other parts. In the podcast I linked he's very clear about his evaluation, but I'm not sure how much of that is actually in the book. Sounds like he's written other books that also… -
Eikadistes
PostApril 14, 2026 at 5:34 PM It looks like its primarily a compilation of Epicurean core texts and related texts. (It looks like the editor had a similar intention in mind as did I with The Hedonicon). Klavan also includes a few interesting selections of Newton, Hume, Adams,… -
Cassius
April 14, 2026 at 4:51 PM Replied to the thread Welcome BrandenOz!.PostBranden thanks again for bringing the Klavan book to my attention. This is worth it's own thread so I have split those comments out here:
Klavan's "Gateway To Epicureanism" (Note: The Title Is Part Of A "Gateway" Series - The Author Himself Is Strongly… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 4:50 PM Thanks again Brandon. I just finished listening to the podcast linked below in which Klavan was interviewed about this book. Worth mentioning first is that Klavan thinks that Epicureanism is something he would like to "demolish" and "eradicate." (Most of… -
Brandenoz
PostApril 14, 2026 at 2:32 PM Klavan ended the preface of the book somewhat on a negative tone towards Epicureanism, I felt, but otherwise made a great case for the physics-based approach and on how 'We are all Epicureans Now' in many ways. The reason I wanted to read it is because… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 1:52 PM This is very timely so thank you again for the book reference. I am working on two articles now and I am going to at least briefly review this so I can address some of what apparently appears here.
I see that Klavan appeared on a podcast last year… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 1:26 PM I see this about that book at Barnes and Noble (underline added)
In this convenient volume, the classicist Spencer A. Klavan presents core selections from Epicurus’ own writings and those of his most famous ancient disciple, the poet Lucretius. Listen… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 1:17 PM Hmmm that is interesting. Never heard of that and see that it is new... From Regnery the "conservative" publisher who also published Josh Hawleys book attacking Epicurus. And I am not familiar with Spencer Klavan either....
Was the book mostly positive… -
Brandenoz
PostApril 14, 2026 at 1:02 PM Hello, and thanks for having me. I especially was drawn into the graphic on the home page showing Epicurean physics + canonics = ethics. A book I was reading structured Epicurean ethics in that same way and I thought that made a lot of sense. The book… -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 12:38 PM Excellent questions Patrikios. Thanks for asking them and it seems to me thought experiment is a useful way to approach the problem.
It's possible "modern physics" might have one answer, but even if it's different -- and I'm not sure it would be -- it… -
Cassius
April 14, 2026 at 12:34 PM Replied to the thread Welcome BrandenOz!.PostWelcome Branden - You path here from Stoicism is not a lot different from my own, though I preferred Cicero to Seneca. As to the Buddhist question we have several here who know much more about that than I do, so I'll let them chime in.
Glad to have you… -
Cassius
April 14, 2026 at 12:33 PM Replied to the thread Welcome BrandenOz!.PostBrandenOz tells us:
Hi Cassius,
I got into philosophy through Ryan Holiday's lighter works on Stoicism. Then from there, I read the three Roman Stoics he talks about, Marcus, Epictetus, and Seneca. I knew right away that I liked Seneca and through his… -
Cassius
April 14, 2026 at 12:31 PM Posted the thread Welcome BrandenOz!.ThreadWelcome Brandenoz
There is one last step to complete your registration:
All new registrants must post a response to this message here in this welcome thread (we do this in order to minimize spam registrations).
You must post your response within 24… -
Patrikios
PostApril 14, 2026 at 12:08 PM -
Cassius
PostApril 14, 2026 at 4:33 AM Martin what is the understanding of gravity today?
Is it held to exist independently as its own entity separate from all other things?
Is gravity itself "uncaused"?
Given that it appears to take a moon-sized or planet-sized body to generate much gravity, I… -
Martin
PostApril 14, 2026 at 2:26 AM Today's meaning of "weight" is indeed a poor fit. The modern term "inertial mass" seems to be accurate for βάρους in the context of Epicurean atoms moving with constant speed. There was no proper understanding of gravity in ancient times, but… -
Cassius
April 13, 2026 at 8:42 PM Replied to the thread Q & A with "A Few Days in Athens" research article author.PostI'll talk to the others and look into that. Thanks -
Patrikios
April 13, 2026 at 6:45 PM Replied to the thread What would Epicurus have thought of going to the moon?.Post[…]
Epicurus taught us to study Nature, day & night. How else can a human on earth study the nature of the moon, without going there in order to verify the assumptions made from the observations of our senses here on earth.
In his Letter to Pythocles,… -
Patrikios
April 13, 2026 at 6:19 PM Replied to the thread Q & A with "A Few Days in Athens" research article author.Post -
Patrikios
April 13, 2026 at 6:04 PM Replied to the thread Discussion of Blog Article - "Reality Does Not Require Being Eternally The Same".Post[…]
[…]
TauPhi , I do appreciate the interactive dialog on this thread topic, especially some of your thoughtful questions. I think you greatly underestimate the breadth & depth of these mind viruses; especially in the current USA. Unfortunately, I do… -
Cassius
PostApril 13, 2026 at 4:38 PM Good thoughts Bryan. I would not want to use a word not closely related to something actually used.
Do you have any thoughts on the Greek or Latin words used in any of the places you have seen this discussed? I don't gather that "weight" is a direct… -
Bryan
PostApril 13, 2026 at 3:30 PM I think the English word "weight" works. We know what it means, it is the heaviness in an object.
If certain trends in modern science do not use words in their normal and correct sense, I'd say that is their problem!
Just like we do not throw out "god" or… -
Cassius
PostApril 13, 2026 at 2:24 PM And solving the problem of terminology doesn't require that we wait for some kind of explicit physics rechnology explanation, any more than Epicurus waiting before taking about uncuttable atoms or the swerve. The issue is that the atoms possess within… -
Cassius
PostApril 13, 2026 at 10:06 AM Yes I presume Goodwin is struggling with the same issue we are discussing. Epicurus is apparently using the word to designate a capacity for self-generated motion (as in the swerve) and in English "weight" does not give us that self-moving capacity. We… -
Eikadistes
PostApril 13, 2026 at 9:47 AM I don't love the following description by Pseudo-Ploútarkhos, but as is translated by Goodwin, it presents "burden" (usually translated as "weight" or "mass") as "gravity:
[…]
I don't know if that's accurate about Dēmókritos because Pseudo-P. was writing… -
Cassius
April 13, 2026 at 6:57 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Aeneadum!.PostAenaedum tells us:
I have an undergraduate degree in Classics, with a focus on Horace and Lucretius, and a Masters in Comp Lit, with work on Montaigne and ataraxia. I've self-identified as a follower of Epicurus for many years, so I'm interested to learn… -
Cassius
April 13, 2026 at 6:56 AM Posted the thread Welcome Aeneadum!.ThreadWelcome Aeneadum !
There is one last step to complete your registration:
All new registrants must post a response to this message here in this welcome thread (we do this in order to minimize spam registrations).
You must post your response within 24… -
Cassius
April 12, 2026 at 8:19 PM Replied to the thread Welcome M Dango.PostNote - I moved posts from wbernys and eikadistes to the subforum for PD06 as they are very useful there and can be found there more easily in the future. -
Cassius
PostApril 12, 2026 at 8:14 PM Good thoughts as to the correspondence, Eikadistes. I haven't got much to go on yet but I think there's a bright line and that Epicurus would require that "weight" not imply that this particular cause of the motion of atoms is operating only because of… -
Eikadistes
PostApril 12, 2026 at 5:53 PM I've been wondering lately if there might be an innate correspondence between the three qualities and the atomic motions, being falling, recoiling (10.44), and swerving. Epíkouros writes to Hēródotos that the βάρους (bárous) "burden" (so I'm translating… -
Eikadistes
PostApril 12, 2026 at 5:38 PM […]
That's really perceptive, and I appreciate you noting that one, in particular, because of all of the Doctrines, I find 6 to be unquestionably the most mis-translated, due to the language. You're right, it does need an update, though I caution that… -
Cassius
PostApril 12, 2026 at 4:56 PM Thanks Joshua. So clearly the word being used is "weight." It seems possible however that that does not end the inquiry because it's potentially not clear what is meant by weight.
Today (i gather) we are using weight as something that is attracted… -
Joshua
PostApril 12, 2026 at 4:26 PM […] -
wbernys
PostApril 12, 2026 at 2:27 PM […]
Certainly would be awesome. I mainly want Torquatus (And Velleius) speech included and some of the english to be more clear and a little less archaic (PD6 in hedonicon is a example where i struggled to understand it). Got the best of Epicurus by… -
Cassius
April 12, 2026 at 2:26 PM Posted the thread General Analysis of Risk Aversion.ThreadIn a nearby thread we have discussed the analysis of space travel from the Epicurean point of view (Would Epicurus embrace going to the moon).
That's a very good specific example and might be all that's needed, but I am setting this thread up as a place… -
Cassius
PostApril 12, 2026 at 2:22 PM So the reason this topic came up today is that Patrikios brought up the question of whether atoms move because of some external force applied to them. And this directly relates to the motion of bodies such as magnets, discussed in Book 6 of Lucretius.
If… -
Cassius
PostApril 12, 2026 at 2:19 PM The Routledge Encyclopedia entry by David Sedley4. Motion
Surprisingly, atoms never stop moving, even within a compound object, since the medium through which they move is void, which can offer them no resistance. More surprisingly, for the same reason… -
Cassius
PostApril 12, 2026 at 2:17 PM Ok I asked Claude to summarize David Sedley's position. Apparently the main article is not publicly available but I will include the cite below:
The key Sedley text regarding the Epicurean relationship between weight and motion turns out to be his own… -
Cassius
PostApril 12, 2026 at 2:06 PM This topic arose in today's Zoom meeting and it needs further research and expansion. I am also going to modify the title of this thread to make the issue more clear.
I feel sure there are academic articles directly on point beyond what I've cited above. -
Eikadistes
April 12, 2026 at 8:55 AM Replied to the thread Welcome M Dango.Post[…]
Great call on Living for Pleasure! Professor Austin pops in here every now and then. The crew here with LucretiusToday podcast interviewed her about the book. You can find it here.
Someday, I would like to fatten-up The Hedonicon with the works of… -
Cassius
April 12, 2026 at 6:06 AM Replied to the thread What would Epicurus have thought of going to the moon?.PostOne thing I'd add is that if we go by the list in the principal doctrines , only the concept of there being no supernatural gods comes before the doctrine that "you only live once." (And even the absence of supernatural gods is directly related to…
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