ALL CURRENT AND PROSPECTIVE PARTICIPANTS SHOULD READ THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT OF FORUM EDITORIAL POLICY: "Against Katastematic Supremacy - Pleasure Is A Unified Good, Not A House Divided Against Itself."
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Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 6:47 AM Replied to the thread Metrodorus project.PostSo this is from Metrodorus and not Epicurus himself? Seems to me I hear this attributed to Epicurus so if it is not that is a misunderstanding that needs correcting.
TO PYTHOCLES:
Sent. Vat. LI (= Pap. Berol. 16369, col. II) [20]
You tell me that the… -
Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 6:44 AM Replied to the thread Philodemus' "On Anger" - General - Texts and Resources.PostFrom Tau Phi's collection of works of Metrodorus:
PHILODEMUS, On Anger, col. XLV [7]
In fact, Epicurus makes clear in his First Appellations both that the sage “will experience rage” and (will experience it) “in moderation,” and Metrodorus, if he… -
Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 6:37 AM Replied to the thread Metrodorus project.PostTau Phi I have a question here - is this "dehorting" a typo?
PLUTARCH, Against Colotes, 34, 1127 d [5]
If those who abolish laws, governments, and polices of men subvert
and destroy human life, and if Metrodorus and Epicurus do this, by
dehorting and… -
Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 6:21 AM Replied to the thread Key Citations - Nothing Is Supernatural - No Gods Over Nature.PostThe following quote from Tau Phi's recent collection of quotations by or about Metrodorus is relevant to this topic of whether all things that have a beginning must have an end. It's also relevant to DeWitt's point that for Epicurus the gods are not… -
Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 6:18 AM Replied to the thread Must All Things That Have A Beginning Have An End?.PostThe following quote from Tau Phi's recent collection of quotations by or about Metrodorus is relevant to this topic of whether all things that have a beginning must have an end. It's also relevant to DeWitt's point that for Epicurus the gods are not… -
Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 6:09 AM Replied to the thread Key Citations On Atoms, Void, and Emergence.PostFrom Tau Phi's recent collection on the works of Metrodorus I want to add this here under a list of quotes relevant to emergence.
It is pretty confusingly worded, or confusingly translated, or both, but it seems to me to be pretty clearly talking about a… -
Cassius
July 22, 2026 at 5:46 AM Replied to the thread Metrodorus project.PostHere is one of the many useful quotes here that we need to be able to find very often. Lately it seems like every mention of Epicurus is accompanied by the assertion that he lived on bread and water (they like to throw in ....and a little cheese) when… -
Cassius
July 21, 2026 at 9:49 PM Added the file The Life And Works of Metrodorus of Lampsacus.FileThe attached PDF contains 100 fragments related to Metrodorus' life and works. The document includes both ancient testimonia and extant fragments. It's divided into two sections: Life and Works. The first one focuses on Metrodorus' biography; the second… -
Cassius
July 21, 2026 at 9:45 PM Replied to the thread Metrodorus project.PostOutstanding Tau Phi thank you! I'm setting this up in the files section now and will post the link below.
The Life And Works of Metrodorus of Lampsacus -
Cassius
PostJuly 21, 2026 at 9:42 PM […]
I have no problem at all with anything that you wrote as being consistent with the policy. As you state in your last paragraph it is difficult and controversial to decide which pleasures are actially kinetic and katastematic in the first place. On… -
TauPhi
July 21, 2026 at 8:29 PM Posted the thread Metrodorus project.ThreadThis is going to be a longer post, so here's a brief summary of what this is about:
The attached PDF contains 100 fragments related to Metrodorus' life and works. The document includes both ancient testimonia and extant fragments. It's divided into two… -
Aristos
July 21, 2026 at 4:14 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Aristos!.PostThanks, Martin 🤝🍻 -
Martin
July 21, 2026 at 2:53 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Aristos!.PostWelcome Aristos! -
Cassius
July 21, 2026 at 2:37 PM Posted the thread Episode 344 - EATAQ26 - Not Yet Recorded.ThreadWelcome to Episode 343 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the… -
Cassius
July 21, 2026 at 2:32 PM Replied to the thread Episode 343 - EATAQ25 - In The Search For Knowledge, Is "Probable" Good Enough?.PostEpisode 343 of the Lucretius Today Podcast is now available. This week our episode is entitled: "In The Search For Knowledge, Is 'Probable' Good Enough?"
[media]https://www.spreaker.com/episode/73091250/media -
Cassius
July 21, 2026 at 11:52 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Aristos!.PostGlad to have you! -
Aristos
July 21, 2026 at 11:26 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Aristos!.PostHi everyone,
Im looking forward to fruitful discussions, and I promise to participate as much as my time and responsibilities allow.
🤝 -
Cassius
July 20, 2026 at 5:34 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Aristos!.PostAristos tells us this:
I'm from Serbia, and I'm 30 years old. I'm a food technology engineer by profession, with a wide range of interests and hobbies related to cooking, beverages, metalworking, 3D printing, and many other pursuits.
I've been studying… -
Cassius
PostJuly 20, 2026 at 3:02 PM Good to hear from you Charles.
If we can't be clear in Epicurean philosophy about the centrality of pleasure, we don't need to be talking about Epicurean philosophy at all.
Might was well also forget the positions on gods and death - which not… -
Cassius
July 20, 2026 at 2:59 PM Posted the thread Welcome Aristos!.ThreadWelcome Aristos
There is one last step to complete your registration: All new registrants must email Cassius so that this Welcome Thread can contain basic information about your background and interest in Epicurus. In that email, please tell us what… -
Charles
PostJuly 20, 2026 at 2:09 PM I admire the clarity of purpose as of late in combatting this idea. It's been some time since I've engaged with Stoic and Christian communities online but this was always the primary charge they levied on Epicurus, which in their mind was humoring him.… -
Godfrey
July 20, 2026 at 1:25 PM Replied to the thread July 20, 2026.PostHappy Twentieth to all! -
Kalosyni
July 20, 2026 at 11:24 AM Replied to the thread The Completeness (or Fullness) of Pleasure.Post[…]
My analogy may not work for everyone...I was thinking about it this way:
If you were invited over to someone's house for dinner, and they served you a full dinner, but did not serve anything at all to drink with the dinner (no water, no lemonade, no… -
Bryan
July 20, 2026 at 10:58 AM Replied to the thread The Completeness (or Fullness) of Pleasure.PostI’ll admit I do not think this fits. A drink is just another pleasure within the meal, not the thing that gives all the other pleasures their order and security. This makes established pleasures sound like an optional side item.
In my analogy from… -
Cassius
ThreadJuly 20, 2026 at 9:49 AM -
Cassius
Blog ArticleJuly 20, 2026 at 9:47 AM […]
Centuries of commentators have treated this and similar statements as an invitation to make something other than pleasure the real goal of Epicurean philosophy -- a neutral resting state, a merely negative condition, a "tranquility" or "static… -
Kalosyni
July 20, 2026 at 8:20 AM Posted the thread The Completeness (or Fullness) of Pleasure.ThreadHere is a possible analogy for the "completeness" of pleasure:
A meal served without something to drink would be considered incomplete...
"a meal" = all the many varied pleasures of life
"something to drink" = removing fears of death & gods and adding in… -
Kalosyni
July 20, 2026 at 7:51 AM Posted the thread July 20, 2026.Thread
Happy Twentieth Everyone!
Listen to the Epicurus Rap - Free as Epicurus!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=66yOo7bZ0mA -
Cassius
July 19, 2026 at 6:44 PM Replied to the thread World's Worst Epicurus Videos.PostLooks to me like the same person is generating these - and apparently isn't through yet -
youtube.com/watch?v=oUL7PfH6XlA -
Kalosyni
July 19, 2026 at 4:22 PM Replied to the thread Epigram on the Twentieth.PostSince tomorrow is the Twentieth... I am thinking again about this quote: "To-morrow, dearest Piso, your friend, beloved by the Muses, who keeps our annual feast of the twentieth invites you to come after the ninth hour to his simple cottage. If you miss… -
Godfrey
PostJuly 19, 2026 at 2:39 PM […]
I haven't heard that word in quite some time... especially in a philosophical discussion

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Kalosyni
PostJuly 19, 2026 at 8:47 AM Some thoughts this morning, regarding the influence of popular music in the US, and which I think can have an influence on people's angst regarding personal relationships and marriage. Because I believe that music affects people's minds greatly. Also… -
Cassius
PostJuly 19, 2026 at 1:33 AM "I want my life of pleasure to be stable and established."
Does a sentence like that serve as a bullet train to living on bread and water and denouncing pleasure? Or does it simply remind you that you want your "life of pleasure" -- the life that Diogenes… -
Cassius
PostJuly 19, 2026 at 1:00 AM […]
That would be exactly the analogy I seek to use with the "full cup" of pleasure and what I take DeWitt's "fullness" argument to mean. Yes you want your life to be 100% pleasure and 0% pain, and you want it to stay that way, neither needlessly below… -
Bryan
PostJuly 18, 2026 at 10:03 PM […]
I think there is a lot of common ground to be found here!
-------------------------------------------------------
Epicurus cannot conceive of the good without active pleasures, just as we cannot conceive of a brick building without bricks.
You are… -
Cassius
PostJuly 18, 2026 at 6:23 PM It would be interesting to discuss if anyone sees a conflict between the 2019 "On Pain Pleasure And Happiness" article and their current understanding of the katastematic / kinetic situation and the "Against Katastematic Supremacy" article which is the… -
Cassius
PostJuly 18, 2026 at 5:08 PM My posting of this earlier in this thread and Pacatus' reminder have in turn reminded me that this is where we were in 2019 - almost seven years ago to the day.
We've come a long way since then - in many ways forward - but we still don't have many… -
Cassius
PostJuly 18, 2026 at 4:08 PM Let me expand further on what I have said in some of these recent comments.
When Epicurus says that he is not able to conceive the good without the pleasures that he mentions, all of those pleasures he mentions are "active" - not "katastematic" under the… -
Cassius
PostJuly 18, 2026 at 10:21 AM -
Kalosyni
PostJuly 18, 2026 at 7:26 AM Just for fun, my illustration of many pleasures:
epicureanfriends.com/wcf/galle…-many-facets-of-pleasure/
I may need to update this (which I made back in 2024) and add more subtitles: "pleasures of the mind" (and which can include planning… -
Cassius
ThreadJuly 18, 2026 at 4:44 AM Welcome to Episode 343 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the… -
Cassius
PostJuly 17, 2026 at 3:19 PM […]
There's absolutely no doubt --most people are scared to death of the term, and they would never want to be associated with a philosophy of pleasure - especially in Academia.
Since there's a lot of criticism of negativity embedded in this discussion I… -
Cassius
ThreadJuly 17, 2026 at 3:07 PM -
Cassius
Blog ArticleJuly 17, 2026 at 3:05 PM The Passage You've Seen a Thousand Times, and What It Actually Says
You have almost certainly seen this sentence before, even if you've never read a word of it: "Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci… -
Cassius
PostJuly 17, 2026 at 1:27 PM Dave's questions and this thread have me constructively focusing on the issue of what IS really important to focus on. I'm working on some new thoughts for articles about the general issue of the public perception of what "hedonism" means and how much… -
Cassius
PostJuly 17, 2026 at 12:37 PM […]
That's one way of looking at it, maybe like there is more than one way to view pleasure.
Yes if we respect Epicurus' mind and person, as Lucretius did for example, that's a good guardrail. But just like Epicurus himself as a real person, we all have… -
DaveT
PostJuly 17, 2026 at 11:45 AM
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