LATEST LUCRETIUS TODAY PODCAST (focusing on one of our most important topics): Episode 323 - "The Pre-Epicurean View: Three Divisions of Philosophy And Three Divisions of Goods" | Website Overview | Forum Navigation Map
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Pacatus
March 10, 2026 at 1:33 PM Posted the thread Tim O'Keefe -- Ouch!.Thread“Most of the empirical claims Epicurus made about the world – some fundamental to his system, others peripheral – have since been falsified. … So it is not surprising that the philosophical system of Epicureanism has no adherents today.” (!?)
[Tim… -
Pacatus
March 10, 2026 at 12:36 PM Replied to the thread Critique of the Control Dichotomy as a Useful Strategy.PostIt seems to me that if the dichotomy of control (as in Epictetus) refers to whatever is completely within my control versus whatever is completely out of my control – then it is an idealistic abstraction, and not useful. (And I suspect that idealism is… -
Cassius
March 10, 2026 at 12:13 PM Replied to the thread PD24 - Commentary and Translation of PD 24.Post[…]
Agreeing with your post, but I don't catch your meaning of this part.
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My explanation for this applies to much of the reason that Dave and I appear to disagree - but I don't think we are really that far apart.
I would like to be proven wrong, but… -
Cassius
March 10, 2026 at 12:01 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostRight. Everyone today is marinated in the negative meaning of "dogmatism" just like they are in the narrow and negative view of "pleasure" as an ethical guide.
I'm by no means proud or happy of every aspect of the legal profession, but there are good… -
Pacatus
March 10, 2026 at 11:50 AM Commented on blog article “When Science Returns to the Hellenic Worldview: Empathy and Consciousness Redeemed”.Comment (Blog Article)A powerfully beautiful homily! Worth more than one read! Thank you!
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Cassius
March 10, 2026 at 11:41 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Ludenbergcastle.PostThank you for your frank and clear post. I hope you'll find the PDF helpful.
I would also suggest our reading list material, especially the two key books that we recommend (depending on one's background and level of interest) by Norman DeWitt and Emily… -
ludenbergcastle
March 10, 2026 at 10:48 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Ludenbergcastle.PostThank you for the warm welcome.
Given that this is one of the more active places where Epicurean philosophy is discussed, it usually pops up whenever I look up anything about Epicurus.
The reason I signed up was that it was required in order to download… -
DaveT
March 10, 2026 at 10:39 AM Replied to the thread PD24 - Commentary and Translation of PD 24.Post[…]
Agreeing with your post, but I don't catch your meaning of this part. -
Pacatus
March 10, 2026 at 9:39 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostAs I read through this, I had to remind myself that Cassius is using the word “dogmatic” in the sense that the Hellenistic philosophers such as Epicurus did – not the sense of “characterized by or given to the expression of opinions very strongly or… -
wbernys
March 9, 2026 at 6:05 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Ludenbergcastle.PostWelcome ludenbergcastle -
DaveT
March 9, 2026 at 4:01 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.Post[…]
I appreciate your observations. I do not take issue with your prior thoughts on how different people might not understand consensus. And I find the quote from PD 24 highly appropriate here. An opinion affirmed only in part will not escape error.… -
Kalosyni
ThreadMarch 9, 2026 at 11:26 AM -
Cassius
March 9, 2026 at 10:35 AM Replied to the thread PD24 - Commentary and Translation of PD 24.PostThat's right, and it's not easy but what's the alternative? You can throw up your hands and not even try to get it right. That's what is advocated by Socrates and the radical skeptics who say it's never possible to be confident of anything. And what do… -
Kalosyni
March 9, 2026 at 9:39 AM Replied to the thread PD24 - Commentary and Translation of PD 24.PostHere are my thoughts on this, by just using the wording of Bailey translation, first posting the PD, then directly following is my take.
PD.24: "If you reject any single sensation, and fail to distinguish between the conclusion of opinion, as to the… -
Eikadistes
March 9, 2026 at 8:59 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Ludenbergcastle.PostWelcome! -
Cassius
March 9, 2026 at 7:03 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Ludenbergcastle.Postludenbergcastle has established to me by email that this account is that of a real person who accepts the terms of service of the forum. Welcome. -
Cassius
March 9, 2026 at 7:02 AM Posted the thread Welcome Ludenbergcastle.ThreadWelcome ludenbergcastle !
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… -
Kalosyni
March 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostIt seems that PD 24 could have some relevance to the discussion here, and there are are a number of posts exploring the canon, etc, over in the thread linked below.
PD24 "If you reject any single sensation, and fail to distinguish between the conclusion… -
Cassius
March 8, 2026 at 12:25 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostIt's probably also a good way of looking at it to compare this to court.
If we're going to reach a conclusion about something, we have to tell the jury the standard of proof.
Telling them to just decide what's "probably" happened or happened "with a high… -
Cassius
March 8, 2026 at 12:22 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.Post[…]
Within philosophy, that's exactly the position Cicero and other skeptics take -- that "probability" is all anyone can ask for, and to ask for anything more than "probability" is improper.
The problem is that most reasonable people are not going to find… -
Joshua
PostMarch 8, 2026 at 11:17 AM -
DaveT
March 8, 2026 at 11:03 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.Post[…]
Of course, this is not what I was saying, right?
Yet, what is the problem with the phrase "a high degree of confidence"? Do you think this is radical skepticism in the sense of the Hellenistic era of Greece, or in the modern sense of the word… -
Cassius
March 7, 2026 at 5:40 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostDave I would say that you are discussing the topic of the "conflict" between "science" and "philosophy."
Each of us has to decide what we think for ourselves, but from a philosophic perspective philosophy does not yield to anyone or anything to dictate to… -
DaveT
March 7, 2026 at 2:46 PM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostSorry I missed the Wed. meeting this thread is discussing. With that in mind, knowing I may be addressing something tangential, I note several things in this thread that have made me think more deeply.
[…]
It looks to me like Godfrey was saying there… -
Cassius
ThreadMarch 7, 2026 at 6:44 AM Welcome to Episode 324 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
March 6, 2026 at 9:16 AM Posted the thread Comparing the Proof Requirements Of James Randi To Those of Epicurus.ThreadJames Randi was a famous skeptic of paranormal claims. In posting this I don't know how close his views were to those of Epicurus, but it would probably advance our canonics discussion to discuss the similarities and differences in approach.
Some of… -
Kalosyni
PostMarch 6, 2026 at 8:59 AM […]
"Wiring messages"...
...made me think about this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Milli…ormal_Challenge -
Cassius
March 6, 2026 at 8:39 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostAlso don't forget the inherent ridiculousness of trying to reason with someone who rejects evidence-based reasoning. They are speaking nonsense and once they start down that road Lucretius says the ultimate response is not to engage with them further:
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Cassius
March 6, 2026 at 8:30 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostI modified the title of the thread just slightly to make clear that there are two kinds of evidence that must be consided in evaluating when we can be dogmatic and reach a conclusion and when we cannot.
Direct evidence is direct observation. We determine… -
Cassius
March 6, 2026 at 8:07 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostIn the podcast we will eventually address this issue of "when is it appropriate to say that we know something" by covering Philodemus' "On Signs / On Methods of Inference." We've also already covered these issues in past discussions of Lucretius Book 4… -
Cassius
March 6, 2026 at 7:56 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostI agree with Martin but would add as to this that we must be clear about what "conclusive" means:
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In the law we convict people and put them to death on a regular basis by holding to be conclusive the standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." And we do… -
Kalosyni
March 6, 2026 at 7:54 AM Replied to the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.PostI am curious if there is more to say about the use of indirect evidence which leads to inferred evidence - do we see this in the Letter to Herodotus or in Lucretius?
...especially dealing with the non-intervention of the gods
and also any other aspects. -
Kalosyni
March 6, 2026 at 7:51 AM Posted the thread Circumstantial (Indirect) and Direct Evidence / Dogmatism vs Skepticism.ThreadI am copying here into the main forum, a few posts which were recently made in reaction to a past Wednesday night Zoom meeting discussion:
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Godfrey posted (on 03/05/26):
It occurred to me this morning in my fog of awakening that the practice of… -
Cassius
PostMarch 5, 2026 at 4:55 PM In this episode we spend most of our time describing the three divisions of philosophy and the three divisions of "good" that were the dominant ways of looking at these topics prior to Epicurus. Next week we will take this analysis much further and… -
Cassius
PostMarch 5, 2026 at 4:53 PM Episode 323 of the Lucretius Today Podcast is now available. This week our episode is entitled: "The Pre-Epicurean View: Three Divisions of Philosophy And Three Divisions of Goods"
[media]https://www.spreaker.com/episode/70491386/media -
Cassius
PostMarch 5, 2026 at 4:47 PM Of course even more on point as to the disaster of not trusting the senses is Lucretius 4-5004-500
And if reason is unable to unravel the cause, why those things which close at hand were square, are seen round from a distance, still it is better through… -
Cassius
PostMarch 5, 2026 at 4:43 PM ** I'm thinking of this being the analogy (admittedly not right on point but good for pointing out how abandoning the study of nature / confidence in the senses will open the door for a flood of other problems:
For on whatever side you maintain that the… -
Cassius
PostMarch 5, 2026 at 4:38 PM […]
I agree and I think "horrified" is in the vicinity of the right emotion. I don't think they considered this to be a mild disagreement to politely gloss over. It goes to the heart of everything, and in analogy to the way Lucretius describes theories… -
Cassius
March 5, 2026 at 4:07 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostHappy Birthday to Zarathustra! Learn more about Zarathustra and say happy birthday on Zarathustra's timeline: Zarathustra -
Eikadistes
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 11:43 AM […]
NICE! Duolingo hasn't covered that one, yet.
You're definitely in the right place an an Epicurean enthusiast. Welcome to the forum! -
Cassius
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 9:45 AM Cornelius - I presume you are aware of this statement by Torquatus in Cicero's "On Ends" to the effect that it is disgraceful not to have learned theses things as boys (children), but just in case you are not:
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Cassius
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 9:41 AM Additional note to all:
I have moved the "Childhood Education and Parenting" subforum out of the "Ethics" section to the "Resources Activism and Engagement" section. Childhood Education and Parenting includes much more than just ethics, so it needs to be… -
Cassius
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 9:34 AM Cornelius we currently have the following sub-forum on Childhood Education. There's not much there yet, but I'd love to see more. Please consider writing about your interests in this area:
Childhood Education and Parenting -
Cassius
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 8:38 AM […]
I am particularly glad to see this and hope you will at length contribute your thoughts on childhood education on Epicurean ideas.
The only comment I would add at this point is that this should include not only ethics but also canonics and physics, as… -
Don
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 7:03 AM Before your explanation, Cornelius Peripateticus , I thought you just liked walking and hiking
From Wiktionary:
From Latin peripatēticus, from Ancient Greek περίπατος (perípatos, “strolling, covered walk, conversation while walking”),… -
Cassius
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 6:46 AM Welcome Cornelius!
Given your explanation of your user name and the questions that might be raised about the "prostitute" aspect I do think it would be best for you to shorten your user name in some way {perhaps CorneliusP but your choice...). Into the… -
Martin
PostMarch 4, 2026 at 12:53 AM Welcome Cornelius Peripateticus! -
Don
March 3, 2026 at 11:19 PM Replied to the thread 16th Panhellenic Epicurus Seminar In Athens Greece - February 14, 2026.PostJust coming back to this. GREAT JOB finding the English translation option. I'll have to check some of these out. Some of those presentation titles are interesting
... and others are "interesting" (said with a quizzical rising tone): Gilgamesh: The… -
Don
PostMarch 3, 2026 at 11:11 PM Welcome aboard!
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