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Cassius
ThreadMarch 28, 2026 at 10:29 AM Welcome to Episode 327 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… -
Don
March 28, 2026 at 7:01 AM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.PostGot it.
For anyone curious as to what we're going on about, here's the end of the manuscript where the title is ...
ΦΙΛΟΔΗΜΟΥ
ΠΡΟCΤΟΥC
(end of papyrus torn off)
Idiomatically then, all we have extant is:
By Philodemus
Against The/Pertaining to the/According… -
Eikadistes
March 28, 2026 at 4:57 AM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.Post -
Don
March 27, 2026 at 10:42 PM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.Post[…]
https://papyri.info/dclp/62437
You can look at the engravings for each page at the link.
[…]
What made you decide on "Comrades"? My understanding is that there is no noun in the title, just ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ... -
Eikadistes
March 27, 2026 at 6:12 PM Replied to the thread Travel Video - Ancient Acropolis and Agora.PostThat was nice to watch. Thanks! -
Cassius
March 27, 2026 at 4:58 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".PostThese are very relevant points Dave and I think about them all the time. Here's my current view.
[…]
I don't think I am violating the no-politics rule by observing that the world is on the brink of WW3 and I would say that a major reason is that most of… -
Cassius
March 27, 2026 at 4:35 PM Replied to the thread Episode 326 - EATAQ 08 - Who Cares About Infinite Divisibility? And Why?.PostEpisode 326 of the Lucretius Today Podcast is now available. This week our episode is entitled: "Who Cares About Infinite Divisibility? And Why?"
[media]https://www.spreaker.com/episode/70936642/media -
Kalosyni
March 27, 2026 at 3:37 PM Replied to the thread Travel Video - Ancient Acropolis and Agora.PostHere's a fun and short travel video in Greece (and they have done other places in the world too).
m.youtube.com/watch?v=GUVshaiJn9I -
DaveT
March 27, 2026 at 3:35 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".Post[…]
I understand your point of view. On the other hand I see progress away from the monarchical God and church appointed governments of the last 250 years. No longer do we accept conquest in the name of god's command to subjugate the earth.
I think there… -
Cassius
March 27, 2026 at 12:43 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".Post[…]
Probably that's the cruc of the issue. There's a wide variety of people here with different backgrounds and interests, but this is primarily a forum for the promotion of Epicurean philosophy, not for philosophy generalists (not placing you in that… -
DaveT
March 27, 2026 at 12:09 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".Post[…]
Cassius, your suspicion is quite incorrect as well as your conclusion. I do think my posts relating to Sedley's interpretations, indeed Lucretius' interpretations and arguments of Epicurus' beliefs need to be balanced and kept in context much better.
… -
Eikadistes
March 27, 2026 at 8:49 AM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.PostThere's a link to the full transcription of P.Herc. 1005 in the annotations of that page. -
Kalosyni
March 27, 2026 at 7:36 AM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.PostEikadistes Thank you for your work on the Philodemus text! I see over at your link (the Twentiers website), there is this symbol used in the text:
[...]
...which is used when parts of the text are missing. Does the source text give any indication of how… -
Kalosyni
March 27, 2026 at 7:28 AM Replied to the thread VS14 - "Occupied" vs. "Without Allowing Himself Leisure.".Post -
wbernys
March 27, 2026 at 2:08 AM Replied to the thread Welcome J.Tycherne!.PostHello j.tycherne ! Happy to see someone who loves the letter to Menoceus as much as i do, and you're right to love the parts rejecting belief in fate, a belief which does nothing but inflict pessimism and misery on the hearts of mankind. I do my best… -
Martin
March 27, 2026 at 1:42 AM Replied to the thread Welcome J.Tycherne!.PostWelcome J.Tycherne! -
Godfrey
March 26, 2026 at 10:58 PM Replied to the thread Article: Not A Bunker But A Camp: A Response To “The Garden or the Forum”.PostVery well thought out and on point essay Cassius . I was actually quite surprised while reading Pigliucci's essay that he so thoroughly misreads Epicurean philosophy. His essay reads more as Ciceronian snark than as serious scholarship. At any rate,… -
Eikadistes
March 26, 2026 at 8:16 PM Replied to the thread New "TWENTIERS" Website.PostI took a swing at To the Comrades by Philódēmos (P.Herc. 1005). Don did a great job here, and besides our attempts, I'm not familiar with any publications that contain the bulk in English. I'll continue polishing my attempt at a translation for what… -
Eikadistes
March 26, 2026 at 8:13 PM Replied to the thread P.Herc. 1005 from Les Epicuriens (A First Draft Translation).PostI just re-visted this and found some additions!
Nothing major, but I notice there's a fun reference to the "half-gods" or "demi-gods" (Fragment 96) and a few allusions to Leonteús throughout. Several times, as well, I notice the thrice-repeated phrase… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 5:04 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".PostDave, the answer to both of your questions seems to me to be pretty much the same. These things are not "totally subjective" nor are they "just brain chemistry." As the article is discussing, emergent properties like the mind's actions are not… -
DaveT
March 26, 2026 at 3:17 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".Post[…]
Please explain how: "That is philosophically powerful ammunition against the modern dismissal ....as 'merely subjective'". Doesn't each person experience those things based on their own subjective physical and mental state?
Also, please explain how… -
Cassius
ThreadMarch 26, 2026 at 1:57 PM -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 1:52 PM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".PostThanks for your question, Dave. It comes up frequently so I have updated the FAQ. Here's the short version:
Epicurus would be the last person to insist we cling to 2,000-year-old technical details in physics just because he said them. He was emphatically… -
j.tycherne
March 26, 2026 at 11:21 AM Replied to the thread Welcome J.Tycherne!.PostHello all, thanks very much for your kind welcome, and thanks particularly for this list and links to texts on Epicureanism. As I mentioned in my email, I was very much interested by Epicurus' Letter to Menoikeus, which I found in Diogenes Laertius. The… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 11:17 AM Replied to the thread Epicurus Was Not an Atomist (...sort of).PostEikadistes I thought of your article in reading David Sedley's "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism," and I wanted to be sure you saw this.
I don't recall all the details of your article, but I think you'd find the concluding section of Sedley's article… -
DaveT
March 26, 2026 at 11:13 AM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".PostSorry I missed the discussion on this topic since my observation may already have been raised and answered.
Why should interpretations of Epicurus' thinking on atoms, that is, whether he was either or both a reductionist and/or an anti reductionist, be… -
Cassius
ThreadMarch 26, 2026 at 11:03 AM The following is a quotation translated by David Sedley from Epicurus' On Nature 34.21-2. It comes from Sedley's discussion of "Downward Causation" in how the mind itself can influence the atoms. There are numerous implications that can be drawn from it… -
Cassius
ThreadMarch 26, 2026 at 10:48 AM This week I would like us to take a step back from where we are in Lucretius so that David Sedley can explain the implications of the detail through which we are going about atoms and void. We've talked previously about his article "Epicurus' Refutation… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 10:39 AM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".PostIn this article Sedley refers several time to aetiology and ontology and discusses which aspect is primary to Epicurus on a particular point. It might help to have this explanation before reading the article (pasted from our good friends at ChatGPT):
The… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 10:20 AM Posted the thread Is Motion A Property or an Event / Accident / Quality of Atoms?.ThreadThis topic was also discussed in a recent zoom meeting. The answer appears debatable, and I see that Sedley's article "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism" has this to say (see especially footnote 29):
Here is the translation from Demetrius Lacon cited on page…
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