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Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 4:07 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
I agree withj wbernys here and this is why I would say that once you focus on the logic implications of the foundattional premise that there are only two feelings, it makes perfect sense that the best state is going to be one of pure pleasure… -
wbernys
July 3, 2026 at 3:25 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
This is a great summarization of my views, along with what I believe Epicurus believed.
Someone feeling perpetual joy or delight is not in any way inferior or superior to feeling constant Serenity or Tranquility. Both are equally Pleaseant. Kinetic and… -
Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 12:40 PM Replied to the thread New Advancement on Reading Herculaneum Scrolls.Post -
Don
July 3, 2026 at 12:29 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus (DL 10.82; Hicks via Perseus): [82] But mental tranquillity (ataraxia) means being released from all these troubles and cherishing a continual remembrance of the highest and most important truths.
[82] ἡ δὲ… -
Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 11:59 AM Posted the thread World's Worst Epicurus Videos.ThreadSometimes I don't know why but I subscribe to a google alert that gives me new references to Epicurus.
This video just came over that feed. It's not just an example of homogenized pure-AI clickbate. It does have a message, and it perfectly illustrates why… -
Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 11:35 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.PostHere's another example I just noted from the signature line used by Elli, one of our members from Greece:
Should we tell her that that's not accurate, and that she should change it to:
Beauty and virtue and such are worthy of honor, if they bring … -
Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 10:33 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.PostAnother direct question that would be helpful to answer:
Just as we question as to "flourishing," what exactly does "tranquility" mean and what does it entail?
In short, what Max do you think at that a person is doing while they are tranquil?
Also, do you… -
Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 10:05 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
One way of summarily getting to the conclusion would be to go back to my eariler question: was Emily Austin's book misnamed? Your comment would imply that to be accurate to Epicurus it should have titled it "Living for Tranquility"? Or perhaps… -
Cassius
July 3, 2026 at 9:58 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
If there were a fate it would be that we would once again be going down the Katastematic/Kinetic rabbit hole and all that it entails. DeWitt, Gosling and Taylor, Emily Austin, and Boris Nikolsky can be lined up military-style against virtually the… -
Max DuBoff
July 3, 2026 at 8:31 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
Oops, I forgot to mention: I designate "resistance"/"resist" to translate antiparatattesthai. It's not a literal translation (it's impossible to capture the full context in one word), but it does preserve the military context. (I owe this suggestion… -
Max DuBoff
July 3, 2026 at 8:27 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
I've now reread the thread, and I'm going to respond to a number of posts, but I think it'd be more helpful to write a few paragraphs than respond to individual points. If there's an individual point from upthread which you think is important for the… -
Max DuBoff
July 3, 2026 at 7:50 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
Thanks for this idea. Although I largely agree with Cassius just below, it's good that you raised this, because one of the biggest developments in 20th-century scholarship on Epicurus was less attention paid to PD 9. I don't mean to necessarily say… -
Max DuBoff
July 3, 2026 at 7:33 AM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
Thanks for this point, Don. Antiparatattesthai is markedly military language, evoking a battle line and the presence of an enemy. It derives from paratattein, which refers to arranging battle lines. Antiparatattesthai is perhaps best translated as… -
Elli
PostJuly 3, 2026 at 4:43 AM […]
I have read this quote in a post of a friend, who claimed that said by Epicurus, but this is fake!
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Elli
PostJuly 3, 2026 at 4:26 AM Plutarch was not a neutral observer. He was a priest of the Delphic priesthood, an ideological guardian of the Platonic and religious establishment. When he could not refute Epicurus philosophically, he resorted to ad hominem attacks, moralistic slander,… -
Cassius
PostJuly 3, 2026 at 3:42 AM Thank you for that post Elli!
I am sure someone will ask about this:
[…]
Is this an actual quote for which there is a citation, or is this exhortation a paraphrase? -
Elli
PostJuly 3, 2026 at 3:24 AM Epicurus’ Political Revolution Without Bloodshed
In On the Education of Children, Plutarch begins with a series of “moral” recommendations that Epicurus would immediately classify as empty beliefs. These are external social norms that have nothing to… -
Cassius
PostJuly 2, 2026 at 5:09 PM Thank you Matt. We have had a very good team of people rotate through over the years, and I am convinced that the material there is some of the best we produce. I've now gotten most all of them converted over into text transcripts which are all… -
Matteng
PostJuly 2, 2026 at 5:03 PM […] Last year, I actually started right from the beginning.
That went on for several months.
But the great thing about it is that you stay more in the context and don't have to wait a week—it's basically "binge-listening"
It hammers the points home
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Cassius
July 2, 2026 at 4:47 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
I always "like" it when you call our attention to PD09 on this topic. In this case I have a comment in regard to "All pleasure is pleasure, full stop." That very simple sentence stands at the top of a mountain of specific questions. Yes, I agree,… -
Cassius
PostJuly 2, 2026 at 4:37 PM I am tagging Patrikios here because I feel sure he will be interested in Elli's post 10 directly above. -
Godfrey
July 2, 2026 at 4:15 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.PostI feel the need at this point to add in my reading of some of the PDs, which when carefully considered (at least to me), delve into further parsing pleasure as intensity, duration and location. All pleasure is pleasure, full stop. The way to… -
Elli
PostJuly 2, 2026 at 4:02 PM Epicurus classifies sex as a desire “natural but not necessary.” He does this for a very precise reason: sex activates two different neurochemical systems in the human organism. One of them is stabilizing; the other is destabilizing.
The stabilizing part… -
Don
July 2, 2026 at 2:30 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
Slight quibble: he didn't write that his mental pleasures outweighed the physical pains, but he did write that he could contend with his pains with the mental pleasure of his memories: ἀντιπαρετάττετο "metaphorical, hold one's ground… -
DaveT
PostJuly 2, 2026 at 2:13 PM […]
Raphael Raul Yes, as Cassius said, there are a lot of issues worth discussing in your original post. Not the least one being that Epicurus seemed to discourage creating children within the marriage contract except if you were one of the rare… -
Elli
PostJuly 2, 2026 at 1:40 PM Ηello to all epicurean friends,
Dear Raphael, sorry but your whole text is a measurement of turmoil, not pleasure. You count taxes, cost of living, politics, technology, decline, demographics, robots, migration, feminism, MGTOW, Schopenhauer, Augustus,… -
Pacatus
July 2, 2026 at 1:11 PM Replied to the thread Welcome Max Duboff.Post[…]
Maybe “tranquillity” (which seems to be the dominant translation of ἀταραξία) is a translation subject to too much distortion, often taken as an unfeeling state. I think that Don and I have both used “equanimity” – but that seems to come up… -
Cassius
July 2, 2026 at 10:56 AM Posted the thread Episode 341 - EATAQ23 - Not Yet Recorded.ThreadWelcome to Episode 341 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…
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