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Elli
June 19, 2026 at 2:31 PM Wrote the blog article The Letter of Epicurus to His Mother.Blog ArticleThe Letter of Epicurus to His Mother
Diogenes of Oinoanda (fr. 125–126) – Free rendering
Mother, concerning everything that troubles you, I want you to form clear and confident thoughts. The images we see in dreams - especially when they concern things not… -
Cassius
June 19, 2026 at 2:31 PM Replied to the thread Episode 338 - EATAQ20 - Are Knowledge And Wisdom Available Only To Gods?.PostEpisode 338 of the Lucretius Today Podcast is now available. This week our episode is entitled: "Are Knowledge And Wisdom Available Only To Gods?"
[media]https://www.spreaker.com/episode/72603581/media -
Peter Konstans
PostJune 19, 2026 at 8:15 AM Epicurus is right that some things happen by chance but chance works on the basis of mathematical probability and probability works on the basis of determinism. If I have a fair six-sided die and throw it my result will be a number from 1 to 6. It will… -
Todd
PostJune 18, 2026 at 9:29 AM This seems relevant:
[…] -
Don
PostJune 18, 2026 at 7:21 AM […]
This whole digression into online "influencers" misses my point. I was using "influence" in the broad sense of simply getting people to do what you'd like them to do, from changing one's trivial opinions on where they'd like to go to supper to more… -
Peter Konstans
PostJune 18, 2026 at 5:54 AM […]
The sense that this is a contradiction is an illusion. To resolve the contradiction we have to do two things.
First, we have to explore what motivates people to try to influence other people in general. The answer is: to extract a desired reaction from… -
Cassius
June 17, 2026 at 9:32 PM Replied to the thread Prolepsis and the Epicurean Gods (discussion split from earlier thread started by Titus).Post[…]
No no not at all directed at you - it's just a general reference to a topic that's regularly on my mind - how to balance competing priorities. This topic has covered a lot of ground and that comment arose from my constantly thinking about how to… -
Todd
PostJune 17, 2026 at 7:52 PM […]
Not that I'm aware of. I believe he coined the phrase as part of his theory of discourse ethics.
I'm not very familiar with his overall body of work though. -
DaveT
June 17, 2026 at 7:46 PM Replied to the thread Prolepsis and the Epicurean Gods (discussion split from earlier thread started by Titus).Post[…]
I'm not sure how to take this comment to my statement above. Please explain if you are speaking to me as "one of those"? -
Cassius
PostJune 17, 2026 at 7:45 PM Thanks for the link on Habermas. Was he using that phrase in regard to determinism? -
DaveT
PostJune 17, 2026 at 7:13 PM […]
Hawking meant the phrase to explain our cosmic insignificance not as a perjorative. -
Cassius
PostJune 17, 2026 at 6:38 PM […]
Excellent pithy phrasing.
I suspect the Epicurus would say the same formula applies here also:
To deny the possibility of knowledge is a performative contradiction.
The self-refutation argument seems to have been a major tool in Epicurus' toolchest..
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Titus
PostJune 17, 2026 at 4:06 PM Personally, I think it's obvious that some of Epicurus' theories about how the world functions don't match with what is scientific consensus nowadays.
On the other hand, Epicurus and Epicurean philosophy in general still masters describing natural… -
Todd
PostJune 17, 2026 at 3:05 PM I was just ready to post this, when I saw the link Cassius posted to the other FAQ. It mentions the self-refutation argument, which I think is important. Anyway...
Whether causal determinism is true or false from the perspective of an outside… -
Cassius
PostJune 17, 2026 at 2:33 PM I note that these comments would really have been more appropriate under the FAQ entry for Determinism / Free Will, but our existing entry was little more than a stub.
I've updated that with a summary of the discussions we've had elsewhere on the forum. … -
Cassius
PostJune 17, 2026 at 1:55 PM Without rehashing what is in the FAQ material, one of the most clear statements of how the physics plays into these issue occurs in Lucretius Book 3. Of course someone can deny the conclusion, and say that Epicurus / Lucretius were wrong, and that we… -
Don
PostJune 17, 2026 at 12:56 PM […]
I'm honestly trying to understand how both these can be true.
How can our behavior be determined fully by brain physics and environment BUT we can still influence other humans. If all is determined by physics, doesn't that mean even the influencers are… -
Peter Konstans
PostJune 17, 2026 at 10:12 AM The notion of moral responsibility is not the same as the notion that human behavior is (to some degree) reformable. Moral responsibility implies that humans are rational agents endowed with free will. If one accepts physicalism, that is just false, an… -
Cassius
PostJune 17, 2026 at 10:12 AM In my view everything posted in the thread so far has been valuable for setting the stage of the debate. It is good for people to know where Tim O'Keefe stands and how he disagrees with Sedley on emergence.
Also, Don has focused on some very important… -
Cassius
June 17, 2026 at 7:08 AM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.Post[…]
i agree with Peter K's post and "liked it." I singled out this sentense only because I don't think he meant to imply that animals are not conscious, or only a "human" brain can be conscious. If you did mean that Peter please correct me, but I took… -
Cassius
June 17, 2026 at 7:02 AM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.Post[…]
At least at present that's the way I am seeing a relationship that is productive to discuss.
No doubt there are many differences, but i would not underestimate the significance of even this short part of Martin's statement.
When the major other… -
Peter Konstans
June 17, 2026 at 6:58 AM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.PostIf prolepsis is roughly equivalent to the notion of pattern recognition that our cognition relies on, then AI is just the collective pool of human prolepsis, a machine packed with enormous quantities of information that humans use as an auxiliary for… -
Don
PostJune 17, 2026 at 6:50 AM There's a lot of philosophical jargon flying through this thread, and I'll freely admit some of it is going over my head. For y'all's consideration:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/incompatibilism-theories/
… -
Peter Konstans
PostJune 17, 2026 at 6:01 AM Yes, accepting materialism and atomism entails abandoning both the weak and the strong variations of emergence.
As I see it, Epicurean physics is based on the rejection of Democritean compatibilism. Democritus thought free will is compatible with atomic… -
Martin
June 17, 2026 at 1:55 AM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.Post[…]
[…]
I do see an analogy between prolepsis and LLMs. In both cases, pattern recognition built on past input is applied to new input to generate a response. This analogy may be weaker for ancient Epicurean prolepsis than for what prolepsis updated with… -
Don
June 16, 2026 at 10:14 PM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.PostLLMs are nothing like the way the brain works. Since I don't think prolepsis isn't necessarily how the brain actually functions, I'm sharing a couple videos explaining the brain as prediction machine. The mind doesn't break reality into tokens and assign… -
Kalosyni
June 16, 2026 at 2:17 PM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.PostHere is a good video explaining LLM's:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=NKnZYvZA7w4
Martin do you have any input on the comparison between prolepsis and LLM's? -
Kalosyni
June 16, 2026 at 1:58 PM Replied to the thread Relationship between AI/LLMs and prolepsis.PostAll posts mentioning the gods have been moved (and general prolepsis comments by Bryan have been copied and exist in both threads. Also, Titus' AI query exists in both threads).
New thread split off to discuss prolepsis of the gods:
Prolepsis and the… -
Cassius
June 16, 2026 at 1:34 PM Replied to the thread Prolepsis and the Epicurean Gods (discussion split from earlier thread started by Titus).Post[…]
That "student" term would describe all of us, and is one of the two major goals of the forum.
The other major goal of the forum is to build a community of "advocates" for Epicurean philosophy as a coherent body of thought for normal people. That's…
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