Recent Updates From Across EpicureanFriends.com
Recent Activities
-
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… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 9:54 AM Added the file David Sedley - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism" - 1988.FileDiscussion of this article is here.Summary of Main Arguments and Highlights
1. Core Thesis: Epicureanism is Not Fully Reductionist
Sedley’s central claim is that Epicurean philosophy, although grounded in atomism, cannot be understood as a purely
-
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 9:32 AM Replied to the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".PostThere's a LOT of interest in that article. Here's a section that both interesting and "funny" as to what should probably be our love-hate relationship with Cyril Bailey:
-
Cassius
PostMarch 26, 2026 at 9:27 AM -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 9:13 AM Posted the thread Article - David Sedley - 1988 - "Epicurean Anti-Reductionism".ThreadWe've referenced many times on the forum the comments about this topic made by David Sedley in his "Epicurus' Refutation of Determinism."
I don't think we previously cited - or that I knew of - an article Dr. Sedley had written directly on point:
Epicurean… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 7:02 AM Posted the thread The Size Of Atoms (And Their Differences).ThreadAmong the topics we discussed in a zoom last night was what does Epicurus say about atomic size whether there a finite range of atomic sizes? The following is AI so take it only as a possible starting point.Atomic Size (μέγεθος) in the Letter to
… -
Cassius
March 26, 2026 at 6:58 AM Posted the thread The Weight Of Atoms (Are All The Same Weight?).ThreadLast night in our zoom the question came up as to whether Epicurus held that atoms differ in weight. This is what AI has to say - take it for what its worth and let's discuss whether they differ in weight or not.Atomic Weight (βάρος) in Epicurean
… -
Cassius
PostMarch 26, 2026 at 6:43 AM Another option:
Sedley's Routledge Encyclopedia entry (2005) states that "atoms themselves have only the primary or ineliminable features of body: size, shape and weight," and that the ground for this parsimony is the Letter to Herodotus §54–55:… -
Cassius
PostMarch 26, 2026 at 6:40 AM Again - consider these as initial drafts that will need further revision!
-
Cassius
ThreadMarch 26, 2026 at 5:57 AM In our Zoom of 3/25/26 we discussed the topic of this thread and how it would be desirable to prepare a diagram / explanation of the proper use of these terms. Bryan has by far the best command of this and he has provided some basic information from… -
Cassius
March 25, 2026 at 7:37 PM Replied to the thread Welcome J.Tycherne!.PostJ.Tycherne tells us -
[…]
Finding Things At EpicureanFriends.com
Here is a list of suggested search strategies:
- Website Overview page - clickable links arrranged by cards.
- Forum Main Page - list of forums and subforums arranged by topic. Threads are posted according to relevant topics. The "Uncategorized subforum" contains threads which do not fall into any existing topic (also contains older "unfiled" threads which will soon be moved).
- Search Tool - icon is located on the top right of every page. Note that the search box asks you what section of the forum you'd like to search. If you don't know, select "Everywhere."
- Search By Key Tags - curated to show frequently-searched topics.
- Full Tag List - an alphabetical list of all tags.