Posts by Kalosyni

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If you have previously attended a Wednesday night Zoom, then you can simply join in with the same link as previous Wednesday night meetings.

For LEVEL 03 forum members who haven't yet attended a Wednesday night meeting, please let us know here in this thread or send me a private message, if you are interested in attending and we will give you the Zoom link by private message.

Cassius' post 27 above mentions the New Epicurean website (which was created by Cassius before the forum, if I am right on that?) and there is a lot of good stuff on there. I think that it also could be developed even further as a resource for people who want more "linear" reading on Epicureanism, rather than the "spiral" approach to study which the forum provides (reading the forum is a bit like going on a treasure hunt).

What is good about the New Epicurean website is that you can read the material without having to "raft through the rapids" of the forum. On the forum you often need to read a thread from start to finish, because a question (or an incorrect reflection) is presented in the first post, and it contains an incorrect understanding which is then corrected through the posting system...so that 20 or more posts later you get the full picture

Here is the home page, imagine this could be developed further with an improved table of contents. Right now there is a table of key pages, but you need to scroll down to get to it:

NewEpicurean – NewEpicurean.com – Promoting the Study of the Philosophy of Epicurus

Quote from stpeter

Preliminary and somewhat poetic modification: I think I'll change "the enjoyment of sleep" to "lying in a bed of desire", which echoes the roundabout wording in the original Greek.

Thanks to Kalosyni for raising this issue!

stpeter thank you for coming on to the forum to help us out. You can see we have had quite a bit of discussion going on here over the past week, stemming from this particular passage.

I greatly appreciate your translations of Epicurean texts and how easy they are to access on the internet. I use your translations from your website all the time in my study and referencing. And when I first started studying I actually printed them out for reading off-line as well. So I have been referring to your translations for several years now because they are my favorite.

Thanks again for coming onto the forum...and as it was said that on the sign above the ancient Epicurean Garden door, it was written: "Here you will do well to tarry. Here our highest good is Pleasure!"

Hope you decide to hang out here awhile

stpeter Welcome to the forum!

I just created this new post in my blog, and I start out with points 1 - 3 (and will add another post soon on points 4 - 8).

(Click on the image below to visit my blog and read further):

Quote from Kalosyni

Here is the text from Peter Saint-Andre:

"So when we say that pleasure is the goal, we do not mean the pleasures of decadent people or the enjoyment of sleep, as is believed by those who are ignorant or who don't understand us or who are ill-disposed to us, but to be free from bodily pain and mental disturbance. For a pleasant life is produced not by drinking and endless parties and enjoying boys and women and consuming fish and other delicacies of an extravagant table, but by sober reasoning, searching out the cause of everything we accept or reject, and driving out opinions that cause the greatest trouble in the soul."

So when we say that pleasure is the goal, we do not mean over-indulgence or indolence, as is believed by those who are ignorant, who don't understand correctly, or who oppose our school.

Quote from TauPhi

My proposition is rather more poetic than literal translation; more in the style of Lucretius than Epicurus and purely for entertainment purposes.

Here it is: 'those who are sleepwalking in boundless, sensual indulgence'.

This brings up a further idea...and just wanting to mention, that sensation and sensual indulgence naturally has a limit when one is paying attention to the underlying feeling of pleasure or pain. So when we are paying attention then we naturally stop doing things which are painful. It is only things like fame and fortune (and other "groundless" desires) that do not have limits (maybe because they exist in an abstract sense beyond pleasure and pain).

(There is nothing "wrong" with sensual experiences).

It is possible we already have a chart for this but just for fun I am making this one, and will add in more details soon.

Chart comparing the goal for the various ancient Greek philosophies

Quote from Pacatus

Professor Austin, how did you yourself come to Epicureanism – both as a subject for your scholarship, and for your personal life?

(I know you fleshed this out a bit in the final chapter of your book.)

Thanks Pactatus for the question...and Emily explains that in the opening of the previous podcast interview, so we may end up skipping that question and instead jumping right into the philosophy questions (or possibly having a very short two sentence summary).

Her introduction is in Episode 156 (see post 6 above for the link).

Quote from ThinkingCat

“what does it mean to you personally to be epicurean in 30 words or less?”, what would your response be?

Pleasure, my natural goal: to remove pain and anxiety and experience the pleasures of sensation. With prudence overcoming the sorrows of life and experiencing sweetness. Smiling, being alive feels good!

(And...study and practice the philosophy with others of like mind).

Possible questions for Emily:

Now that you have written the book and also been interviewed a number of times...

---Do you have thoughts on how to bridge the gap between people who like to "philosophize" and those who are more into "self-help"?

---Will Epicureanism be forever deemed as somehow "esoteric" and beyond the ability or interest of many people?

---Do you see dangers in the possible development of a "pop-culture Epicureanism"?

---Any further thoughts on the parts of Epicurean philosophy which seem to be understood with divergent interpretations...for example "ataraxia" or the meaning of "pleasure"?

Quote from ThinkingCat

Some people quite into physical pleasure for its own sake calling themselves cyreaniacs (or something like that).

Pleasure for its own sake is the goal given to us by nature which we observe in babies, animals, and as adult humans we redeem pleasure from the false belief that it is somehow "wrong".

As for the ancient Cyrenaics, they didn't take the relief from pain as a pleasure, nor the pleasure of mental pleasures, so they focused on "in the now" and stimulating pleasures -- and this is very different than the Epicurean understanding of pleasure. Perhaps if there are people on here saying they are "cyrenaic" then they are just trying to emphasize the sensual aspect of pleasure as being okay.

As we see that Diogenes Laertius says that Epicurus said:

“I know not how to conceive the good, apart from the pleasures of taste, of sex, of sound, and the pleasures of beautiful form.”

So the Epicureans are totally fine with sensual pleasure, but as long as they also address the removal of any mental disturbances such as fear of death, fear of "irrational" punishment from the gods, or fear of pain (strong pain is short, and dull pains don't stop the enjoyment of pleasure).

Quote from ThinkingCat

The problem I’m having reading around the forum is that everyone seems to have their own interpretation of what Epicureans should be. I understand this is going to happen but reading between the lines people seem to hold quite different views. Some people quite into physical pleasure for its own sake calling themselves cyreaniacs (or something like that). This doesn’t seem to fit with the Epicurean view at all and I’m finding it quite confusing and almost contradictory and rather go back to the source if possible.

The way that I take it is to always return to the extant writings and to contemplate them. Then you must work to apply them to your own life. For one person a very sensual pleasure may end up bring too much pain, as compared to another person - some people choose not to drink any alcohol where as others are able to choose to drink in such a way that it doesn't cause them future pains (they drink to enjoy the taste and not to "medicate" into drunkeness, although there may be a time a place for a slight drunkenness if one is able to still hold onto free choice while intoxicated, and wisely making sure not to drive a vehicle while drunk).

So we don't categorize things as "right" or "wrong" -

Principal Doctrine 8:

"No pleasure is bad in itself; but the means of paying for some pleasures bring with them disturbances many times greater than the pleasures themselves." So it is a case by case situation that only you can decide for yourself.

I just created this graphic which may help:

I was looking at line 131 of this translation and noticed that it included "the enjoyment of sleep" as a type of pleasure not to be pursued. Don what is your take on this? I looked at your translation and didn't see anything referring to sleep.

Here is the text from Peter Saint-Andre:

"So when we say that pleasure is the goal, we do not mean the pleasures of decadent people or the enjoyment of sleep, as is believed by those who are ignorant or who don't understand us or who are ill-disposed to us, but to be free from bodily pain and mental disturbance. For a pleasant life is produced not by drinking and endless parties and enjoying boys and women and consuming fish and other delicacies of an extravagant table, but by sober reasoning, searching out the cause of everything we accept or reject, and driving out opinions that cause the greatest trouble in the soul."

Letter to Menoikos, by Epicurus

Let's use this thread to accumulate questions for Emily Austin. Everyone can post their questions here in this thread, and then as we go along we will update this post with the best questions and use it as a guide at the meeting.

********************************************************************************

Questions for Dr. Emily Austin: Well be coming from a slightly different vantage point compared to our previous interview on the Lucretius Today Podcast. We'd like to gear this interview for folks who have read the book and have a basic grasp of Epicurean philosophy. Your book has been out for some time now and also you have been interviewed a number of times. We can refer listeners to our earlier interview if they want to find more in depth info about your background and how you came to write the book, so this interview can jump right in to the philosophy.

List of Questions (to be updated)

1 - If you were writing the book over again today, would you change anything?

2 - Many people seem to have conflicting interpretations of what "ataraxia" or "tranquility" really mean. For some people tranquility is just a specific frame of mind, and for others it may be a specific list of actions that imply a very strict list of activities that a person will or will not do. Does pursuit of these goals mean there is specific list of do's and don'ts that everyone must follow? If not, how is the best way to get a firm grip on what pursuit of these goals means in real life?

3 - Epicurus seems to lay great emphasis on considering the condition of normal healthy living without pain be a state of pleasure. Do you see this observation - that the healthy activity of a living thing in a way that is natural to it is pleasure - as helpful to explaining to people why absence of pain does not imply "inaction" but indeed "healthy normal activity"?

4 - Related to that last question, can you tell us your thoughts on Torquatus' rejection of the "does your hand long for pleasure" argument from Chrysippus? Is this to be understood as making the same point made in the illustration that the host (who is not thirsty) pouring wine for his guest (who is thirsty) is in a similar state of pleasure to the guest who is drinking it? Can you explain these two illustrations? [Do these two examples illustrate that absence of pain is not a state of numbness but normal healthy pain-free action, and that the reason "absence of pain" is the greatest pleasure" is that an experience filled with pleasures cannot by definition be "filled" any further?]

5 - Do you have thoughts on how to bridge the gap between people who like to "philosophize" and those who are more into "self-help" so as to make the discussion of Epicurus more relevant and understandable?

6 - Do you see dangers in the possible development of a "pop-culture Epicureanism" similar to the way that there seems to be a "pop Stoicism" that has abandoned the roots of what it originally meant to be a Stoic?

7 - Do you think that Epicureanism is enjoying a resurgence of interest, as a scholarly topic, especially among women – such as yourself, Catherine Wilson and Pamela Gordon? If so (in your opinion), why?

8 - Dr. Austin, I bought "The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia (Hackett Classics)" by Epicurus, Brad Inwood, Lloyd P. Gerson because you recommend it in your book. Can you say something about why you recommend this particular collection of primary sources?

9 - What other schools of philosophy are close to your heart? Which schools you find worth studying in detail?

10 - Do you have any plans for future writing on Epicurus?

*Update For May 28th* -- we will cover the last 8 chapters because we would like to devote the entire session on June 4th to the Q&A with Emily Austin. -- Onenski, Cleveland Okie, TauPhi that will give us a lot to cover but I think we can do it just fine.

*Update For June 4th* -- "Meet the Author" -- We would like to have people submit questions ahead of time, and then the moderator will ask Emily Austin the questions. So please go ahead and post all questions in the new thread we created.

Yes, Zoom has a chat interface -- *Edit* -- we would like questions submitted ahead of time.

The video "To Scale: Time" is really good and Joshua you might like it too (they survey the distance to scale).

Quote from Don

Sign me up too please.

Okay, Thanks Don!

Quote from Godfrey

I'd like to attend.

Godfrey, Thanks for the RSVP! -- your name is included the private conversation with the Zoom link, so you should have access to the link -- and we will send out a message as a reminder as the event approaches.