Posts by Rivelle

Quote from elli

the book by the Professor of Philosophy Charalambos Theodoridis entitled "Epicurus - The True Face of the Ancient World")

Elli, can you please provide a link with further information about Theodoridis's book? And "Gemma" by Dimitris Liantinis?

Conducting a google search in English has thus far yielded nothing re. Theodoridis.

For Liantinis, there is more material in English. Do you have any advice regarding where to start reading etc. ?

His lecture here

http://www.liantinis.org/english/

contains much that is intriguing but also much that is rather enigmatic, and thus possibly misunderstood, for readers/listeners who do not speak Modern Greek.

Thank you for these replies.

"The True and the Good" has become a rather ingrained phrase (or what amounts to a singular concept) for my way of thinking for sometime now. As you all have pointed out this is indeed most likely Platonic. Or Christian (though I am not religious).

Most specifically, I think I took it from having read a lot of Hegel. "The True and the Good" might be seen as very rough approximation of Hegel's Absolute. Slavoj Zizek's version of Hegel's Absolute is a notably heterodox one. however.

I will certainly reflect further upon your replies and read further in Epicurus's thought and that of his followers. Maybe it's just the (revolutionary?) tonic that I need!

Thomas McEvilly made a video-lecture discussing his book:

These are links to the Amazon and Goodreads pages for Thomas McEvilly - "The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies"

There are reviews which give brief summaries of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Ancient-…s/dp/1581152035

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9256…Ancient_Thought

For longish posts, my habit for some time has been to write in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste.
A lot of discussion boards - including Facebook - don't have the edit features which this one does. Also, the posts always end up appearing white on black on my screen. So thank you for heads up.

But as Oscar said above, I will change the text colour from now on.

Kojin Karatani’s “ Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy” is a study of the Ionian world with particular attention being paid to its political aspects.

Download available here:

http://booksdescr.org/item/index.php…9753B70BEC15359

Reviews can be found here:

https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/reviews/indivi…Ck4r_0j1CVytSQM

https://www.anotherpanacea.com/2017/10/exit-o…uality-problem/

Can anybody recommend books that describe Epicurus’s revival of Ionian natural philosophy? Or just a good study or history of the Ionian world and thought.

I already know Elizabeth Asmis – “Epicurus' Scientific Method”.

What about books on the Indian influence on the Hellenistic world?

This short, tantalizing blog entry is a comparative essay.

https://epicurus.today/epicurus-and-carvaca/

But books such as Thomas McEvilley’s?

Ellie,

In historical context, Epicurus’s great genius lay in the natural scientific grounding of his system. Understood as a modus vivendi, this means the human being as a knowing subject is equally a *corporeal* subject. Thus *pleasure* can serve as our guiding light on our paths as we seek the True and the Good, within which our lives must also dwell. Our bodies are ever-present in our lives and therefore if we know the nature of true pleasure, properly understood, we will have happiness, truth and ethical guidance.

This is in marked contrast to the disputational, dialogical and dialectical natures of rival philosophical schools. Here we are, two and half thousand years later and Plato and his interlocutors have still not stopped arguing!! And what’s even worse, they are *still* arguing about *first* principles!! (I exaggerate for comic effect of course, but hopefully my point is clear).

Of the mental, emotional and affective disorders prevalent today, some can be seen to be historically new and unique to our modern 20^th and 21^st century historical period – (eating disorders; other types of body dysphoria; “germaphobia”; OCD; personality disorders are always just as historical as are the prevailing and typical personality types of the contextual historical period.)


Whilst other types of disorder can be observed to have occurred throughout recorded human history. Depression (otherwise known by other names such as “melancholy” etc) is a longstanding condition that humans seem to have been prone to for millennia. Your pointing to the causes as being superstition, religion, fear of the gods etc is a very Epicurean thing to say. But it fails to take into account the *usefulness* and valuable function that depression and sadness can play in an otherwise normal, healthy and functioning life.

Briefly put, a mental illness is the condition wherein a cognitive and emotional faculty becomes disassociated and then, further, hyper-activated such that it becomes problematic for well-being.

But depression has been with human beings for so long as it also has a very *useful* emotional and mental function. It is good to stop taking a path of action which has become a bad one, possibly become “depressed” about one’s previous actions, stop and take stock and then, ideally, reflect and choose a better and brighter path.

Consider Albrecht Durer’s “Melencolia I”, that I referred to in my post above.

Note the thoughtfulness upon the Angel of Melancholy’s face. The many engineering instruments of measurement: the callipers, the weighing scales, the table of numbers upon the wall. The incomplete building block of granite. Finally, the angels gaze takes us to the shinning sunburst of glorious light in the top left of the picture. The bright horizon which thought and creation, which may require the concentrated reflection of melancholic silence, can lead us to.

Yes. The right medication is vital.

But philosophy can potentially help. Philosophy can be a potentially transformative modus vivendi . Philosophy lived in the form of vita contemplativa will come about naturally for most intellectual-types. Neurologically speaking, it is obviously healthy for the brain to be employed regularly performing difficult but also *pleasurable* tasks.

For Epicurus, as thinking is natural, philosophy is pleasurable.

Thank you for your summation of Epicurus’s system. Whilst I take your point regrading the impossibility of understanding the parts unless one has equally grasped the whole into which they are to be placed – “Don’t fear god; Don’t worry about death” is firstly to be grounded in atomistic physics from which proceeds the consequent prescriptive psychology of modus vivendi – I thought it might of interest to break this rule somewhat in order to attempt to explain how the subjective state of being which is ataraxia is helpful to those like me who have depression.

Keats’s oeuvre contains an insightful line which pertains to our purposes here: “half in love with easeful death”. Keats also wrote an Ode to Melancholy.

(Amongst the artistic representations of Melancholy, arguably the greatest is Albrecht Durer’s” Melencolia I”. See Giorgio Agamben on Durer.)

Otherwise put, “half in love with easeful death” may serve as a description of, for example, suicidal ideation; listlessness, apathy and anhedonia; unhappiness which results from the neurological conditions (depressive illness) which may result in various forms of self-negation.

Ataraxia from Pyrrho to the Stoics was a warrior’s virtue. The maintenance of clear-headed equanimity and fearlessness in the heat of battle. The place of ataraxia in Epicurus’s system is less straightforward. Glory-seeking activities such as warfare and conquest will not bring happiness and are manifestations of an underlying denial of mortality.

But equally, the Epicurean cheerfulness which will result when we do not worry about death (in the terms set out above, when we are not depressed, not “half in love with easeful death”) depends in part upon the stillness of mind or the equanimity which is ataraxia.

Possibly the influences of Indian thought on the Hellenistic philosophers may be seen here. Leaving to one side philosophical-historical questions for the moment, mindfulness meditation exercises are often recommended as one way to manage and treat depressive illness. The end-goal of meditation exercises varies with those who practise them. Most commonly, they are useful to people to help cope with the stresses of everyday life. For monks they are part of an asceticism which pierces the veils of samsaric illusion in accordance with their doctrine of anattā (Pali) or anātman (Sanskrit). For sufferers of depression, meditation can help them maintain their selfhood and quell the inner demons of self-negation. Ataraxia may be one name we could give to this healthful condition. Depressive anhedonia is an anti-thetical force which blocks Epicurean pleasures

The Epicurean writings on the attaining and maintaining of Ataraxia combined with Philodemus’s “four-part cure” have been of notable benefit to me as someone who has a major depressive affective disorder.

My Epicurean soul is (mostly) cheerful!

My background is in English Literary History. My Phd thesis was on the Utopian Politics of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”.