Author: Cassius Amicus
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Leave Apathy To The Stoics, and Strive to “Never Be Taken By Surprise.”
There is an unfortunate strain of thought which poses a significant danger for those who do not discern the important differences between Epicurean and Stoic theory. Straying onto the Stoic...
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The Key To Distinguishing The “Greatest Good” from the “Goal” of Life: “Every supreme good … is meaningless to the dead; every supreme good presumes life.”
Because the terms are so regularly discussed, it is necessary to work to gain and keep a clear view of the difference between the “greatest good” of life and the...
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New FAQ Entry: What Did Epicurus Have To Say About Friendship?
What did Epicurus say about “friendship”? Key Doctrine 27: “Of all the things which the wise man seeks to acquire to produce the happiness of a complete life, by far...
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Random? A Fluke? The Rise of Man and the Better View of “Chance and Natural Law In Epicureanism”
I wish to credit Jules Evans and a Facebook discussion for prompting me to return to a subject of supreme importance in Epicureanism. Even more than the nature of “Anticipations,”...
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“They have only to draw some circles, arrange a few triangles and squares, add certain complicated spheres, and lo, they have the cubic contents of Heaven.”
For many generations the science of optics and rocketry were unknown, and experiments were far from the point when man gained compelling visual evidence of the size of the sun,...
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If I have to choose between Platonic mathematicians telling me that reality doesn’t exist, and Epicurean philosophers telling me the sun may be the size of a basketball, I’ll live happily choosing the basketball, thank you.
My title for this post is an overly elaborate way of setting the stage to quote an Epicurean argument from my favorite dialog of Lucian, Hermotimus. The selection ends with...
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Peace and Safety For Your Twentieth of April!
Peace and Safety to the Epicureans of today, no matter where you might be! This week, I found myself citing Key Doctrine 10 to a friend, and that reminded me...
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“Joy And Cheerfulness Are Beheld in Motion And Energy”
Lest we forget that Epicurus valued pursuit of happiness through action as well as through reflection: From Diogenes Laertius (Cyril Bailey translation): Now, he [Epicurus] differs from the Cyrenaics about...
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Never Forget That The Clock Is Ticking!
As someone who finds it very easy to get distracted in meaningless controversies, I need to constantly remind myself how Epicurus stressed that the clock is ticking on our mortality. ...
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“It was Epicurus’ Determination to Dethrone Reason and Set Up Nature As the Norm.”
A recent Facebook discussion and a particular reminder from Stefan bring to mind Norman DeWitt’s argument against the fallacy of thinking that Epicurus held “pleasure” to be the “highest good.”...