Category: Introductory Material
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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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“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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The Peril of “Blind Reason”
In further comment on role of “Reason” as a support, but not a standard of Truth, Lucretius here relates (from Book VI, line 59) that “blind reason” can deceive even...
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Epicurean Physics
The validity of Epicurean philosophy is grounded squarely on a number of core observations about the nature of the universe. Of these, no principle is more fundamental than the observation...
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Comments On The Role of “Reason” In Epicureanism
Prior to beginning my study Epicurus I had picked up the impression that Plato was somehow “anti-reason,” and that Aristotle was the great defender of “reason” against the Platonic viewpoint. ...
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“Our Canon Is:”
[Edit 06/20/15: This post probably needs revision. I have come to question whether Hicks’ translation of this line is accurate and this needs to be checked.] “Our canon is that...
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An Example Of Rigorous Thinking That We Would Do Well To Apply to The Study of Epicureanism
Here is some good advice that applies just as well to the study of Epicureanism as it does to the study of diet and nutrition: “Critical to the success of...
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Mr. Spock Was Not An Epicurean God
There an important passage in Book II of Lucretius that is frequently translated in a way I find questionable. Rolfe Humphries, one of my favorite translators, renders it as follows: ...