Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy

The fourth look at chapter eight continues on sensations, anticipations and feelings, returning to anticipations with both Joshua and Don assisting in the analysis.

Epicurus opens the Letter to Pythocles, a brief argument about the phenomena of the sky, whose knowledge serves peace of mind, and warns that choosing one theory where several harmonize with phenomena is recourse to myth.

The second part on pleasure in the Letter to Menoeceus explains that freedom from bodily pain and mental disturbance, not luxury, is what the wise pursuit of pleasure actually aims at.

With David Glidden

Philosophy professor David Glidden discusses prolepsis, the Epicurean concept of anticipation or preconception, offering his own challenging take on one of the hardest parts of Epicurus to understand.

This second look at chapter seven continues on the canon, reason and nature, again on the dethronement of reason and the priority of nature over reason.

This part of the Letter to Pythocles continues on the sun and moon, covering the waxings and wanings of the moon, the face in the moon and the eclipse of sun and moon.

In the Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus argues that the gods are real and immortal and blessed, and that the impious man is he who attaches to the gods the beliefs of the many.

Epicurus in the Letter to Herodotus on images of unsurpassable fineness of texture, which he calls idols, and on how something entering from external objects lets a person see and think of their shapes.

This first part on pleasure in the Letter to Menoeceus names pleasure as the starting point of every choice, while insisting that not every pleasure is worth choosing.

This part works through a list of true opinions and false opinions about Epicurus, from his place in Greek philosophy to his attitude toward learning.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine names pleasure as the guide of life, a faculty and a criterion of truth in the overall scheme of nature, after Lucretius' line.

This part opens chapter ten on the new freedom, from choosing and avoiding and the double choice to freedom and necessity and necessity and fortune.

The Letter to Herodotus on more fundamental physics: the first beginnings are indivisible and completely solid, the universe is boundless, and the atoms move continuously for all time, some falling straight down, others swerving.

This fifth pass through chapter twelve on the new hedonism turns to the root of all good and whether pleasure can be continuous.

The Letter to Herodotus turns to the soul, describing it as a body of fine particles distributed throughout the whole structure, most resembling wind with a certain admixture of heat.

The sixth part of chapter twelve continues the new hedonism discussion, turning to the impossibility of continuous pain and the relation of pleasure to virtue.

This review of the key doctrines of Epicurus featured on the front page of the EpicureanFriends website addresses the doctrine that all sensations are true.

This part of the Letter to Herodotus covers the doctrine of the infinity of worlds, arguing that atoms infinite in number produce infinite worlds both like and unlike this world.

This third pass through chapter seven on the canon, reason and nature continues with ridicule and nature as the norm.

The fifth and closing part on chapter eight of Norman DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, on sensations, anticipations and feelings, completes the chapter by addressing the topic of feelings.

This part begins chapter fourteen of DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, The New Virtues, taking up wisdom, temperance and courage.

The Letter to Herodotus turns to first principles: nothing comes from nothing, nothing is destroyed into nothing, and the universe itself consists only of bodies and void.

The Letter to Menoeceus closes with a summary of its teaching on the gods, death and pleasure, urging its reader to exercise these precepts day and night to live as a god among men.

This part of the Diogenes of Oinoanda inscription argues for the superiority of the Epicurean view of divinity over the supernatural religious beliefs of much of the rest of the world.

The second look at chapter ten on the new freedom continues with necessity and fortune, freedom and the gods, and the necessity of death.

The Letter to Herodotus on principles of clear thinking: first grasp the ideas attached to words, then keep every investigation in accord with the sensations and the feelings.

The Letter to Herodotus on perception through the mechanism of atoms: hearing results when a current carried off from the sounding object is split up into particles, and smell works just like hearing.

This third part of chapter ten on the new freedom in DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy covers freedom, government and law, public careers, the simple life and control of desires.

This review of the key doctrines of Epicurus featured on the front page of the EpicureanFriends website addresses the doctrine that he who says nothing can be known knows nothing.

The start of chapter nine, The New Physics, in a series giving a general overview of Epicurean philosophy on the organizational structure of Norman DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy.

The Letter to Pythocles continues on weather phenomena, explaining earthquakes, winds, hail, snow and dew, each of which may be produced in several ways.

The discussion of true opinions and false opinions about Epicurus continues, now on his view of truth and his method for determining truth.

This part opens chapter thirteen on the true piety, from knowledge, existence and form of the gods to prophecy and prayer.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine holds that virtue is never absolute or an end in itself, since all good and evil finally consists in sensation.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine holds that life is desirable, yet unlimited time contains no greater pleasure than a limited life span.

Epicurus completes the Letter to Herodotus: the function of the science of nature is to discover accurately the cause of the most essential facts, and those who miss the essential causes are still in fear.

Diogenes of Oinoanda, near the sunset of his life, used a stoa inscription to advertise publicly the medicines that bring salvation, to citizens, to generations to come and to the foreigners who come here.

In this section of the Letter to Herodotus, Epicurus rejects the idea that matter can be divided infinitely, and turns to the least part in the atom.

In this part of the Letter to Herodotus, Epicurus addresses life on other worlds, how language first developed among early humans, and why the stars move in regular courses.

The Letter to Pythocles turns to how worlds form, describing them as arising when seeds of the right kind rush in from a single world or interworld and little by little make junctions and articulations.

This first part on death in the Letter to Menoeceus makes the case that death is nothing, since all good and evil consists in sensation, and death is deprivation of sensation.

The start of a general introductory overview of Epicurean philosophy on the topic structure of Norman DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, with Epicurus as the most revered and most reviled founder of a philosophical school.

This third pass through chapter twelve on the new hedonism examines the true nature of pleasure, which Epicurus declares cognate and connate, of one nature with normal life.

This part of chapter fourteen of DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, The New Virtues, turns to honesty, then faith, love of mankind, friendship, suavity, considerateness, hope and gratitude.

The continuation and conclusion of the discussion of the Epicurean rejection of determinism, under the key doctrine that there is no necessity to live under necessity.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine, that pleasure means the absence of pain, dives deeper into the full meaning of the word pleasure in Epicurean philosophy.

The second part on death in the Letter to Menoeceus argues that neither the wise man shuns life nor fears its end, since he seeks to enjoy the most pleasant time and not the longest.

The final part on Diogenes of Oinoanda concludes that virtue serves only as a means toward the true end of life, which the inscription names as pleasure itself.

This part opens chapter twelve on the new hedonism, from the summum bonum fallacy and pleasure identified as the telos to the relation of pleasure to virtue.

This part of chapter fourteen of DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, The New Virtues, turns to the attitude toward the present and to gratitude to teachers, to nature and to friends.

This review of the key doctrines of Epicurus featured on the front page of the EpicureanFriends website addresses the doctrine that death is nothing.

Epicurus argues in the Letter to Herodotus that atoms and void are the only two realities, and that basic questions of epistemology rest on trusting what the senses report.

The Letter to Pythocles holds that the size of the sun, moon and other stars is what it appears to be, as with fires on earth seen from a distance, and weighs the implications.

The Letter to Menoeceus opens with Epicurus urging that philosophy is for every age of life, since the pursuit of health for the soul is never too early or too late.

This part follows the development of the school in Mytilene and Lampsacus, from the new philosophy on trial to the Lampsacene circle.

This part begins chapter six of DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, The New Education, set against Platonic education: a new emphasis in rhetoric, the rejection of dialectic and mathematics, and the tour of the universe.

The fourth and closing look at chapter seven on the canon, reason and nature completes the discussion of nature as the norm and its priority over reason.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine holds that the universe is infinite and eternal and has no gods over it, in the episode that marks five full years of podcasting.

The Letter to Herodotus continues on properties and qualities, adding events to the list and explaining how time is associated with days and nights, internal feelings, and movements and states of rest.

The Letter to Pythocles on weather phenomena: signs of the weather, clouds, rain, thunder and lightning, which phenomena demand be explained as caused in several ways.

The Letter to Pythocles ends with comets, fixed and wandering stars and falling stars, calling it madness to assign a single cause where phenomena demand several, as partisans of astrology do.

This part covers chapter eleven on soul, sensation and mind, from the body as a vessel and the cosensitivity of soul and body to vision, hearing and mind as a supersense.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine opens the first part of a discussion of Epicurus' rejection of determinism, after Book 1 of Cicero's On the Nature of The Gods.

This review of a key Epicurean doctrine covers the principle that nothing comes from nothing, the starting point Epicurus and Lucretius use for the discussion of Epicurean physics.

The second look at chapter twelve on the new hedonism continues with pleasure identified as the telos.

This third part of chapter thirteen of DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, The True Piety, covers gradation in godhead, isonomy and the gods, the life of the gods, and prophecy and prayer.

The next part of chapter fourteen of DeWitt's Epicurus and His Philosophy, The New Virtues, turns to justice.

The next part of chapter fourteen on the new virtues continues with faith, love of mankind, friendship, suavity, considerateness, hope and gratitude.

Epicurus' Letter to Herodotus opens as an epitome of the whole system for those unable to work in detail through all he wrote about nature, read after Lucretius' poem and Cicero's On Ends.

This part covers the new school in Athens: the school property, ranks and titles, personnel and students, reverence, images and friendship.

This part opens chapter eight on sensations, anticipations and feelings, with subsections from why Epicurus was no empiricist to the account of Laertius.

The second look at chapter nine on the new physics continues with linear and vibratory motion, the swerve of the atom, up and down in an infinite universe and the problem of cause.

The second look at chapter thirteen on the true piety continues with the form of the gods.

The second look at chapter fifteen continues tracing the extension and submergence of Epicurean philosophy, from the school in Alexandria to Plutarch, anti-Epicurean.

The fourth look at chapter twelve continues the new hedonism discussion, from pleasure not increased by immortality to the unity of pleasure and the root of all good.

With Marcelo Boeri

Marcelo Boeri, professor of ancient philosophy in Chile, discusses his new book with Javier Aoiz, Theory and Practice in Epicurean Political Philosophy: Security, Justice, and Tranquility, on Epicurus' views on engagement with society.

This section of the Letter to Herodotus asks what it means for something to exist, distinguishing permanent properties of a body from accidents that happen to bodies and do not permanently accompany them.

This second part on Diogenes of Oinoanda examines fragments on the nature of reality, including Epicurus' difference of opinion with Democritus, who said that atoms alone have true reality.

With Emily Austin

Emily Austin, professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University and author of Living for Pleasure, on the main points of Epicurean philosophy, how it differs from Stoicism, pleasure as the goal, and death.

This part opens chapter seven on the canon, reason and nature, with the dethronement of reason, nature as the norm and the priority of nature over reason.

The discussion of the new education continues, covering the use of the epitome and the new textbooks.

This part opens chapter fifteen on extension, submergence and revival, from the fortunes of the parent school and the school in Antioch to Epicureans in the New Testament.

This third pass through chapter fifteen on extension, submergence and revival continues with the reaction against Epicureanism, Plutarch as anti-Epicurean and the third and fourth centuries.

The second part explains the three divisions of Epicurean philosophy: physics, ethics and canonics, and the teaching devices Epicurus employed.

The second look at chapter eight continues on sensations, anticipations and feelings, moving to the subsections on sensations and on why Epicurus was no empiricist.

This part covers the early years of Epicurus, born in 341 BC, and the cultural background against which his philosophy first took shape.

This third pass through chapter eight moves further into anticipations, with the account of Laertius, the element of anticipation and the later evidences.

A special episode pauses the Letter to Pythocles for the Twelve Fundamentals of Nature as summarized by Norman DeWitt, from the principle that matter is uncreatable to atomic shapes that are merely innumerable.