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Ten years ago a group of friends who had come together on Facebook decided to set up a forum devoted exclusively to Epicurean Philosophy. Now after a decade we have one of the most complete resources for the study of Epicurus available on the internet. If you find the worldview of Epicurus attractive, we invite you to join us and become part of our online Epicurean community.

About This Presentation

Just as in our EpicureanFriends forum, each panelist participating in this forum speaks for themselves. The views presented here will be accompanied by cites to Epicurean texts and academic commentators which you can consult for more information. Just as the academic commentators differ among themselves, however, so do our EpicureanFriends participants take their own views of the Epicurean texts. We urge you to read the original texts for yourself and to make your own decisions about how best to understand them.

"Applying Epicurus Accurately - The Epicurean Paradigm Shift"

A presentation introducing the theme of how Epicurus is widely misunderstood by friend and foe alike.

"Bread and Water: Debunking The Idea Of Epicurean Asceticism"

A presentation on the fallacy that holds that Epicurus was an ascetic, and how one of the pillars of that view - that Epicurus promoted an austere diet - is incorrect.

"The Deep-Set Boundary Stone - Epicurus And The Perils Of Applying The Principles Of Geometry To Ethical Philosophy."

A presentation on how Epicurus diagnosed the error of applying geometric reasoning to ethical questions.

"An Elementary Fact Worth Bearing In Mind"

A presentation on how the texts must be read cautiously, as translators can disagree. In this example, Epicurus speaks of an elementary fact of physics worth bearing in mind, but commentators disagree on what that fact is.

Some think Epicurus was saying that images appear to move instantly, while others think Epicurus was telling us that what we see as the motion of a body is real, even though the atoms within the body are moving in many different directions at the same time.

"Moderation In All Things Is Not Always The Prudent Course"

A presentation on how in the pursuit of happy living Epicurus recommended "prudence," which is not at all always the same thing as "moderation."

Panel Discussion And Closing Comments

The presenters will make final comments on the topics presented and address questions received from viewers during the livestream.

Key Issues Where A Paradigm Adjustment Is Required:

Many key concepts in Epicurean philosophy sound familiar, but in each case Epicurus approached them in a manner that was unorthodox in his own time and even less understood today.

Cicero protested against Epicurus' terminology at length in regard to "Pleasure," here in On Ends Book 2 at 16:

“This, O Torquatus, is doing violence to one's senses; it is wresting out of our minds the understanding of words with which we are imbued. For who can avoid seeing that these three states exist in the nature of things: first, the state of being in pleasure; secondly, that of being in pain; thirdly, that of being in such a condition as we are at this moment, and you too, I imagine, that is to say, neither in pleasure nor in pain…."

So let's look at some of the most important concepts where Epicurus shifted the paradigm:

"Gods"

"Gods" do exist, but Epicurean gods are not supernatural, omniscient, omnipotent, or many of the other things people often think about when they use the term "god." Regardless of whether Epicurus really held gods to have an independent physical existence, or whether they exist as constructions of the human mind, Epicurus clearly held that a correct attitude toward divinity is essential to human happiness.

"Pleasure"

"Pleasure" is a word that should be interpreted very broadly, to include not only sensual stimuluation, but also all other experiences and feelings which are not painful including both: All active stimulations of the senses, and All healthy functioning of regular day-to-day life.

Cicero Was Actually Right This Time: Epicurus Does Speak In His Own Idiom

“The extension of the name of pleasure to this normal state of being was the major innovation of the new hedonism. It was in the negative form, freedom from pain of body and distress of mind, that it drew the most persistent and vigorous condemnation from adversaries. The contention was that the application of the name of pleasure to this state was unjustified on the ground that two different things were thereby being denominated by one name. Cicero made a great to-do over this argument, but it is really superficial and captious. The fact that the name of pleasure was not customarily applied to the normal or static state did not alter the fact that the name ought to be applied to it; nor that reason justified the application; nor that human beings would be the happier for so reasoning and believing." - Norman DeWitt - Epicurus and His Philosophy

"Absence of Pain"

Because Epicurus held that there are only two feelings, the term "absence of pain" does not indicate a special type of pleasure, but the measurement of the term "pleasure." There are many ways to express this analogy, but one way is to think of a slide rule, where at any point on the rule, the pointer indicates that the measure of the amount of pleasure and pain are exactly inverse, but tells us nothing else about the feeling being measured:

Torquatus And The Hand of Chrysippus

"Yet at Athens, so my father used to tell me when he wanted to air his wit at the expense of the Stoics, in the Ceramicus there is actually a statue of Chrysippus seated and holding out one hand, the gesture being intended to indicate the delight which he used to take in the following little syllogism: “Does your hand want anything, while it is in its present condition?”

"Answer: “No, nothing.” — “But if pleasure were a good, it would want pleasure.” — “Yes, I suppose it would.” — “Therefore pleasure is not a good.” This is an argument, my father declared, which not even a statue would employ, if a statue could speak; because though it is cogent enough as an objection to the Cyrenaics, it does not touch Epicurus." - Cicero's "On Ends" Book 1:11

"The Highest Pleasure"

"The Highest Pleasure" or the "limit" of pleasure occurs when all pain is is reduced to 0% of experience and all experience is therefore filled 100% with pleasure. Just as "pleasure" refers to all pleasures, rather than to any particular pleasure, the term "the highest pleasure" refers to an overall condition, rather than to any particular aspects of that condition.

"Virtue"

"Virtue" Is a tool for living happily and not absolute or an end in itself.

Considered as tools for the purpose of living pleasurably, however, Epicurus considered the practice of the virtues to be inseparable from a happy life.

Most people in Epicurus' age and today angrily reject this viewpoint, but it is the logical conclusion of identifying that there can be but a single "goal" or "greatest good" in life, and that that single objective is not "virtue" but "pleasure."

"Death Is Nothing To Us"

Epicurus held that human consciousness ceases to exist when the body dies. As we no longer exist after death, nothing is of concern to us after we die, because we no longer exist to experience any concerns at all. This does not mean that the time or manner of our death is of no significance to us, because life is desirable, and a painful death is undesirable. After we die, however, we ourselves are no longer have any concerns - death is "nothingness" to us.

"Nothing Exists Except Atoms And Void"

"Nothing exists except atoms and void" does not mean that the things we see around us are not real.

As Professor David Sedley writes: "Almost uniquely among Greek philosophers, [Epicurus] arrived at what is nowadays the unreflective assumption of almost anyone with a smattering of science, that there are truths at the microscopic level of elementary particles, and further very different truths at the phenomenal level; that the former must be capable of explaining the latter; but that neither level of description has a monopoly of truth. The truth that sugar is sweet is not straightforwardly reducible to the truth that it has such and such a molecular structure, even though the latter truth may be required in order to explain the former."

"Worlds"

For Epicurus, the term "World" refers not just to the Earth but to all that we see in the sky as well, including the sun, moon, stars, and planets, and there are an innumerable number of other worlds.

Epicurus held that an innumerable number of other such worlds existed, and that the spaces between these worlds (the "intermundia") is suitable for the residence of the Epicurean gods.

"Atoms"

For Epicurus, "atoms" were not what we think of as electrons moving around protons. "Atoms" refer simply to the smallest individual unit of matter imaginable, at which level they are eternal and unchanging and indivisible.

The ultimate point philosophically is not whether Epiurean atoms equate to subatomic particles, but that matter is not infinitely divisible. As a result, matter has unchanging and eternal characteristics which explain the way nature truly works, rather than through non-existent supernatural forces.

"Canon"

Epicurus' "Canon" was not a book of propositional truths, but a test by which we measure and determine what is true.

The three "legs" of the Epicurean Canon are the Five Senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell), the Anticipations (also called Prolepsis, an intuitive faculty by which relationships between data are ascertained), and the "Feelings" (the feelings of pleasure and pain).

"All Sensations Are True"

"All Sensations Are True" means that the senses report data to us without adding any opinions of their own. To Epicurus, the senses, anticipations, and feelings are like witnesses in court, testifying honestly to what they receive, without adding opinion of their own. Only opinions are true or false, so error exists only in the act of reasoning, not in the senses.

In the End, the Largest Paradigm Shift Will Come When People See That Epicurus Is Not the Philosopher of Shy Retiring Wallflowers, But Vigorous People Who Seek a FULL Life of Pleasure

"For it is hard to convince men that "the good is to be chosen for its own sake;" but that pleasure and tranquility of mind is acquired by virtue, justice, and the good is both true and demonstrable. Why, Epicurus himself, from whom all the Catiuses and Amafiniuses in the world, incompetent translators of terms as they are, derive their origin, lays it down that "to live a life of pleasure is impossible without living a life of virtue and justice." Consequently Pansa, who follows pleasure, keeps his hold on virtue, and those also whom you call pleasure-lovers are lovers of what is good and lovers of justice, and cultivate and keep all the virtues." - Cassius Longinus letter to Cicero, 45 BC

The Next Step In The Search For Truth Is Up To You

"For as dogs often discover by smell the lair of a mountain-ranging wild beast, though covered over with leaves, when once they have got on the sure track, thus you in cases like this will be able by yourself alone to see one thing after another and find your way into all dark corners and draw forth the truth." - Lucretius 1:398 (Munro)