Author Archives: Hiram

About Hiram

Hiram is an author from the north side of Chicago who has written for The Humanist, Infidels, Occupy, and many other publications. He blogs at The Autarkist and is the author of Tending the Epicurean Garden (Humanist Press, 2014), How to Live a Good Life (Penguin Random House, 2020) and Epicurus of Samos – His Philosophy and Life: All the principal Classical texts Compiled and Introduced by Hiram Crespo (Ukemi Audiobooks, 2020). He earned a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from NEIU.

Happy Hegemon Day: the Five Lucretian Hymns to the Hegemon

Happy Eikas and Welcome to year 2,366 of Epicurus! Today we celebrate the birth of Epicurus according to Hellenion.org’s Attic calendar and also the Gregorian calendar (because his birthday coincides in both this year).

Literary Updates:

November 2024 Eikas – Theoxenia: a Practice of Epicurean Hospitality

December 2024 Eikas – Nature Must Not Be Forced

Epicurean Gamikós (“Matrimonial”) Script – our friend Nate gives a version of Epicurean liturgical guidelines for a wedding ceremony. This reminded me of an essay I wrote many moons ago titled An Epicurean Approach to Secularizing Rites of Passage, where I argue that we are able to preserve the utility of ceremony while purging it from supernatural claims by articulating the benefit of the ceremony in terms of social contract

In this essay, I will evaluate Epicurean soteriology in Lucretius by surveying the five Lucretian hymns to the Hegemon and looking for themes and patterns in them.

The Five Lucretian Hymns to the Hegemon

Liber Primvs

In verses 61-79 of the first book by Lucretius, we first see a Promethean depiction of Epicurus as Liberator from the oppression of religion, whose terrors spark an angry zest in the Hegemon. He is hailed as a “conqueror” who gained the secrets of the study of nature for the benefit of mortals, and who

reports
What things can rise to being, what cannot,
And by what law to each its scope prescribed,
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.
Wherefore Religion now is under foot,
And us his victory now exalts to heaven.

These last two verses are often quoted as part of the “mysteries” related to the meleta portion of Epicurus’ Epistle to Menoeceus, where Epicurus says we will live like immortals if we practice philosophy correctly. The verses in Latin are:

quare religio pedibus
subiecta vicissim opteritur,
nos exaequat victoria caelo.

The poem from Liber Primvs precedes the tale of Iphianassa, who was sacrificed by her own father to the Goddess Diana, so that part of the context of this initial poem (as I discussed in Mahsa Amini: the new Iphianassa) is that religion cannot be trusted to provide a social contract or a sense of morality or right, and that (as our third Scholarch Polystratus argued adamantly in one of his scrolls) without the scientific study of nature, our pursuit of these things is in vain.

The Iphianassa portion closes with a formula that is often used by modern Epicureans online whenever they create memes to criticize religious tyranny: tantum religio potuit suadere malorum, which translates as “so much of evil could religion prompt”.

Liber Tertivs

Liber Secvndvs does not have an opening poem in praise of Epicurus. Instead, it praises the salvific power of philosophy when it invites us to the study of nature so that we will not be trembling in fear of the unknown and speaks to us of the well-walled fortress of the wise (templa sapientorum).

In the first verse of Liber Tertivs, we continue to see the juxtaposition of darkness (tenebris) and light (lumen), which we also encountered in Liber Secvndvs, which paints Epicurus as a figure of Enlightenment. This is one of the recurrent themes in Lucretian hymns: the battle between darkness or ignorance and light or wisdom. The poem later refers to Epicurus as the fatherly Founder of the School in this way:

Our father thou,
And finder-out of truth, and thou to us
Suppliest a father’s precepts; and from out
Those scriven leaves of thine, renowned soul
(Like bees that sip of all in flowery wolds),
We feed upon thy golden sayings all-
Golden, and ever worthiest endless life.
For soon as ever thy planning thought that sprang
From god-like mind begins its loud proclaim
Of nature’s courses, terrors of the brain
Asunder flee, the ramparts of the world
Dispart away, and through the void entire
I see the movements of the universe.

For context, the ktistes (founder, usually of a city, dynasty, or association) was one of the types of figures who enjoyed the status of a Greek hero among their followers. These types of culture heroes often were recipients of a cult and, as public benefactors, were considered worthy of piety by their descendants. Epicurus has become, to the Koinonia or community of philosopher-friends, an embodiment of what Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra calls their “chief organizing idea”.

Liber Tertivs in general deals with the nature of the soul / mind, and Epicurus is here praised for having a god-like mind. Also, notice that Lucretius here praises the Aurea Dicta (golden precepts) of Epicurus, a subject that we will turn to later in this essay.

After the Aurea Dicta verse, Epicurus is celebrated as a type of polytheistic prophet, a revealer of the tranquil Epicurean gods. Lucretius gives us a poetic epiphany of these gods and their environment, proclaiming that this aspect of Epicurus’ doctrine produces (as intended) god-like trembling awe (terror) and pleasure (divina voluptas) in Lucretius, an awe that is not fear-based but blissful.

Liber Qvartvs

The Fourth Book continues the theme of Epicurus as a Revealer. It says that something new is being inspired, given, new fountains are springing forth and fresh flowers. I wonder if Nietzsche intended to weave Lucretian intertextuality in Thus Spake Zarathustra (portion 25) when he mentioned old fountains bursting forth again. Lucretius again takes up the theme of light and darkness and of enlightened salvation from dreadful religion, saying 

since I teach concerning mighty things,
And go right on to loose from round the mind
The tightened coils of dread religion;
Next, since, concerning themes so dark, I frame
Song so pellucid, touching all throughout
Even with the Muses’ charm

The Copley translation (my favorite) of verses 8-9 says: “I turn the bright light of my verse on darkness, painting it all with poetry“. Epicurus and Lucretius both present themselves as Enlighteners and as propagators of the scientific enlightenment.

One further detail I wish to point to here: in the Opening of the First Book of the poem I have previously noticed a Zoroastrian influence (via Empedocles) in Lucretius, where he juxtaposes Venus (peace or concord, pleasure) and Mars (conflict, discord) as two great cosmic ethical forces–see the Love and Strife section of my essay on Empedocles. The verse that refers to “loose from round the mind the tightened coils of dread religion” (religionum animum nodis exsolvere pergo) reminds me of the kushti (cord) that Zoroastrians wear, by which they “bind” themselves to their magical religion, and of the more sinister akedah (binding, and later unbinding) of Isaac by Abraham, who nearly sacrificed his own son to his god.

This, plus the theme in Liber Primvs of liberating humans from religion so that it is trampled underfoot and we are heaven’s equals, helps us to understand Lucretian soteriology in more detail. Lucretius places Epicurus as a symbol or point of reference within history and within the evolution of thought as a similar paradigm shift as other salvific figures: after Epicurus’s Promethean revelations, humans did not need to live in fear of gods anymore, since he healed our souls and prepared us to live pleasantly and correctly. When we compare this with salvific claims made about other figures, we see that Jesus saved people from having to follow Jewish law, and Buddha and Zoroaster both saved people in their culture from animal sacrifices and other practices that they deemed unethical or superstitious. Epicurus, from his own place in history, saved people from fear-based polytheistic practices and refined polytheism, purging it from superstition and providing a prototype for a new, emancipated and enlightened type of human being and a new spirituality. There is a break with the past, and a new and updated type of human being is now possible.

In the latter part of the hymn in Liber Qvartvs, Lucretius reveals himself as a healer. Lucretius is imparting a dose of medicine and shows us how mortals can participate in Epicurus’ soul-healing activity. 

I too (since this my doctrine seems
In general somewhat woeful unto those
Who’ve had it not in hand, and since the crowd
Starts back from it in horror) have desired
To expound our doctrine unto thee in song
Soft-speaking and Pierian, and, as ’twere,
To touch it with sweet honey of the Muse-
If by such method haply I might hold
The mind of thee upon these lines of ours,
Till thou dost learn the nature of all things
And understandest their utility.

Liber Qvintvs

This book provides one of the most useful hymns in our investigation of Epicurean salvation. In this book, Epicurus is revealed and proclaimed a god, and his apotheosis and soteriology is justified.

… a god was he,-
Hear me, illustrious Memmius- a god;
Who first and chief found out that plan of life
Which now is called philosophy, and who
By cunning craft, out of such mighty waves,
Out of such mighty darkness, moored life
In havens so serene, in light so clear.
Compare those old discoveries divine
Of others …

Lucretius then compares Epicurus to the other gods and argues that Epicurus did more for us than they, and so we should be more thankful to him.The other gods were credited with slaying mythical monsters whose existence none have ever witnessed, or with providing useful cultural gifts like wine and weaving that men could have done without. Epicurus, on the other hand, is credited with providing necessary goods for salvation. He is credited with giving humans:

  • a pure heart (puro pectore, verse 18)
  • sweet consolations that soothe the souls of men (verses 20-21)
  • purging the heart of lust and fears (verses 45-46), pride, greed, wantonness, debaucheries and sloth (verses 47-48)
  • expelling these things from the soul with words, not weapons (dictis, non armis)

As a tangent, we may compare all the evils that Lucretius says Epicurus purged from our hearts with the salvific claims in Lucian’s 10 Assertions on Kyriai Doxai.

Furthermore, the other Gods are demystified and made natural in Book Five, and Lucretius denies that they are truly responsible for the “gifts” they are said to bestow (except in the curious case of Venus, which has been discussed before and deserves a separate essay). The claims of this hymn are part of the larger aim within Liber Qvintvs‘ of demystifying Greek gods and cultural heroes, but Lucretius also elevates mortals like Epicurus to divine status, demonstrating how with the help of philosophy we can be heaven’s equals.

O shall it not be seemly him
To dignify by ranking with the gods?
And all the more since he was wont to give,
Concerning the immortal gods themselves,
Many pronouncements with a tongue divine,
And to unfold by his pronouncements all
The nature of the world.

Liber Sextus

The claims about Epicurus in Book Six, again, mirror Lucian’s claims. Lucretius says that “only truth poured from his lips” (Copley’s translation of veridico), while Lucian says that “he alone knew and imparted truth”. Lucretius says that his god-like revelations have carried his fame to heaven. He then gives a parable which compares the souls of men to punctured jars that are made whole by philosophy so that they may contain the pleasures that nature easily makes available to men.

So he,
The master, then by his truth-speaking words,
Purged the breasts of men, and set the bounds
Of lust and terror, and exhibited
The supreme good whither we all endeavour,
And showed the path whereby we might arrive
Thereunto by a little cross-cut straight

Notice that the salvific power is attributed, specifically, to the words of Epicurus, which is what Philodemus also does in his scroll On Music. This hymn speaks of godlike revelations and depicts the Hegemon as the healer of the soul. This is another theme we often see in other salvific figures, like Buddha and Jesus.

How does polytheism evolve as a result of Epicurus’ apotheosis? Does this represent a move towards pantheism, or panentheism, or towards a type of religious naturalism? My book review of How one can be a god partially answers this. The divine powers and attributes are drawn down to the earthly realm in Lucretius, rather than projected toward heaven, and Lucretius treats Epicurus himself as the prototype of immanent divinity. In the poem, Lucretian Gods are symbols tied to techniques to help us awaken certain spiritual potentials. Since Lucretian Divinity is immanent (remember that Venus, too, is said to “pulsate in the souls of men” in Liber Primvs), we must ex-press them (press them out of our souls), e-voke them (call them out from our souls) rather than in-voke them from the outside.

Personalist vs. Healing Logos Attribution

When we study the salvific theory of the Epicureans, we see two tendencies of attribution: in Lucretius we see a marked tendency to attribute salvific power to the Hegemon, the founder, Epicurus. This is the personalist attribution, although he also mentions “aurea dicta” (golden words) and the power of the healing words of the Hegemon as well.

Philodemus, in his scroll On Music, mentions that music only has healing powers if it contains the words of correct philosophy because it is those words that contain the healing potential, and so his therapeutic approach is logocentric. This is the non-personalist or healing logos approach to salvation, which attributes salvific powers to the words rather than the person uttering them.

In Lucian we see a praise of both Epicurus and his Kyriai Doxai: he endorsed both the personalist and the healing word model of salvation. The two tendencies of attribution are not mutually exclusive, however, the choice of one or the other might reflect the personality or tendencies or values of the person and might be justified with different arguments.

Lucretius focuses on the personalist attribution, which tells me that he feels comfortable with devotional traditions and exercises, that he sees them as serving some kind of important function in the psyche. Arguments in favor of personifying deity and choosing personal conceptions of spirituality rather than abstract ones exist in traditions that focus on devotion, like the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage of Hinduism. In general, the argument I’ve heard from that lineage (which expound on passages from the scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam) is that humans find it easier to relate to a Person than to an abstraction. The personalist attribution is based on the theory that the psyche has a social set of faculties and functions, that it seeks to relate to an other self, and that it learns to relate to others by playing or rehearsing loving relationships. Play behavior also serves educational purposes in other species: we see cubs and kittens playing to learn social hierarchy, stalking behavior, and other important skills that will be later useful. Hindus refer to the playful pastimes of Krishna as “lila” (divine play).

Perhaps the issue of personal versus impersonal attribution of salvific power can be understood in terms of different types of Epicureans with different constitutions, some more social than others or more willing to take up external points of reference, or as attempts to develop different faculties of the soul.

Conclusion

In this essay I’ve tried to compile and evaluate some of the soteriological claims made and parables used by Lucretius in De rerum natura, particularly in the five hymns that he dedicates to the Hegemon, where Lucretius makes attributions to Epicurus as a Revealer of cosmic truths, a Healer of souls, a Promethean Savior of humanity from religious oppression and disinformation, a Liberator, and a deified mortal. We also see a pattern of presenting Epicurus as a scientific Enlightener who sheds his light upon darkness, and we see that Lucretius participates in these salvific activities by virtue of his poem and his efforts to propagate philosophy.

Happy Eikas

May you have a Happy and Peaceful Eikas this month! My latest blogs:

A big thank you to those who have supported me on Patreon and Substack over the years. There have been some changes to how Patreon subscribers are billed. My understanding is that this has to do with Apple wanting to force the Patreon platform to bill its users through the Apple platform for apps, and to extract more revenue this way. If you’d like to support my work outside of the Patreon app, feel free to subscribe to me on Substack. I’ve also used Medium, but I do not see much reason to use it frequently except for the one benefit that it offers to read essays out loud to readers.

Due to Twitter’s extremist alt-right algorithm, in recent months people have been migrating to Bluesky, and I decided to give it a try and SoFE now has a Bluesky account. I’m open to feedback on what platforms are best to use. For now, Substack will likely be my main platform. Other literary updates:

The holiday season is approaching. If you’re looking for ways to support my work and propagate Epicurean philosophy, consider gifting some of my books:

Our friend Nathan has spent many hours updating his page Twentiers.com. Like me, he is a volunteer who has chosen to propagate philosophy, and he now has a Patreon account by which you may support his work. His latest compilation of content is fragments from Epicurus’ 37 books On Nature. He also has hard-to-find passages from Philodemus’ scroll On Piety and many other sources.

Happy Eikas! Syggenis Hedone

I wish you happiness and peace this Eikas! I recently published my commentary on syggenis hedone (Epicurus’ doctrine of congenital pleasure), comparisons of this doctrine with Buddhists doctrines, and an essay on Vatican Saying 41 as a set of practices for systematically awakening our pleasure potential.

  • Commentary on Innate Pleasure – Provides a basic outline of the Epicurean conception of pleasure as an innate ethical faculty
  • Comparing Syggenis Hedone and Buddha-Garbha – Evaluates some shared basic features of innate pleasure and Buddha-nature, particularly as it is interpreted in the hongaku (original enlightenment) discourse in some lineages of Japanese Buddhism
  • The Activities of Vatican Saying 41 – Breaks this saying into 5 precepts that teach us to find our voice, to practice philosophy and laughter at one and the same time, and other precepts. This essay focuses on the word “ama”, which stresses the simultaneity of cause and effect / activity and pleasure in our practice of philosophy

The three essays were written together and are meant to be studied together. I also strongly encourage sincere students of Epicurean philosophy to write or compile their own outlines and meleta / commentaries on these ideas.

On other literary updates: Our friend Nathan recently published the page Twentiers.com. Please check out his many pages of resources for students, including ancient writings by Lucian (the very first work of science fiction ever True Story, and Alexander the False Prophet) and hard-to-find passages from the works of Philodemus (On Anger, On Property Management, On Piety, On Death, On Frank Criticism, Methods of inference). He even compiled various hostile or critical sources. This page is a great resource for students who wish to delve deeper.

Happy Eikas! Lie-zi’s Garden of Pleasure

I wish a Happy and Peaceful Eikas to all my Epicurean readers! We recently celebrated our first Eikas in Spanish on the anniversary of the death of Professor Jesús Guevara, a Venezuelan friend who was one of the first members of SoFE and who died in a bicycle accident in 2021. He would have been happy to know that we remembered him by celebrating our first Spanish-language Eikas with a virtual gathering that included people from Spain, France, the US, and Mexico. Other literary updates: I recently discovered the episode Thinking On Sunday: Epicurus and the Art of Happiness. The granular life documents the importance of the idea that things are made of particles.

Over the last couple of months, I published two essays:

Today, I will close my Yangist meleta by sharing a list of Yangist writings cross-referenced with Epicurean writings for students who wish to compare them. I have also updated our De rerum natura study guide and meleta with cross-references from Yangist sources, mainly from the seventh chapter of Liezi. Please subscribe, enjoy, comment, and share.

— * —

Epicureans’ and Yangists’ Parallel Sayings

The Belly as a Point of Reference

The Yangist saying “External possessions are replaceable, but the body is not”, reminds us of the distinction between natural and necessary desires versus those that are neither natural nor necessary. This distinction is mainly expressed in Taoism as a distinction between the internal and the external, and there (as in Epicurus) it takes the belly as point of reference for the stability of inner practice. (It also has a role in eastern medicinal and martial arts traditions). Since the belly is seen as the center of the body, it is associated with being centered in ourselves, with finding our center, and with stability and peace.

The entire chapter 12 of the Tao Te Ching sounds like it could have been meleta on the autarchy portion of the Letter to Menoeceus, since it criticizes over-stimulation and it closes with a reference to the belly as a standard for inner self-care for those who enjoy self-sufficient ataraxia (as opposed to the endless desires that are stirred by external things), and with a reference to choices and rejections that could have been penned by Epicurus himself. Some translations say “the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees”, which is still thought-provoking.

Racing through the field and hunting make the mind wild. Searching for precious goods leads astray. Therefore, the sage attends to the belly, and not to what he sees. He rejects the latter and chooses the former. – Tao te Ching 12

The seat of good is the belly. – Metrodorus of Lampsacus

Against Seeking Fame and Appeasing Others

Reputation is living to appease the opinions of others and being overpowered by strangers. – Yang Chu

All these four sages, while alive, had not one day’s pleasure, and after their death a reputation lasting many years. Yet reputation cannot bring back reality. You praise them and they do not know it, and you honor them and they are not aware of it. There is now no distinction between them and a clod of earth. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 13

You value proper conduct and righteousness in order to excel before others, and you do violence to your feelings and nature in striving for glory. That to us appears to be worse than death … If anybody knows how to regulate external things, the things do not of necessity become regulated, and his body has still to toil and labour. But if anybody knows how to regulate internals, the things go on all right, and the mind obtains peace and rest. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 9

YANG CHU said: The memory of things of highest antiquity is faded. Who recollects them? … Every trace of intelligent and stupid men, of the beautiful and ugly, successful and unsuccesful, right and wrong, is effaced. And whether quickly or slowly is the only point of difference. If anybody cares for one hour’s blame or praise so much that, by torturing his spirit and body, he struggles for a name lasting some hundred years after his death, can the halo of glory revive his dried bones, or give it back the joy of living? – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 15

Also: Chapter II of Liezi

To speak frankly as I study nature I would prefer to speak in oracles that which is of advantage to all men even though it be understood by none, rather than to conform to popular opinion and thus gain the constant praise that comes from the many. – Vatican Saying 29

“I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.” ― Epicurus

On Autarchy

YANG CHU said: There are four things which do not allow people to rest: Long life. Reputation. Rank. Riches. Those who have them fear ghosts, fear men, power, and punishment. They are always fugitives. Whether they are killed or live they regulate their lives by externals. Those who do not set their destiny at defiance do not desire a long life, and those who are not fond of honour do not desire reputation. Those who do not want power desire no rank. Those who are not avaricious have no desire for riches. Of this sort of men it may be truthfully said that they live in accordance with their nature. In the whole world they have no equal. They regulate their life by inward things. – Yang Chu’s Garden of Pleasure, Chapter 17

“I answer enjoy life and take one’s ease, for those who know how to enjoy life are not poor, and he that lives at ease requires no riches.” – Yang Chu’s Garden of Pleasure, Chapter 6

YANG CHU said: Men resemble heaven and earth in that they cherish five principles. Of all creatures, man is the most skilful. His nails and teeth do not suffice to procure him maintenance and shelter. His skin and sinews do not suffice to defend him; though running he cannot attain profit nor escape harm, and he has neither hair nor feathers to protect him from the cold and heat. He is thus compelled to use things to nourish his nature, to rely on his intelligence, and not to put his confidence in brute force; therefore intelligence is appreciated because it preserves us and brute force despised because it encroaches upon things. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 16

YANG CHU said: How can a body possessing the four things, a comfortable house, fine clothes, good food, and pretty women, still long for anything else? He who does so has an insatiable nature, and insatiableness is a worm that eats body and mind. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 19

“If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.” – Epicurus

Don’t ruin the things you have by wanting what you don’t have, but realize that they too are things you once did wish for. – Vatican Saying 35

On Death

“So relish your present life, why worry about the afterlife? – Yang Chu (page 116 of “The Many Lives of Yang Zhu”)

Death is nothing to us, for when we are death is not and when death is we are not; so it is nothing to the living and it is nothing to the dead

On Virtues Versus Pleasure

In page 118 of The Many Lives of Yang Zhu, Erica Brindley argues that wei wo (the doctrine of living for oneself) may have originally had a socially conscious interpretation, or that at least the two attitudes are not mutually contradictory and can be practiced at one and the same time, just as our Kathegemones (Epicurean Guides) insist that certain things must be practiced at one and the same time (in VS 41, or PD 5) as a way to reject the imaginary choice between selfishness and altruism. In truth, we need some measure of both. The following quote demonstrates that at least some Yangists had pro-social concerns.

It is not that Bo Yi had no desires; it’s that he cherished purity so much that he quit his office and let himself starve to death. It is not that Zhan Li had no emotions; it’s that he cherished moral probity so much that he quit his office, was widowed, and neglected his ancestral clan. These cases demonstrate the error of mistaking purity and moral probity as the good. – Yang Zhu (from the Liezi, cited in page 117 of “The Many Lives of Yang Chu); Chapter 5 of Book 7 of Liezi

In any case, the fact that even virtuous actions often have no advantage because, in the cases mentioned above, men show too much arrogance or fall back without reason into superstitious fears, and because in other actions in life they make many mistakes of every kind, so that no one really exhibits virtue. We, in turn, committed to follow pleasure, will witness in our favor that our affairs are carried out with more ease in the circumstances within which hitherto we had exhibited pain. – Polystratus (Third Scholarch of the Epicurean Garden), in “Irrational Contempt”

People who graft on charity, force themselves to display this virtue in order to gain reputation and to enjoy the applause of the world for that which is of no account. Of such were Tsêng and Shih. People who refine in argument do but pile up tiles or knot ropes in their maunderings over the hard and white, the like and the unlike, wearing themselves out over mere useless terms. Of such were Yang and Mih. Therefore every addition to or deviation from nature belongs not to the ultimate perfection of all. – Yang Zhu, in the Chuang Tzŭ, Chapter 8

On Politics

The content of Yang Zhu’s argument mainly involved moral matters and completely lacked elements of cosmology and political affairs, which constituted the most fundamental parts of Laozi’s theory. – Matsumoto Bunsaburo

I rejoice with you, for you are the kind of person I would praise if you were to grow old as you are, and who knows the difference between seeking wisdom for yourself and for the sake of Greece. – Epicurus

Better by far be subject, and at peace, than govern the world and hold a throne! – Lucretius, On the nature of things, Liber Qvintvs, 1129-1130 (continues to 1150)

On Fearing Death

What then is the object of human life? What makes it pleasant? Comfort and elegance, music and beauty. Yet one cannot always gratify the desire for comfort and elegance nor incessantly enjoy beauty and music. Besides, being warned and exhorted by punishments and rewards, urged forward and repelled by fame and laws, men are constantly rendered anxious. Striving for one vain hour of glory and providing for the splendour which is to survive their death, they go their own solitary ways, analyzing what they hear with their ears and see with their eyes, and carefully considering what is good for body and mind; so they lose the happiest moments of the present, and cannot really give way to these feelings for one hour. How do they really differ from chained criminals? The Ancients knew that all creatures enter but for a short while into life, and must suddenly depart in death. Therefore they gave way to their impulses and did not check their natural propensities. They denied themselves nothing that could give pleasure to their bodies; consequently, as they were not seeking fame. but were following their own nature, they went smoothly on, never at variance with their inclinations. They did not seek for posthumous fame. They neither did anything criminal, and of glory and fame, rank and position, as well as of the span of their life they took no heed. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 3

And greed, again, and the blind lust of honours
Which force poor wretches past the bounds of law,
And, oft allies and ministers of crime,
To push through nights and days with hugest toil
To rise untrammelled to the peaks of power-
These wounds of life in no mean part are kept
Festering and open by this fright of death.

Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, Liber Tertivs

When it comes to death, we all live in a city without walls. – Metrodorus, co-founder of the Epicurean lineage

Chapter 4 of Liezi, Book 7, interestingly characterizes life as difference and death as equality.

Against Lavish Burials

So we may give the feverish rest, satiety to the hungry, warmth to the cold, and assistance to the miserable; but for the dead, when we have rightly bewailed them, to what use is it to place pearls and jewels in their mouths, or to dress them in state robes, or offer animals in sacrifice, or to expose effigies of paper? – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 7

Among lawgivers, too, those who made dispositions naturally and well can be seen actually to have prevented excessive expenditure at funerals on the grounds that the living were being deprived of services: many give orders to do away with their property precisely because they begrudge this. – Philodemus, On Death 31.5

On Pleasures

Allow the ear to hear what it likes, the eye to see what it likes, the nose to smell what it likes, the mouth to say what it likes, the body to enjoy the comforts it likes to have, and the mind to do what it likes. Now what the ear likes to hear is music, and the prohibition of it is what I call obstruction to the ear. What the eye likes to look at is beauty; and its not being permitted to regard this beauty I call obstruction of sight. What the nose likes to smell is perfume; and its not being permitted to smell I call obstruction to scent. What the mouth likes to talk about is right and wrong; and if it is not permitted to speak I call it obstruction of the understanding. The comforts the body enjoys to have are rich food and fine clothing; and if it is not permitted, then I call that obstruction of the senses of the body. What the mind likes is to be at peace; and its not being permitted rest I call obstruction of the mind’s nature. All these obstructions are a source of the most painful vexation. Morbidly to cultivate this cause of vexation, unable to get rid of it, and so have a long but very sad life of a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years, is not what I call cherishing life. But to check this source of obstruction and with calm enjoyment to await death for a day, a month, or a year or ten years, is what I understand by enjoying life. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 8

I have called you to constant pleasures. – Epicurus

Each one says: In the world there is nothing better than these our comforts and delights. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 18, on the relativity of all pleasures

Against Seeking Immortality

All things were the same as they are now. – Yang Zhu, Book 7 of Liezi, Chapter 11

For all I may devise or find to pleasure thee is nothing: all things are the same forever. – Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, Liber Tertivs

Further Reading:

Contemplations on Tao – SoFE

Yang Chu’s Garden of Pleasure (Book 7 of Lieh Tzu), translated by Anton Forke

Yang Chu’s Garden of Pleasure, read by Chris Masterson | Full Audiobook

Yang Zhu (Wikipedia)

Happy Eikas! The Fourth Element of the Soul

Eikas cheers to all! This month, I published The Fourth Element of the Soul in Lucretius on my Substack blog. Last month, our friend Marcus updated the Epicurean Writings page, and I published the book review of “Comment peut on être dieu” (How One Can Be A God). This is a French-language book that Marcus recommended and was deeply insightful concerning the theory and practices concerning the Epicurean use of moral models.

Our friend Michael McOsker was featured in AI reads text from famously inscrutable ancient scroll for the first time. Recent efforts to decipher the scrolls from Herculaneum using laser technology are beginning to yield fruit. For more on Herculaneum:

Herculaneum Scrolls: Unraveling History

Ruins of Herculaneum Walking Tour – Walk and Learn about the ruins with City Walks

Speaking of writings, my amazon author page has all of my published books available in English and Spanish. One way to support my mission of propagating philosophy in the 21st Century would be to share Epicurean books with others as holiday gifts. You may also search the SoFE page for book reviews to give you ideas of books to give away (written by Emily Austin, by the Epicureans from Greece, and many others). These books would make good holiday gifts for friends of like mind.

The Overthink Podcast published the episode Speaking Truth to Power (Parrhesia), which does not specifically focus on the Epicureans but does help to contextualize the practice of parrhesia.

The essay The pursuit of pleasure and the desire for wholeness adds a thought-provoking theoretical layer to the impulse toward pleasure that is tied to developmental psychology.

I’ve been listening and enjoying to the podcast series that concludes with Philosophers of the Future – Nietzsche Podcast Season Three Finale. I’ve derived many hours of enjoyment listening to this YouTube channel’s podcast series while I do chores at home, or on the train. The facilitator has many insightful and enjoyable, long discussions about books by Nietzsche. I know that N is not everyone’s cup of tea, and he has his faults, but he is one of the philosophers who has taught me to love philosophy, and I find myself coming back to his books from time to time.  

Older Essays

Epicurus wrote 300 scrolls that are lost to us. The writings of many other Epicureans are also forever gone. We can’t change that. What we CAN do is write 300 times 300 new scrolls and revitalize our philosophy with new insights, with new discourse that is relevant to our age and to our lives.

This collection of essays (formerly called SoFE’s Journal) came together during the earlier years of SoFE with the kind assistance of Sasha Euler and has been created as a compilation of contemporary Epicurean conversations and discussions from all walks of life: thinkers, pupils, scholars, and everyday bloggers. We are preserving it for the benefit of students.

Epicurean philosophy and lifestyle

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 1 – 2013

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 2 – 2013

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 6 – from 2014 (ongoing)

Developments of Epicurean thought

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 3 – 2013/14

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 7 – 2014

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 8 – 2014

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 9 – 2015

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 10 – 2015

The Philodemus Series

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 11 – 2017

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 12 – 2017/18

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 13 – 2018-19

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 14 – 2019-20

Related traditions

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 4 – from 2013

On Autarchy

Society of Friends of Epicurus (SoFE) Journal Volume 5 – from 2013

Happy 20th!, the newsletter of the Society of Friends of Epicurus, was discontinued.

 

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Happy Eikas! Five Contemplations on the Gods

Eikas cheers everyone! Last Sunday at our Eikas we discussed Three Lucretian Arguments Against Creationism. During our presentation, it occurred to Marcus that perhaps there could be a fourth argument, from the method of multiple interpretations, which allows for anthropological and other perspectives to help explain phenomena that mystify some people. Overall, we had an enjoyable virtual discussion. Please enjoy, comment, and share the essay.

The Seize the Moment Podcast published Krista K. Thomason – The Myth of Emotional Harmony: Rational and Irrational Emotions, which I thought was quite thought-provoking and reminded me of Philodemus.

Our Friend Marcus published a five-part essay series titled Five contemplations on the gods: A path to community and friendship, with the intention of helping students to place before our eyes the teachings on how to live like a god.

Part 1 – The Gods
Part 2 – Utopia
Part 3 – The Sage
Part 4 – The Friend
Part 5 – The Departed

The second contemplation reminded me of how Hephaistos constructed robots and machines to serve the gods, and makes me think that we already live like gods to some extent thanks to modern technology. In other mythologies, we see that Hindu gods have varahas (flying vehicles) and the Goddess Inanna appears to have a flying chariot by which she travels to Enki’s temple to gain the civilizing gifts. The point of these technologies (and even simple things we take for granted, like toilets, aqueducts, and air conditioning systems) is that they make our lives easier and more pleasant, usually with little effort on our part. We do not realize how valuable these civilizing gifts are until we find ourselves without them.

I would like to thank Marcus for posting these essays. I’m currently reading a book that was recommended by him on this subject, titled Comment peut-on être dieu (How one can be a god). It’s in French and a slow read for me, since that’s my fourth language, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It has many thought-provoking ideas, and I will soon be writing a book review on it.

Four Methods of Exegesis for the Study of Kyriai Doxai

Eikas cheers to everyone! This month, I published An Eikas Manifesto: A Clarion Call to Revive an Epicurean Tradition that Strengthens Friendships and Communities on the Spiritual Naturalist Society page. Please share this essay with your like-minded friends!

Mental Floss published The Lost Library of Herculaneum: Unravelling the Scrolls That Mount Vesuvius Almost Destroyed, and scholar Tim O’Keefe participated in A Dialogue Between Vedanta and Epicureanism, with Prof. Tim O’Keefe.

This video helps to demystify “consciousness”. Can cells think? applies the logic of the materialist paradigm of emergence to sentience (as opposed to the top-down model of the nature of things imagined by idealists and creationists). It argues that just as bodies gain more complexity when they have more particles, similarly complex mental processes are made up of smaller-scale processes. What we experience as sentience is made up of sometimes millions of these processes. 

Studying Kyriai Doxai

At the Society of Friends of Epicurus, in addition to our Eikas program, we have in the past organized a Kyriai Doxai study group. We studied them one by one, from 1 to 40, we evaluated commentaries by Epicurean Guides from the past (Lucretius, Philodemus, etc.), and even included some insights from modern scholars. This has yielded many useful insights. This essay is part of the harvest of wisdom from that process.

Definitions

The Kyriai Doxai are the Principal Doctrines of Epicurus, Metrodorus, and their companions.

Broadly, the word exegesis means “interpretation”. Specifically, it’s the “critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.”

The literal method of exegesis

This method makes us look into the original prolepsis or empirical meaning of a word, and the original attestation that led to the coining of it, which says something about the intention of the words chosen. Since this involves access to Greek definitions and etymologies, this can be rewarding, fun investigative work, and can also be frustrating and difficult.

For a case study of how the prolepsis of a word can yield curious insights, you may read this meleta on KD 14, where I evaluate the relation between voice and consensus in the term “exchoriseos” (literally, “exiting the chorus“, figuratively translated as moving away from the herd). The connection between our voice and our authority (and the power to yield authority via a social contract by our vote) is again revisited in the use of symphonia in the later Doxai to refer to the social contract, which in modern English reminds us of the word “symphony“, but in its original prolepsis means “speaking together, uttering in unison“. This carries the sense of the contract as an agreement, specifically of voices.

Since we are functioning in the English language and other modern languages, this method requires us to follow in the footsteps of Lucretius, who had to coin words and find accurate translations from Greek into his native Latin language in order to accurately convey the original sense of the teachings.

In the field of exegetics, the literalists argue that we should simply take the literal words of a text and interpret them without context or explanation that might “obscure it”, but this method puts us in potential danger of falling into unjustifiable fundamentalism, and fails to explain the why’s and the how’s of a Doctrine. In my view, we must investigate the discussions that led the founders to set down each one of the Doctrines as authoritative and final. This contextualizes each doctrine, making it concrete and clear, and helps to place before our eyes the Kyriai Doxai.

The contextual method of exegesis

One way of approaching this method is to start with the literal method of interpretation of the words, and then to infer the underlying ideas, concerns, questions, and worries that led to the establishment of each Doctrine and its particular choice of words. What problems in hedonic calculus or in living pleasantly was this Doctrine trying to solve?

The contextual method also considers the historical details of the doctrine, and its place in the history of ideas, and it follows the logic of Principal Doctrine 5, which teaches that a life of pleasure has content, causes and conditions, that pleasure is interwoven into life because, as we know, “nothing comes from nothing“.

For instance, we know that PD 1 was inspired, in part, in Theodorus the Atheist’s teachings; and that the idea of hedonic calculus (which influences PD 8 and a few other doctrines) was invented by Anniceris of Cyrene, and so we can see how Kyriai Doxai are a continuation of the legacy and the history of the ideas of the Cyrenaics.

Another example of historical context might be the Timocrates affair, which may have led to the establishment of KD 39 when the first Koinonia was forced to make decisions concerning how to deal with apostates.

The therapeutic method of exegesis

If true philosophy must heal the soul, and if Kyriai Doxai is agreed-upon as authoritative and true, then Kyriai Doxai must contain therapeutic value. The therapeutic method of interpretation of a Doctrine looks for what medicine it uses to cure some disease of the soul, what disease of the soul is the Doctrine attempting to diagnose and heal, by what symptoms (“signs“) the disease is diagnosed, and what treatments can be used. This method is based on the following assertion by the Hegemon:

A philosopher’s words are empty if they do not heal the suffering of mankind. For just as medicine is useless if it does not remove sickness from the body, so philosophy is useless if it does not remove suffering from the soul. – Epicurus (Usener, Fragment 221)

We know that this assertion was taken to its fullest pragmatic repercussions from the fact that Philodemus of Gadara reports that one of the founders of our lineage, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, kept a record of the mental health of the people he had been offering psychotherapeutic treatments to, and Philodemus seems to have frequently referred to this compilation, which was known as Historiai (the “Histories”).

In doing this, Metrodorus was applying the same techniques that were used in the medical field for diseases of the body, to the health of the soul. That is, he was diagnosing by signs, he was offering treatments, and (most importantly) he was keeping a record of the health of the soul of his friends just like physicians keep a record of the health of their patients. This methodical approach must have contributed to the detailed categorization of virtues and their opposing vices, and personality profiles of people of both dysfunctional and virtuous character, that we later see in Philodemus’ scrolls (which were based on similar works by Epicurus).

I wish to stop here to consider what a paradigm shift this is, as it depicts Metrodorus as the very first modern psychotherapist in history who (2,300 years ago) was applying a methodical approach to healing the soul of his friends, with no appeal to the supernatural whatsoever. The founders were reforming the faith-healing practices that Epicurus learned from his mother, and rejecting the attribution of mental diseases to spirits and gods, while at the same time affirming the importance of mental health and self-care as human values.

Much more could be said about this method, but let us consider various case studies: the Tetrapharmakos are commonly known as “THE four medicines” of our tradition, however they are not the only pharmakos. In Kyria Doxa 22, we find mention of “confusion” and “perturbations” (ἀκρισίας καὶ ταραχῆς). It’s up to us to consider by which signs these diseases of the soul can be identified. If we apply the logic of the therapeutic method, we will conclude that clarity of thought and of speech is one of the medicines or benefits of practicing these particular Doxai (22-25).

In Principal Doctrine 17 we find the generic term “perturbations” being named as a possible diagnosis, and in PD 35 we find guilt, fear of being discovered, as signs of diseases of the soul related to unresolved past offenses. The medicine of these Doxai is found in the love and practice of justice, of righteousness, and in the possibility of moral reform that they encourage.

Another way to approach the therapeutic method of exegesis is to see what specific techniques are being used, and to follow the pragmatic logic of these techniques. Many Doxai apply a technique known as relabelling. We may consider KD 2 as a technique of relabelling death, for instance. We may ask what fears or perturbations were attached to death prior to relabelling, or we may notice the difference in our dispositions when we associate death with those fears versus with the new label.

Philodemus left us the most complete and detailed record of how the therapeutic methods were used among the ancient Epicureans.

The contractual method of exegesis

The contractual or legal method of interpretation of a Doctrine considers the role that it plays within the social contract of the first Epicurean koinonia (community). How is agreeing on these Doxai advantageous for mutual association? What noble expectations must people have of each other under the particular contractual agreement of Kyriai Doxai? What happens when we take up this or that Doxa as an article within our own social contract?

This is another method by which we are applying the logic of Kyriai Doxai to itself–in particular, we are applying the logic of the Doxai on natural justice based on the social contract.

For a case study of the contractual method of exegesis, we may consider the Doxai that insist on the importance of having a canon, an empirical and pragmatic standard of truth (Principal Doctrines 22-25), and the importance of having a scientific worldview and some measure of basic scientific skills (PD’s 10-13).

It’s one thing to say: “I will apply these or those specific empirical thinking methods.” It’s quite another thing to say: “My friends and I will henceforward, as part of our social contract, dismiss all supernatural claims and adhere to these standards of truth“. THAT is a paradigm shift: it purposefully creates and perpetuates a social circle, a subculture, a space of intellectual ferment where all supernaturalism has been banned, and where a new physicalist, materialist philosophical conversation may be nurtured unapologetically. When we apply this exegetical method to these Kyriai Doxai, we more clearly understand that part of Epicurus’ and his friends’ agenda involved paving the way for our modern scientific worldview. Today some people claim that this is the “Western” worldview, but in the Hellenistic Era this proto-scientific and scientific worldview was beginning to seek to export itself into all the continents, and in India there was a parallel development in the Lokayata tradition.

Applying this exegetical method has helped me to understand that part of the utility of symphonia, of social contract, is to help people with shared values and shared projects to carry out their activities like a well-oiled machine, in the most effective manner possible. Contracts help individuals with shared values and a shared vision to implement their shared projects most effectively. Understood as the social contract of the early Epicurean koinonia, Kyriai Doxai would have helped to deeply instill certain basic values into every member of the community.

It’s easy to imagine that perhaps Kyriai Doxai constituted the curriculum for “coming of age” and being considered an adult member within the community, since it delineates the basic ethical expectations and existential tasks that all members of the koinonia must attain.

Conclusion

There are, in all likelihood, many more exegetical methods that could be applied to the study of the Principal Doctrines while remaining true to the spirit of Epicurean philosophy. But these are the four methods that we have, so far, identified as being fruitful and correct.

Studying KD in this manner has helped me to understand that we are learning and cultivating highly pragmatic, useful human values when we adhere to and practice Kyriai Doxai: clear communication, teamwork, cooperation, justice, etc. Kyriai Doxai is a full, basic curriculum of human values.

Further Reading:

Kyriai Doxai – our full study guide

 

Convergent Evolution and the Doctrine of Innumerable Worlds

Eikas cheers to everyone! We recently published On Pleasure as the Default State of the Organism, which defends Epicurean arguments against Cyrenaic conceptions of pleasure. A new SoFE blog has been created on Substack. I am trying a new platform (this will likely replace our mailchimp bulletin) and will slowly diminish my involvement in the bird platform, since I have difficulty trusting their algorithm. Substack allows for subscription, and subscribers receive an email whenever I post a blog. Feel free to subscribe and share.

Now, grant me your attention: hear the truth. A new idea is pressing to be heard, a new aspect of nature to be revealed. But there’s no thought so simple that at first it won’t be difficult to accept, and none so vast, so wonderful, that bit by bit it won’t seem less astounding to us all.

– Lucretius, introducing his explanation of the Doctrine of Innumerable Worlds in De rerum natura, Book 2, 1023-1029

In this essay, I will discuss how modern studies on convergent evolution add flesh, and new dimensions, to the Epicurean theory known as the “Doctrine of Innumerable Worlds“. Before we look at these intersections, let’s first consider what the Doctrine actually says. The earliest attestation of this Doctrine is found in seven statements from tmima (portion) 45 (in the Laertian source) of Epicurus’ Epistle to Herodotus.

  1. But, again, the worlds also are infinite,
  2. whether they resemble this one of ours or whether they are different from it.
  3. For, as the atoms are, as to their number, infinite, as I have proved above, they necessarily move about at immense distances;
  4. for besides the infinite multitude of atoms, of which the world is formed, or by which it is produced, could not be entirely absorbed by one single world,
  5. nor even by any worlds, the number of which was limited,
  6. whether we suppose them like this word of ours, or different form it.
  7. There is therefore, no fact inconsistent with an infinity of worlds.

To help us evaluate the Doctrine, I broke it down into seven statements: that (1) the worlds are innumerable; that (2) some are similar and some are different from our own; that (3) since atoms are innumerable and must cover great distances (an idea that is discussed elsewhere), (4) therefore these atoms can not be contained within a single world, (5) or even within any limited number of worlds (6) which may, again, be similar to or different from our own. This point is stressed twice, which adds emphasis on the diversity of worlds. It closes (7) with a conclusive declaration based on all the facts noted.

Notice the stress on how worlds may be similar to, or different from, our own world. Exoplanetary research sheds more light, and adds specificity, to this. When we read the word “world”, in the original, the word kosmos is used. This is why many interpret this as a theory about a multiverse.

Two centuries later, when Lucretius in Liber Secvndvs of De Rerum Natura continues to expound the same doctrine, his final concluding statement is:

One must grant there are other earthly spheres
in other regions, with different races
of human beings and classes of wild beasts.

But how does this tie into convergent evolution? Convergent evolution documents certain traits that have been observed to evolve, in separate lineages, multiple times, so that this is seen as evidence that these traits are highly useful. This video titled “Why do things keep evolving into crabs?” sheds light on this fascinating aspect of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

The intersection between this and the Doctrine of the Innumerable Worlds lies in astrobiology: the more examples of convergent evolution we see in different Earth environments, the more likely we are to find similar traits in living beings in the innumerable worlds. Until we are able to acquire direct evidence, this is currently a matter of mathematics. This line of reasoning adds flesh to the Doctrine of Innumerable Worlds. Using our method of inference by analogy, when we find planets that are similar enough to our own, we can infer that Earth-like life probably exists there, or that it may evolve if some conditions change; and according to convergent evolution studies, specific evolutionary pressures will likely strongly favor certain traits that we are already familiar with.

Examples of convergence can be found in the shapes of the bodies of certain creatures. The shape of a snake evolved both in the water (as eels) and on land. Eight-legged creatures evolved separately multiple times, probably because symmetry is useful. These lineages include varieties of crabs, spiders and other creatures. Flight evolved separately in insects, avians, and some mammals. The behavior and calls of social animals who hunt together also converges: the calls of dolphins and the howls of wolves have been observed to share striking similarities. Ants evolved separately from termites, yet they both have caste systems.

What kinds of creatures might be flying or howling together somewhere in the innumerable worlds?

If Lucretius’ explanation of this Doctrine is true, truth may be stranger than fiction, because he was extremely optimistic about the prospects of extraterrestrial life. Lucretius specifically mentions that different species of human-like beings would be found in space. This would mean that humanity is a convergent trait. Is it?

We know that, on Earth, human lineages evolved multiple times–as Denisovan, Neanderthal, Luzonian and Flores hobbits, Homo Longi in China, our Cro-Magnon ancestors, and several other ancestral hominid species in Africa and Papua that we know very little about. This seems to suggest that the traits that generally make up a human or hominid are convergent. However, only our lineage survived, which raises the possibility that the rise of a species like ours may bring about the destruction or displacement of many other species, and that nature pays a high price for producing certain types of highly-intelligent and adaptable sentient beings in terms of sacrificing the diversity of ecosystems.

Whether or not humanity might be an example of convergent evolution, Lucretius (and, presumably, other early atomists) seemed convinced that it was something like it, and declared plainly that there were other hominids in the innumerable worlds. So we can imagine a human-like model of sentient being that lives by its wit–rather than by fangs, horns or venom–and eventually develops forms of culture, civilization and technology that we may recognize as familiar. The bodily shape of this creature would be somewhat similar to ours. Eagles are smart, but they do not have the manual dexterity to construct complex machines: body shape matters.

Our brains evolved to be much larger and different from other great ape brains over a relatively short period of time, and we don’t fully understand how this came to be. The answer to this may help us to predict how likely we are to find higher intelligences elsewhere.

To conclude, the fields of study that inform convergent evolution add flesh to the ancient astrobiology theories that we find in Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus and Lucretius’ De rerum natura (and which later inspired the comical speculations about alien life we find in Lucian’s True History, believed to be the very first work of science fiction ever written). They also hint at how potentially advanced their speculation about alien life-forms was–even without the benefit of modern scientific methods and theories–, and how natural cosmology is just as rich and awe-inspiring as the supernatural theories that seek to replace it.

Phonás Aphientas: “Scattered Sounds”, and Language Reform

Eikas cheers to all our readers! We recently shared This is why emotions are important, a video from the YouTube channel Freedom in Thought which makes the point that without emotion, it becomes difficult or impossible to carry out choices.

We also shared the American Psychological Association’s article The science of friendship. I have been a big fan of the Naked and Afraid shows for many years: a reality show where they abandon a naked man and woman to the elements for 21 days. Later seasons had 40-day and 60-day challenges with large groups of survivalists. These larger challenges sometimes have reminded me of Lord of the Flies—with cliques forming and abusing marginal individuals. This year in the most recent installment, titled Last One Standing, Jeff (a Mormon and libertarian who adheres to Ayn Randian belief in selfishness) hoarded all the tools and weapons early in the season. This, and his reputation from previous seasons, earned him the distrust and ill-will of all other participants. Other members, on the other hand, derived a great morale boost from the fact that they were able to trust each other enough to cooperate during the challenge. I have only seen two episodes, but they have been eloquent arguments about the importance of being friendly, even in (or especially during) a survival situation.

How to Stop Being a Slave to the Opinions of Other People is a video by Academy of Ideas that cites a quote from Epicurus, and strongly resonates with Kyria Doxa 14.

One must laugh and seek wisdom and tend to one’s home life and use one’s other goods, and always recount the pronouncements of true philosophy. – Vatican Saying 41

In the past, I have discussed VS 41’s instructions regarding phonás aphientas (“scattered voices”). The word phonás shares semantic roots with telephone, microphone, etc., and implies out-loud utterances, while aphientas has to do with sending or emitting something all around oneself (like we do when we plant seeds, or when we disseminate a teaching), so that the phrase implies out-loud utterances dispersed in all directions. Hermarchus (or perhaps another Kathegemone or Guide) says in VS 41 that we must do this with the teachings of correct philosophy (orthés philosophias).

Phonás aphientas instructs us that this philosophy must be oral, spoken out loud, that it must find verbal expression in practice.

In the past, I’ve discussed the role of words of philosophy being uttered out loud as a practice of chanting or repetition that is native to the Epicurean gardens, and I’ve also discussed the role this practice might have in passive recruitment (a perspective influenced by the book The Sculpted Word).

Now, I’d like to take a look at phonás aphientas as a didactic method, and also to consider the ways in which it makes sense in light of studies on language and how it changes the brain–since Epicurus, in his sermon on moral development, argued that moral development is a physical process of steering our neural pathways and shaping our brains through habituation and memorization, and new data shows that language has the power to do this.

In his scroll On Music, Philodemus of Gadara mentions that music only heals the soul if it contains the words of true philosophy, which indicates a logocentric theory of therapy where words are used as philosophical treatments. Phonás aphientas must therefore be considered as a potential method of treatment, and of character development.

Neuroplasticity and Language

The ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury. – Oxford Dictionary definition of neuroplasticity

In Epicurus’ scroll against the use of empty words, we see that the founders were involved in a process of language reform for the sake of clarity. We tend to think of language as identity rather than habituation, but languages are changing with every generation. There is no essential or unchanging, idealist core of any language that remains the same forever. The founders of Epicurean philosophy positively saw themselves as stewards of their native language and they considered it part of their role to steer their language in the direction of being better suited to express the nature of things clearly. I would argue that Lucretius, when he coined words and worked for years in editing De rerum natura, did the same with his own native language.

The study titled Native language differences in the structural connectome of the human brain demonstrates that there is evidence that one’s language changes one’s brain, and that different languages make use of different parts of the brain.

The structural language network is modulated by the specific procesing requirements of one’s native language.

This not only confirms Epicurus’ assertions in “On moral development” (that one is able to change the physical structure of one’s brain), but potentially adds our choice of words, and language use in general, as a layer of our practice, since it raises the possibility that language reform could be a tool for reforming the psyche, or for cultivating undeveloped potentials of our souls. Modern linguists have a name for this way of thinking about language. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis,

also known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis, refers to the proposal that the particular language one speaks influences the way one thinks about reality.

These studies add flesh to some of the earliest Epicurean theories on language evolution. Based on these studies, we can confidently infer that language evolution reshaped the early human brain, and that modern languages are still reshaping and steering our brains. Once humans experienced the first stage of language evolution (the natural stage) and entered the second stage (the collective utility, cultural, or artifice stage) (see my introductory essay on this), then a feedback loop began which reshaped the brains of humans in every generation. Individuals of each generation that learned the earliest forms of language, reshaped their brains by the use of their particular language, and in turn influenced the language itself and developed it, adding computing and expressive power to the language for the benefit of future speakers. Once this process got started in our species, it never stopped, and its advantages are clear, based on the universality and diversity of language use among us.

Scattered Words as Self-Cultivation

Let us relate these insights back to our meleta on phonás aphientas. The process of scattering out-loud the utterances of true philosophy most likely has great didactic utility as a method of learning: when we are studying some aspect of philosophy, the process of rephrasing, paraphrasing, and voicing out loud, helps us to cognitively assimilate what we are learning. This may work better for some people than for others, but in general it’s an intuitive way to learn.

If language use reshapes our brain, and if Metrodorus and the other Kathegemones were advancing language reform for the sake of clarity–to the point that Diskin Clay makes that argument that the Epicureans had their own lingo in his essay Paradosis and Survival: three chapters in the history of Epicurean philosophy–then the ever-refining and ever-perfecting process of language evolution can also be a process of ever-refining and ever-cultivating our souls, and our ability to think and communicate clearly. Clear thinking and clear speech are important Epicurean values in the canon (Kyriai Doxai 22-25), in Epicurus’ Against the use of empty words, and in Philodemus’ Rhetorica.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that the Kathegemones’ language reform project goes hand in hand with ethical reform as a physical process and program of helping us to train and reshape our brains to think more clearly and efficiently, and to enjoy pleasures, with the help of words and ways of communicating. This makes me consider the ways in which we casually communicate everyday: most of us likely coach ourselves in both healthy and unhealthy ways when we speak.

Language and the Social Contract

One final word on the social contract, as it relates to language: I am increasingly convinced that all social contract requires, and is built upon, a particular agreed-upon language, or agreed-upon means of clear communication. The more case studies we consider of social contract–whether as business transaction, or as constitution, laws, or rules, or as monetary currency, or as communal projects and organizations–, the more we see that individuals cannot come to an agreement with other individuals without first being able to successfully and clearly communicate the terms of said agreement. 

In this sense, there is no real community without some level of clear communication, since communication always pragmatically precedes efficient or functional community, and it’s difficult to conceive of well-functioning natural human community without it.

Contracts therefore “live inside” our language of everyday use. If agreements, and the social contract, are written into our language, then this is an additional incentive to actively steer the development of our communities’ means of communication for the sake of clarity, conciseness, and to better express our other values through our language.

This is part of why definitions must precede all investigations (as we see at the opening of Epicurus’ Epistle to Herodotus), and why communities of philosophers–together with artists, inventors, and other cultural creatives–are among those who are in charge of steering the third stage of language evolution according to Epicurus. Purposeful participation in social contracts is a necessary part of the practice of Kyriai Doxai, and–as we have seen in our years of studying together in English–our most advantageous agreements with others require us to sometimes critically evaluate and re-negotiate the background premises, assumptions, biases, and other baggage carried by our communities’ agreed-upon language(s). Since Epicurus expects his disciples to function within social contracts, he therefore must educate them and equip them with methods of clear communication to help them participate efficiently in these social contracts.

As a side note, the word chosen by Epicurus in Kyriai Doxai to refer to the social contract is symphonia (sym = with, phonia=utterances), which literally translates as “voices in unison”, “uttering together”.

Conclusion

Phonás aphientas (developing a habit of clearly articulating out loud the plain words of true philosophy) makes sense within the context of the Epicurean project of ethical development, as an expression of our identity and of belonging to our particular social contracts and communities, and as a method of learning.

Further Reading:

Epicurean Saying 41

The post-linguistic turn