Category Archives: epicurus

The Life of Epíkouros: A Translation for Twentiers

Happy M’Eikas, m’friends!

In honor of this May Eikas, and in the name of Epíkouros, I have produced a new translation of Book 10 of Diogénēs Laértios’ Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, and published it digitally. Each section has been organized at TWENTIERS.COM. Enjoy it here!

I have also uploaded a static version to this post: The Life of Epíkouros.

This translation was produced as a point of personal study and spiritual devotion. It will dually serve as a basis upon which future editions of The Hedonicon can be developed.

As I write in the introduction of the publication: “Diógénēs Laértios composed this biography over 500 years after the death of Epikouros, so the texts preserves multiple literary voices. While Diógénēs’ words are passive and encyclopedaeic, the Gargettian writes with much more color and enthusiasm. Although Epíkouros dismisses ‘unwisely inflecting’ upon the activity of formal poetry, his analogical reasoning relies upon vivid examples that require clear, poetic insight. As Aristophanes the grammarian charges, Epikouros writes with a unique style, characterized by practical metaphors, parallelisms, allusions, humor, and affection.

Epíkouros’ voice is characterized by his friendly demeanor. The receipients of his letters were dear friends and devoted students; his tone accomodates each delivery. To sensitive Menoikeús, he provides sweet words of encouragement and endearing guidance. With inquisitive Pythoklḗs, he shares colorful language and memorable analogies (“thunderbolts” as “atmospheric diarrhea”). To skeptical Hērodótos, he produces a critical methodology that would challenge an otherwise unserious mind. Far from the stereotype of a sterile sage, Epíkouros was personable and quirky.

As with any author, the Hegemon exhibits a variety of rhetorical preferences. He has favorite phrases (refering to reality as “The All” or “The Real”, and to thinking as a “creative casting of the mind“). He has favorite metaphors (that the fabric of reality is made of “seeds“), favorite analogies (as felt is to wool, so moisture is to clouds), and preferred antagonists (the astrologers above all). Much of this flavor risks being lost without delving into the mines of the mind to unearth new treasures.

For instance, consider the ways in which Epíkouros refers to the fundmental units of physical matter, as being “uncuttable“, “unchangeable“, “eternal“, “endless“, “strong“, “swift“, “motes“, “morsels“, “hooklets“, “grains“, “pieces“, and “cents“, among other metaphors. Nowhere does does he simply name them “atoms” as do we; he only flirts with this employment in referring to them as “atomic”. This author maintains that students and scholars alike are robbing themselves of beautiful opportunities to re-invigorate the language by deconstructing overused phrases (such as “atoms“).

Consider further the Epicurean taxonomy of outer space and his treatment of the “activities above are head”: meteoric phenoemna is characterized by spectacular illuminations. Those spectacles are called “glowers”. Most “glowers” follow the “primordial flow” of the “cosmic whirlpool”. Those that do not are “wanderers”. Some are shaggy, with dynamic “feathers” so-called “long-haired”. Some descend through the sky and we call them “falling”. The conventions of “astronomy”, “stars”, “planets”, “comets”, and “meteors”, while compatible, fail to capture the nuance of this poetry.

Likewise, words that carry the weight of contemporary jargon have been avoided, if not omitted completely. What would otherwise be translated as “universe” is here translated as “The All” or “the Heavens”, and what would otherwise be translated as “weight” or “mass” is here translated as “burden“. Epíkouros’ insight is valuable, not simply because it anticipated contemporary discoveries, but because it stands on its own as a coherent, rational system that was developed upon the method of empiricism, and thus, is compatible with empirical discoveries made now and forward.

Further deconstructing the modern lexicon helps reinforce the realities of Epíkouros’ context, realities like the abundance of barley bread over wheat bread, antiquated treatments for kidney stones, mild Winters, speculations about humans living in the Arctic, and general astonishment over the phenomena of lightning (perhaps equivalent to our fascination with black holes). Many times, Epíkouros presents poignont responses to specific propositions made by his opponents, albeit Empedoklḗs’ hypothesis on optics, Aristotélēs’ hypothesis about the propogation of light, Theóphrastos’ conclusions about natural signs, or the Stoics’ propositions about the windy soul.

To animate Epíkouros’ analogies, I make ample use of cossonance, aliteration, and take liberties in generating necessary neologisms. You can expect mellifluous constructions, colorful choices, and as contextually-appropriate as I can recreate. Otherwise, please forgive my aesthetic preferences: “amalgamation” feels good in my mouth, but “accumulation” gets like a cough in my throat. I wield punctuation with wrecklass abandon hoping that I do so for the greater good. I attempt to restore the names of people and places according the their original expressions (all C’s have been restored to their former glory as Kappas.) As a tool for study, I try to use the consistent English expressions for the same ancient Greek words. For the sake of recognition, colors have been very-loosely assigned to various concepts and categories, including the qualities of fundamental particles, the virtues, the goals of life, images of light, and key terms in general. In my own study, I have found that color helps the eye find orientation and serves as a mnemonic marker. I hope that it helps your study, as well.

All [bracketed words] indicate either implied [nouns], or else, they are my additions [intended to improve the fluidity of the statments, carrying the tone of Modern American English vernacular, as well as provide brief historical anecdotes to contextualize some of the propositions].

This structure of this translation builds upon organizational choices made by Robert Drew Hicks (1925) and Stephen White (2021), who illuminate some of the linguistic shadows that have overtaken other works. Besides these points, readers may be pleased to find an interactive copy of this work through https://www.twentiers.com/biography/ where refinements will continue to be affected. I hope you find this endeavor to be entertaining and instructive.”

Live fearlessly,
EIKADISTES
Keeper of Twentiers.com
Editor of the Hedonicon

Literary and Video Updates

I hope you had a happy and peaceful Eikas. We will have our virtual Eikas this Sunday, for which you will be invited by joining the Garden of Epicurus FB group. This month, we will begin to investigate the biographic details of the life of our co-founder, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, whose profile will be the subject of the majority of this year’s Substack essays at The Twentiers. This month’s essay was a Commentary on Leontion the Epicurean, who was Metrodorus’ consort.

A new blog titled Everyday Epicurean has published several essays that we have enjoyed. Here are some entries:

Is Virtue Better Than Pleasure?
Epicurean Therapy

There are many more essays, so feel free to subscribe, follow, and comment to both blogs. The YouTube channel Tushar Irani also produced a series on philosophy. The following episodes of the series discuss the Epicureans.

Live Like a Philosopher – Lecture 7.1
Live Like a Philosopher – Lecture 7.2
Live Like a Philosopher – Lecture 8.1
Live Like a Philosopher – Lecture 8.2

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! 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.