Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy

Episode 305 - Shall We Stoically Be A Spectator To Life And Content Ourselves With "Virtue"?

Shall We Stoically Be A Spectator To Life And Content Ourselves With "Virtue?" Welcome to Episode 305 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the study of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where we discuss this and all of our podcast episodes.  This week we continue covering Cicero's "Tusculan Disputations" from an Epicurean perspective. Today we begin our discussion of Part 5 and examine whether virtue alone is sufficient for happiness.  https://www.epicureanfriends.com/thread/4779-episode-305-shall-we-stoically-be-a-spectator-to-life-and-content-ourselves-with/

Episode 304 - Epicurus vs The Stoics On Strong Emotions

Welcome to Episode 304 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the s\tudy of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where we discuss this and all of our podcast episodes.  This week we continue covering Cicero's "Tusculan Disputations" from an Epicurean perspective. Today we wrap up our discussion of Part 3 with Section XXI and push forward into Part 4, after which we will devote our final episodes devoted to Tusculan Disputations by examining Part 5 on whether virtue alone is sufficient for happiness.   https://www.epicureanfriends.com/thread/4769-episode-304-td32-epicurus-vs-the-stoics-on-strong-emotions/?postID=37494#post37494

Episode 303 - Is It Truly Impossible To Advocate For Epicurus In The Public Sphere?

Welcome to Episode 303 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the study of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where we discuss this and all of our podcast episodes. This week we continue covering Cicero's "Tusculan Disputations" from an Epicurean perspective and we move into Section XXI [https://handbook.epicureanfriends.com/Library/Text-Cicero-TusculanDisputations/#iii-xx] to address a particularly important challenge from Cicero:How do we advocate the Epicurean position in public gatherings? Quote But these men behave with too much heat, especially as the opinions which they would uphold are no very spirited ones, and such as they dare not plead for either in the senate, or before the assembly of the people, or before the army, or the censors: but, however, I will argue with them another time, and with such a disposition that no quarrel shall arise between us; for I shall be ready to yield to their opinions when founded on truth. Only I must give them this advice: That were it ever so true, that a wise man regards nothing but the body; or, to express myself with more decency, never does anything except what is expedient, and views all things with exclusive reference to his own advantage; as such things are not very commendable, they should confine them to their own breasts, and leave off talking with that parade of them. https://www.epicureanfriends.com/thread/4753-episode-303-is-it-truly-impossible-to-advocate-for-epicurus-in-the-public-sphere/?postID=37427#post37427

Episode 302 - Epicurus And The Road That Is Paved With Good Intentions

Welcome to Episode 302 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the study of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where we discuss this and all of our podcast episodes.   This week we continue covering Cicero's "Tusculan Disputations" from an Epicurean perspective. We will wrap up several loose ends from last week, complete Section XX, and move forward into XXI. The loose ends we need to cover are:  1 - Last week we spoke about the difficulty of taking sides in arguments where both sides claim the best of intentions, and even the same intention. This week let's take up the problem of how to proceed with both sides do in fact have good intentions, and let's talk about how to get off the "road to hell" that is paved with good intentions.  2 - We'll extend our discussion from disputes about pleasure to disputes about pain in looking at Cicero's final comment: "But suppose we are mistaken as to his pleasure, are we so too as to his pain? I maintain therefore the impropriety of language which that man uses when talking of virtue, who would measure every great evil by pain?"  https://www.epicureanfriends.com/thread/4747-episode-302-td30-epicurus-and-roads-paved-with-good-intentions/

Episode 301 - Epicurus And The Question of Ends Justifying Means

Welcome to Episode 301 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world.   Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the study of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where we discuss this and all of our podcast episodes. This week we be moving forward in Cicero's "Tusculan Disputations," as we of course cover it from an Epicurean perspective, and we will complete Section XX where we finally get to the Gracchus brothers and see how Cicero uses them to illustrate how people can speak much the same words but mean very different things.  In so doing, we'll also begin to address the huge topic of justifying means by ends. https://www.epicureanfriends.com/thread/4740-episode-301-td29-epicurus-and-the-question-of-ends-justifying-means/