Questions SEP 23

1. What do you think of Epic's definition of a world? 159 Do you think he had a notion that each world could have its own laws of nature (rather than the natural universe being governed by a single set of natural laws, which seems to be the modern "correct" view)?
2. When Epic applies the criterion of "running counter to our experience" to cosmology, how does he or the cosmologists of his time know anything of what worlds do? --unless he is indeed generalizing universally from earthly experience. And how can he claim to know that the planets, moon, etc. were not separately created? 160
3. Can we be sure our reliance on the "clear evidence" of the senses is not an alternate form of "mythologizing"? 166
4. Astrology is "worthless," but is that because of the "one-cause" method? 171
5. Do you share Epic's contempt for those who imagine "some divine being" who sits and watches animals in hibernation etc.? 172
6. Is it the same mistake to say one shouldn't study philosophy or seek happiness prior to some designated age? 178
7. Do you agree with Epic's definition of "the irreligious man"? 179
8. If you're not afraid to die, should you automatically expect there to be "nothing fearful in living"? 180
9. Do you "prefer the most savory dish to the largest portion..."?
10. What's Epic saying, when he declares the future "neither ours nor altogether not ours"? 181
11. Will a good Epicurean really "never experience anxiety" and live like a god," with no emotional peaks or valleys? 185, 192 Would you miss your peaks?
12. Do you believe death is really "no different than if we had never been born at all," even if we rule out a punitive afterlife? 188
13. Having imbibed the Epicurean message, do we "no longer need unlimited time"? 199 [Let's remember to revisit this question when we read 4,000 Weeks...]
14. Is life "ruined by procrastination"? 204 How well do you resist procrastination? Any tips?
15. Must we "laugh and philosophize..."? 205 And "remain cheerful"? 206 Do you?
16. Is friendship the heart of "the gospel of the happy life"? Why call it a gospel?
17. Is Vatican quote #68 the wisest statement in this book? 207

Before we say goodbye to Epicurus, in case you've not seen Alain de Botton's take on him and his school yet...

 

 

Happiness Begins with Café con Leche, in “Encarnación”

…the question of professional aspirations could be different from the question of happiness. "I needed to find a way to understand how to enjoy the ride," he told me. "And I think she explained it perfectly." For Encarnación, life is about having a sense of play. You are the one who gets to decide whether you're happy or not. That decision may look like taking time for small pleasures—say, savoring a good cup of coffee instead of merely getting caffeinated. Café con leche, y azúcar en el café.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/happiness-begins-with-cafe-con-leche-in-encarnacion

The gift of little things in the present

"...The occasion and the experience, then, are nothing. It all depends on the capacity of the soul to be grasped, to have its life-currents absorbed by what is given. "Crossing a bare common," says Emerson, "in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear." 

Life is always worth living, if one have such responsive sensibilities. But we of the highly educated classes (so called) have most of us got far, far away from Nature. We are trained to seek the choice, the rare, the exquisite exclusively, and to overlook the common. We are stuffed with abstract conceptions, and glib with verbalities and verbosities; and in the culture of these higher functions the peculiar sources of joy connected with our simpler functions often dry up, and we grow stone-blind and insensible to life's more elementary and general goods and joys. 

The remedy under such conditions is to descend to a more profound and primitive level. To be imprisoned or shipwrecked or forced into the army would permanently show the good of life to many an over-educated pessimist. Living in the open air and on the ground, the lop-sided beam of the balance slowly rises to the level line; and the over-sensibilities and insensibilities even themselves out. The good of all the artificial schemes and fevers fades and pales; and that of seeing, smelling, tasting, sleeping, and daring and doing with one's body, grows and grows. The savages and children of nature, to whom we deem ourselves so much superior, certainly are alive where we are often dead, along these lines; and, could they write as glibly as we do, they would read us impressive lectures on our impatience for improvement and on our blindness to the fundamental static goods of life. "Ah! my brother," said a chieftain to his white guest, "thou wilt never know the happiness of both thinking of nothing and doing nothing. This, next to sleep, is the most enchanting of all things. Thus we were before our birth, and thus we shall be after death. Thy people,... when they have finished reaping one field, they begin to plough another; and, if the day were not enough, I have seen them plough by moonlight. What is their life to ours,--the life that is as naught to them? Blind that they are, they lose it all! But we live in the present."

--ON A CERTAIN BLINDNESS IN HUMAN BEINGS

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Panda happiness

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift , which is why we call it the present.”― Bill Keane

The Beauty of a Silent Walk

It's not just for peripatetic philosophers...

No talking. No podcasts. No music. Just some time alone with your thoughts.
Walking in silence is an ancient tradition rooted in mindfulness, a form of meditation that helps people focus on the physical sensations, thoughts and emotions of the present moment, without any judgment.

The fact that the silent walk is nothing new has attracted a chorus of critics; "Gen Z thinks it just invented walking," they say.

To that, Arielle Lorre, 38, a content creator in Los Angeles, had to laugh.

"Fifteen or 20 years ago, this would not have even been a conversation," said Ms. Lorre, who has often discussed the benefits of silent walks, most recently on her podcast and on TikTok. But silent walking feels relevant right now because many of us have become tethered to our devices, she added.

The question then becomes: "How do we counteract that?" Ms. Lorre said.

Walking is a well-established balm for the mind and body. Research has shown that walking for as little as 10 extra minutes a day may lead to a longer life. And a 2020 study in The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that a 30-minute walk in an urban park reduced the amount of time that people dwelled on negative thoughts. Walking has also been shown to improve creativity and help fend off depression... nyt

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Silent walks are great, but so are walking-and-talking walks. This guy just needs to learn how to shift walking-gears:

No, I don't want to go for a walk with you

Walking is a solo activity, and no one is going to convince me otherwise.

"...Like most humans, I am a terrible multitasker. Invite me on a walk and I will struggle to keep up my end of the conversation because my brain cannot unlearn that walking time is thinking time, my mind wandering as widely and aimlessly as my feet..." nyt

"…Get into the habit of examining your own mind and the world around you while walking in deep philosophical contemplation, Epictetus says, so that you may come to know who you really are, rather than losing yourself in society, among the chatter of other people's voices."

https://open.substack.com/pub/donaldrobertson/p/how-to-walk-like-a-stoic-e1a41c8d5af0?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Being There

The principal duty of friendship is merely presence.

"...According to an American Perspectives Survey, between 1990 and 2021, the percentage of Americans reporting that they had no close friends at all quadrupled. For men, the number had risen to 15 percent. Almost half of all Americans surveyed reported having three close friends or fewer... Ever since I’ve started thinking and writing about America’s loss of belonging, I’ve been asking people what virtue they value most in a friend. I’ve asked people who are religious and secular, white-collar and blue-collar, men and women, Black and white. And it’s remarkable how often the answer boils down to the single virtue I mentioned above, of presence, of being there..."

David French
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/opinion/friendship-loneliness.html?smid=em-share

Epicurus in "The Spinoza Problem"

 Irvin Yalom's novel suggests that Epicurus's view of the gods as real but distant was "bold, but not foolhardy"... and that it presaged Spinoza's pantheism.