Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the …
The focus of Epicurus’ ethical writings [what little we have] is on the individual and his self-interest. But there is far too much in the Principle Doctrines and the Vatican aphorism about friendship and justice for one to characterize his philosophy as purely, or even predominately self-regarding. So, if were one to read only The …
Last night we went to the BBC Proms, the biggest (and oldest?) music festival in the world. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venzuela was playing Shostakovich and a collection of wonderful Latin American pieces.The orchestra consists of over 200 young musicians, aged 12 to 26, and was founded to take poor kids out of …
The wealthiest 1% of American taxpayers received an average federal tax break of over $51,700 in 2006. Meanwhile, households in the middle 20% received just $668 on average. Inequality is growing on both sides of the Atlantic. There are those professing to be Epicureans who say, "It’s none of my business – – I ‘m …
The objective of this blog is to discuss relevant questions about current issues and to ask, were Epicurus alive today, what attitude might he adopt toward them. It is not the intention to compete in any way with the excellent Yahoo discussion site, http://us.f364.mail.yahoo.com/ which concentrates on more philosophical matters and where the posts are …
