David Brooks (in the New York Times) on anti- semitism: “On college campuses, many young people have been raised in a climate of moral relativism and have no experience with those with virulent evil beliefs. They sometimes assume that if Israel is hated, then it must be because of its cruel and colonial policies in …
Continue reading ‘Managing to keep two issues separate in one’s mind’ »
Epicurus believed in the connection between learning and happiness. To him the purpose of education was to attune the mind to the pleasures of life, whether that meant a long lunch with friends or an afternon on a tropical beach, under a coconut palm. The mind that has ceased questioning and learning is a mind …
“You are pleased to think [Epicurus] uneducated. The reason is that he refused to consider any education worth the name that did not help to school us in happiness. Should he have spent his time, as you encourage Triarius and me to do, in perusing poets, who give us nothing solid and useful, but merely …
The aim is not only to live a pleasant life, but, if possible to participate in the creation of a counterculture that gives you a pleasant life, as un-stressful as possible. This process has to be ongoing because of the corruption of society. We live in a consumerist society where empty desires and values are …
“Some Athenians saw Epicurus and his ideas as a threat to social stability. A philosophy that set personal pleasure as life’s highest goal and that openly advocated self-interest could dissolve the glue they believed held the republic together: altruism. Epicurus’s brand of self-centeredness, they argued, did not make for good citizenship”. (Travels with Epicurus, by …
The US National Academy of Science Report concludes that even draconian restrictions on childbirth, pandemics and a Third World War, with casualties similar to World War II (50 – 80 million deaths) would scarcely make a dent in the trajectory of world population growth in the next 85 years. Climate change, war, reduced mortality and …
Continue reading ‘Population growth: the subject people won’t speak about’ »
“Before you eat and drink anything, carefully consider with whom you eat or drink rather than what you eat and drink, because eating without a friend is the life of the lion or the wolf”. (Epicurus)
Yesterday I gave an example of how Epicureanism could (and has been!) interpreted – as a selfish creed. I gave the example of the man who abandons a wife and kids out of selfish motives of personal pleasure, offering neither help nor support to the family he helped to create. There are plenty of men …
A reader has asked me a question about Epicurean morality. A very good question about pleasure and where pleasure ends and selfishness begins. Epicurus taught that the moral good is the same as pleasure, either physical or mental, and that moral evil is the same as pain, and that you should always avoid pain. An …
“One must give the highest importance to affairs of the state, that it may be well run. One must not pursue quarrels contrary to right, nor acquire a power contrary to the common good. The well-run state is the greatest protection, and contains all in itself; when this is safe, all is safe; when this …
By 2012 the richest 70 members of China’s national legislature had a net worth of almost $90bn, more than 20 times the combined net worth of the entire US congress. (from “Age of Ambition”, by Evan Osnos). In regimes all over the world corruption has been forever part of the picture. Decent, well-meaning people, who …
How should we view the teachings of Epicurus with regard to romantic love? Epicurus was not the only ancient Greek, philosopher or not, who regarded romance between men and women as potentially either overwhelming or excruciatingly painful – and all points in between – thus detracting from peace of mind. Epicurus himself had nothing against …
Following my comments on the thought of Kant and Epicurus, I would like to look again at the question asked by a reader : “Do you agree with Epicurus that happiness can be seen purely in terms of pleasure, or whether Aristotle and Kant were right about goodness being more about virtue”. I will now …
To some, friends are people who follow them on Facebook. But are these people “friending” them because they are genuinely interested in them and their lives, or are they “friend collectors”? It is a wise person who is realistic and can tell the difference. “A friend in need is a friend indeed” is an old, …
Paradise is not place; it is a state of mind.
