Stoics, Skeptics, and Epicureans

Folks, On Wednesday, March 4, at 4pm, there will be a discussion about Epicurean gratitude in Ellis Hall. I'll give you extra credit for our class if you attend and write up a very short summary.

Just read from 71 to the end of the essay.  It isn't long.  Study it.  Take notes. We're having good discussions.  Let me try to address Brianna's point slightly more clearly.  Epicurus is giving a "deflationary" account of everything.  Think of something that looks mysterious or amazing.  Something that is almost magical.  A deflationary account gives you an explanation that explains how it happened, but without appealing to anything magical or mysterious. Watch the following clip.  Then think:  There are two explanations of what just happened.  One is that these guys shot bullets into each other's mouths--superhuman feats.   But a less thrilling account would explain it all without invoking the superpowers that the first explanation relies on.  Epicurus thinks that this second approach is obviously better, even if it deprives us of "magic." HERE

Same document, review from the beginning, but then carry on, carefully, with notes, to the end of #71.  HERE

So you go to the link, which will lead you to a weirdly formatted version of another of Epicurus' letters.  This one is about the physical world.  You'll see numbers.  This reading starts at #35.  You'll see that. Carefully read and take notes on everything up to the end of section #53. You will write about this in class, so give it some attention. Here's the link:  HERE .

Read it again, HERE . At the end, Epicurus says that anyone who follows this advice will "live like a god." Really study these pages this time, and be ready to write about what a life like this looks like.  And what's "godlike" about it.

Read this: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Epicurus Study this:  HERE

Finish the dialogue.  Carefully.  We'll be writing about it in class.

I want to try to put this a little better than I did in class.  You should read more than once--yes.  Reading philosophy is always re-reading.  It's just required, the way knowing French is required for reading French literature.  At the same time, there will be things that you don't understand.  That is absolutely no reason to feel bad.  Whenever I don't understand some bit of philosophy--and this happens every single day--I think:  "This philosopher is trying hard to say something important.  It's too bad that they couldn't put it more clearly, but after all, this is hard stuff.  I'll come back to it sometime, when I have learned more in some adjacent work." So then I go read something related.  Or better, I get into a conversation with someone who also read it.  That always helps.  THAT's what class is for.  It really works.  (But only if you put in the re-reading time.) Or in other words:  don't ever feel bad if you don't get it. 

HERE

Get to 107c in the dialogue.  How will Socrates address the idea that the soul is like a weaver???

Get to 95b.  This is a crucial portion of the dialogue.  Watch for "misology."  I'm not joking about that--it is Socrates' response to the precise kind of impatience we have already felt a bit in class, and I want to talk about it.  But also, watch for different theories about what the soul might be.