Happy Twentieth of November to all Epicureans! It’s been a month of upheaval and crisis.
“There is in this radical Islamism, a methodical organization to contravene the laws of the Republic and create a parallel order, to erect other values” – French President Macron, on the aftermath of the beheading of a teacher for showing a cartoon of the false prophet Muhammad … while the US swears in another Christian theocrat into the Supreme Court
The events of the last few weeks, including the beheading of a teacher for giving a class on free speech in France, and the “anger” that Muslims say that they feel at “Islamophobia” and criticism of their beliefs, rather than at the barbaric, unnecessary, totalitarian and cruel practice of beheading people who disagree with them–compounded by the fact that police in France are having to intervene with Muslim apologist children who are openly defending the practice of beheading infidels–, gives us a stronger resolve to defend the First Amendment and other guarantees and freedoms that we have come to take for granted in the West, as well as the Epicurean practice of parrhesia.
These events remind me, once again, of Lucian’s satire Alexander the Oracle Monger, where (at the end of the work) Lucian of Samosata relates that the false Pagan prophet attempted to have him killed for mocking him. When he brought the case before the Roman senators, they discouraged him from prosecuting the false prophet out of fear of the mobs of his followers. In the short novel, Lucian from time to time has words of praise for Epicurus, and for his Principal Doctrines (a copy of which was burnt by Alexander in one scene). He said:
Scoundrels don’t know what blessings this book creates for its readers and what peace, tranquillity, and freedom it engenders in them, liberating them as it does from terrors and apparitions and portents, from vain hopes and extravagant cravings, developing in them intelligence and truth, and truly purifying their understanding, not with torches and squills and that sort of foolery, but with straight thinking, truthfulness and frankness.
It also happens that the most recent content at SoFE focuses on the Principal Doctrines:
Meléta: Epicurus’ Instructions for Students
PD 6: On Methods of Exegesis
PDs 32, 37 and 38 and the Moral Problem of Slavery
PD 5: The Three Sisters and the Checks and Balances of Epicurean Ethics
PD 8: The Doctrine of Deferred Gratification
The events in the world remind us frequently of the importance of the Principal Doctrines and the moral guidance they have to offer, even 2,300 years after they were written. For instance, in the middle of the current hostility towards science by the US government and many religious groups, we hold PD 24, the doctrine of empirical thinking, in our minds. In the process of studying the PD’s in depth, I’ve found four distinct methods of interpretation, or ways of thinking about, the Doctrines:
- The contextual method – this is the most common-sense method, where we try to discern what conversations among the founders led to establishing each PD as an authoritative conclusion
- The literal method – which calls for the literal interpretation of the text only; we try to discern the original anticipation of each word; requires some knowledge of ancient Greek
- The pragmatic or consequential method – an attempt to connect theory with practice; asks how one may put into practice that doctrine, with the possibility that new insights about the doctrine will emerge when we put before our eyes the consequences of each doctrine. This is based on Epicurus’ assertion in his sermon Against empty words that we think empirically concerning actions based on the results observed from any course of action
- The therapeutic method: where we consider what disease of the soul the PD is attempting to heal, and what is the medicine that the PD carries (since “the words of philosophy” are healing). This applies to many, but perhaps not all, PDs
These methods open up various ways to think about what conversations led to the establishment of these doctrines. For instance, traditionally people think of the first four doctrines as therapeutic because they were paraphrased into the Four Cures (Tetrapharmakon) by Philodemus of Gadara, but a deeper study reveals that many of the other PDs also contain what Philodemus called “the healing words of philosophy”. PD 28 contains medicine for lack of self-confidence. There are many more than four cures in the PDs.
When I discussed PD6, I demonstrated the frequent necessity of the literal method. The PDs on justice may be put into practice by drafting contracts based on mutual benefit, or may be better understood by using case-studies (leases, marriage or job contracts, etc.)
Our latest video is on pleasure and gratitude (Third Cure) and on coping with suffering as an Epicurean (Fourth Cure).
The Autarkist 