Mark and Wes go into more textual detail re. Lucretius’s take on atomism and the metaphysical and epistemological problems it entails. Start with Part one. This is a preview; become a PEL Citizen or $5 Patreon supporter to get the full, 50 minute conversation. Lucretius believes in something like entropy: all conjoined atoms eventually break apart, but his account of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 206 Follow-Up Lucretius’s Epicurean Physics (Citizens Only)
Mark and Wes go into more textual detail re. Lucretius’s take on atomism and the metaphysical and epistemological problems it entails. Listen to the full episode discussion first. Lucretius believes in something like entropy: all conjoined atoms eventually break apart, but his account of the mechanism by which they join is less spelled out: When you get two heat atoms Continue Reading …
Contemplations on Tao Series
My Contemplations on Tao blog series (at the Society of Friends of Epicurus site) was an attempt to explore the parallels between Taoism and Epicurean philosophy which become evident when we study Taoism and read the Tao Te Ching. Sometimes the insights we get from both traditions mirror, complete and complement each other. Nature must not be forced. - Epicurus The first Continue Reading …
Westerhoff on Nagarjuna on Metaphysically Basic Entities
One of the topics we didn't really get into on the podcast, and which in our Buddhism reading I actually found the most interesting, is the metaphysics of basic elements of the world. Nagarjuna argues that reality has no ultimate foundation, and in the episode we discussed that in terms of the possibility of Cartesian "substance" being basic or Spinoza's solution of making Continue Reading …