Commenting Epicurus”s First Principal Doctrine
The Epicurus page of Facebook started publishing Epicurus’s Principal Doctrines again with new comments.
“A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness.” – The First Epicurean Principal Doctrine
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My comment was this:
I agree with DeWitt in that Epicurus taught that the gods were not immortal but “only” indestructible” and that their “blessedness” was -at least partly – due to the fact that they were “free from anger and partiality”. So the message of the 1st Principal Doctrine is: Do NOT fear the gods! At the same time I agree with Jaakko in that the gods through their “blessedness” or perfect ataraxia served as role models for Epicurean practitioners, who believed and proved that through daily practice the can “live like gods”.
the cheapest vaccine against swine flu panic
I have just received an email from one of my German friends about the connections between the swine flu “pandemic” and the persons and companies that profit from it. I never pass on emails of common interest without googling the topic a bit and in this case I could not find convincing evidence pro or contra the claims that the “pandemic” panic has been propagated out of financial interest of a certain circle of persons and their companies.
Therefore I will just stick to my 2300 year old Epicurean principle: “mens sana in corpora sano”, i.e. to strive for “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”
As I have never taken vaccine against any kind of flu (that kills about 10,000 people in Germany every year, i.e. roughly twice as many as killed in raod accidents) so far and I will not make an exception for the swine flu either. The statistics do not support any call for action that would justify the loss in MH-ROI (mental health return on investment): my peace of mind, tranquility, stress-FREEDOM, ataraxia.
The vaccine against the swine flu is expensive, it may have unpleasant or even dangerous side effects. The vaccine against the swine flu or any other panic generated by the media industry is cheap, pleasant and available for each and all: good, old, proven practical Epicurean philosophy.
process vs. results?
While puffing our Quintero panetelas in my office (yes, it is still possible in – well, at least some parts of – Germany to smoke cigars in your office!) we discussed today with my friend M. the difference between the process and the results approach to the world.
M. said that the two attitudes/approaches/orientations are diametrically opposed, some people/cultures having a preference for one and others for the other of them. Taoism or Epicureanism for instance were process oriented. For them the Way was the Goal. Modern Western societies are, by contrast, results oriented. This is at the root of their obsession with “success”, “winning”,” competitive”, “top notch”. This is a typically German-American attitude towards the world, she opined, with greed as a motivation at its base.
I countered that within the reference framework of project management e.g. processes and results are not mutually exclusive notions, since the results are usually milestones or deliverables in the course of the project process towards a well defined objective. And even within the framework of Epicurean communal education the students or their educators must have fixed some recognizable milestones on their progress towards ataraxia (stress-FREEDOM). The hierarchical structure of the philosophy schools indicates clearly that some members of these learning communities had made more progress than others and they were accordingly licensed to deliver teachings and give feedback to groups (like modern communication trainers) or to individuals (like modern coaches.) Moreover: even in utterly results-oriented activities, like profit maximization, processes are designed and “re-engineered” to optimize the cost-effectiveness.
M. said that in this case the process was subordinated to the result, whereas e.g. in learning and practicing wisdom the results are subordinated to the process. The process has a higher value in this case.
I wonder what the readers of this blog think about the compatibility of these notions.
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