Talk:Principal Doctrine 29

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Beyond the scholium's commentary, a collation of Epicurean texts is called for. (1) P.D. 29: Among desires some are natural and necessary, some natural but not necessary, and others neither natural nor necessary, but due to empty opinion (kenên doxan). [kene means empty, corresponding to latin vanus, etymology of fr./engl. 'vain'; Epicurean consistency of body/vacuum! body is value/life, vacuum is nihilism/wasteland]. (2) P.D. 30: Those natural desires which create no pain when unfulfilled, though pursued with an intense effort, are also due to limitless opinion; and if they are not dispelled, it is not because of their own nature, but because of human opining (kenodoxian). (3) VS 63: There is also a limit in easy living. He who fails to heed this limit falls into an error as great as that of the man who gives way to greed. (4) Sen. Ad Luc. 16.9 [U203, Epicurean quotes]: “Natural desires are limited(finita) [...] no limit to that which comes from emptiness […] A route has an arrival (extremum)[…] wander [error: in lat. both 'fault' and 'wander': turn around in wasteland] has no measuring […] when you want to know whether what you seek is by nature or by blind cupidity (caecam : without perceived object; cupiditatem), ponder that, if after much progress there is something which remains always far, that's not natural” [physical/moral vacuum is limitless, blind, always far; body is life; natural is a function of how it is being regarded by one individual character at a task]. (5) Sen, Ad Luc., 16.7 [U202 (Epicurean quotes)]: There is also this saying of Epicurus: “If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if you do so according to opinion, you will never be rich.” For nature’s wants are small; the demands of opinion are limitless. (6) Porphyry, Letter to Marcella [U204 (Epicurus quotes)]: “But insofar as you are in greed, it is through forgetfulness of your nature' that you feel the greed. For thereby you cause to yourself empty fears and desires.

We have an inward-looking/individual way to establish what is out of our nature, by putting in order and fusing similarities: when one is (6): “forgetful of one's own nature”, (5): “demands of opinion are limitless”, so desires are (1): “neither natural nor necessary … vain opinion”; one feels (6): “ empty fears and desires”, one's deeds are (2): “pursued with an intense effort ... empty opinion”, or one fails to heed (3) “limit in easy living”. So (4) “something is always far”. [infinity of desire, frustration]

It results that: naturalness in desiring lies in physiologia [kat(at)ênagkasmenôs / anagkaiôs (caused by necessity), after Demetrius Lac. Pherc. 1012], in easy choosing that prevent pain [sympheròntôs (caused by usefulness), ibid.], in personal epilogismòs on what is not 'always far', i.e. relative both to social intricacies (prudence) and to individual character (identification and inner talk) [adiastròphôs (genetic, instinctual), ibid.]. In short, easiness of variable desires lies more in the subject than in the object (P.D. 30), more in inward looking analogical (after one's own experience) deliberation and self confidence than in field investigation; of course, classification refers to average gifted, self conscious persons [See surprisingly common 'dissociate/multiple personality' in H. Gardner's psychology, not only in the movie! To them refers the maxim of Epicurus: “The fool, with all his other faults, has this also: he is always ready to start over a life”[U494], repressing bad memories and relapsing into the same blunders with different protagonists].

”(Epicurus) write in these very words: “We must proceed to tell how a person will best uphold the purpose of h i s n a t u r e ” [U554]; “they should fulfill their natures by engaging in politics and entering public life, on the ground that, because of their natural dispositions, they are more likely to be disturbed and harmed by inactivity if they do not obtain what they desire” [U555]; “He who is eager for fame and power is instructed [by Epicurus] to cultivate kings and royal acquaintances” [U557]; he who cannot bear annoyance to shun the palace [U557]; “The teaching of Epicurus … speaks according to the natural bent of each individual [U553]; “… He prohibits the cowardly from an advance to public life, the lazy form exercise, the timid from engaging in military service” [U550]. “Epicurus admitted that some pleasures come from glory” [U 178]. “Epicurus admitted that some pleasures come from fame” [U548]. “He will say that a moderate degree of pain is worse evil than the deepest disgrace, for no evil is involved in disgrace alone, unless it should be attended by painful circumstances” [U550].

Finally his very words: “of the difference relating to the good, for which reasons Epicurus proclaimed himself the supreme monarch” ... [Phild, Vol. Herc. 2, I.116; U180].
“calculate the end-goal which is given to e a c h o n e ” [P.D. XXII].
Esoteric Epicurus, leaked out here and there, is very different, isn't he? One might intricately say that neither natural nor necessary desires are mostly disturbed natural non necessary desires, extremely difficult for the 'normal' majority ... But a character trait is a tendency to pursue certain ends; if it was widespread, it would be 'normal', like the tail of peacock.

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