The Free Thinker Institute

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https://www.meetup.com/orlando-stoics/

ORLANDO STOICS, "TRAVELS WITH EPICURUS"

DETAILS: This is our Friday night series starting on 11/28/2025. Join us as we read Daniel Klein’s book, “Travels with Epicurus.” We will accompany the then 73-year old author on his travels to the Greek island of Hydra where he seeks the answer to aging happily. His quest leads him to focus on the teachings and inspiring life of Epicurus. Along the way, the author also explores the wisdom of Stoicism, Bertrand Russell, Eric Erikson, Aristotle, William James, and others. Is Aristotelian old-age grumpiness the most personally honest way to go? Is Stoicism more about denying rather than transcending pain? Are the best years of our lives in our old age? Join us as we explore these questions and read one of NPR’s best books of 2012, a UK Sunday Times Bestseller, and a book the UK’s Daily Telegraph coined “wry, whimsical, amusing, and intelligent.”

SCHEDULE
11-28-2025 Prologue and Chap. 1
12-5-2025 Chap. 2
12-12-2025 Chap. 3
12-19-2025 Chap 4
12-26-2025 Chap. 5
1-2-2026 Chap. 6
1-9-2026 Chap 7 and Epilogue

READING MATERIALS: The book is available on Amazon and at other booksellers in audio, paperback, and Kindle. Reading in advance is optional. We will collect highlights from each part of the book in an outline for the meeting.

https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Epicurus-Journey-Island-Fulfilled/dp/0143126628

MEETING TIME (USA): Conversion tool for our international friends: www.worldtimebuddy.com

7:00PM Eastern
6:00PM Central
5:00PM Mountain
4:00PM Pacific

In general, Stoicism teaches us how to handle difficult people and events, how to avoid anger and worry, and to use moderation in life overall. We will discuss how Stoic practice can lead to a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Our group enjoys open-minded, respectful conversations on Stoicism and how it relates to science, culture, philosophy, history, other belief systems, and pop culture (books and movies). If we differ in our opinions, then "we agree to disagree". The long-term goal is to improve our minds via group discussions. Our group does NOT discuss religion or politics.

This event is free and open to the public.

## What we’re about

Another enjoyable free flowing discussion after the regular
Saturday Melbourne Existentialist Society Meeting. Please feel free to join the Melbourne Existentialst Society meeting from 2 pm AEST
https://www.meetup.com/existentialist-society/?eventOrigin=event_home_page
Life the Universe Street Philosophy commences at cessation of
The Melbourne Existentialist Society meeting.
Some of the many topics we have discussed previously,
some of which I could almost follow, are-
The Id, Super Ego and Ego
Where did the laws of physics come from?
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Does Truth exist independent of consciousness?
Hard problem of consciousness.
Conspiracy theories - is there a psychological profile of a habitual conspiracy Theorist.
Is it possible to have ojective Morality without a concept of God?
Definition of "Information"
How do we know how a particle behaves in an unobserved state if "unobserved" by definition means we don't blinking well see it?
Meaning of meaning in "what is the meaning of life?"
Definition of Language
Ship of Thesis - is the "thing" just a construct?
Tranendentalism
Determinism
Observer effect in quantum physics
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Is there a why to human existence?
Definition of experience.
Method of applying reason.
What does it mean to be "your authentic self?"
Idealism v Realism - ABSOLUTE TRUTH - What does that mean ? does it exist ? Ontology, how equipped are we to fathom the nature of things? HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: WHERE DOES CONSCIOUSNESS ARISE?: DOES DNA TRANSLATE TO BEHAVIOUR?, IF SO HOW - definition of rationality - origins of "value" - precision of mathematics - concept of infinity.
Definition of Information
- where is the information in an un opened book, does it exist when unobserved?
Reason
- what is the definition of reason
does it exist in physical laws, i.e. if we can we say "the reason the rock fell is because of gravity"?, how is this different to "what is the reason she chose Pepsi max instead of Coke Zero?"
Validity of evolutionary psychology:
- what evidence is there for evolutionarily selected behaviour, given that we cannot observe the history of the emergence of neurological structures as we can observe evolutionarily selected anatomical changes?

December 14 - Having finished the major part of Book VII on "Troubleshooting the Virtues," we are now in the part on the mechanism for discerning the bad and the good--reading chapter 12 of NE VII. Everyone knows what pleasure is, what pain is, right? So what can we learn from Aristotle on relating pleasure & pain to the good & the bad?
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Let's follow his train of thought starting at 1152b25.
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Our main translation from here on will be by Adam Beresford (Penguin Classics, 2020), but we will occasionally dip into other older English translations to get more insights and interpretations.
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Bring your own questions about the text if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues.
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
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1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire it? (E.g. [Aristotle’s], ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. From a third-person perspective, how is the virtuous person (of a specific virtue) to be characterized?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.