The Invited Philosopher Rene The Menu Appetizer: Tom Kah Kung* Second Appetizer: Green Papaya salad* Main Course: Baja Barramundi with yellow rice and salsa fresca. Drink: « Epicurean » water *Courtesy of Rene The Philosophy The Greek Philosopher Epicurus’s argued for “Everything in Moderation”. But it is not as simple as that.  And our dinner discussion took us into many unexpected directions. Unexpected, because many I had not considered before. That is one big reason why I enjoy the philosophy dinners: To discover points of views my mind would not have considered.

My introduction to Epicurus was this French podcast. For Rene, I found 3 web sites with good summaries of the philosophy: Reading Epicurus: Pleasure & Pain, What is Epicurism?, The Philosophy of Epicurus. After the dinner I also enjoyed reading the 3 ingredients for happiness. The Summary Epicurus identified happiness with the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. He claimed there are two ways to attain pleasure: (1) Meeting one’s desires (2) Having no desires (state of tranquility or ataraxia). He characterized three types of desires of which…