The Strange Attractions of the Epicurean Swerve in My Dinner with André

Abstract

The Epicureans: In this section I outline the philosophy of Epicureanism.

My Dinner with André and Epicureanism: Epicureanism is, in its ancient Greek form, quite ascetic. How does that square with the sumptuous meal Wally and Andre eat?

My Dinner with André and Katastematic Pleasure: The Epicureans identify a special kind of natural pleasure that is the best pleasure.

From Divergence to Convergence: Wally and Andre start off their dinner conversation from very different philosophical perspectives on what is important or good in life, but they do begin to converge as the conversation continues.

Sorites: I see their difference as being like the poles of a sorites paradox and the logic that gets them to converge is also relevant to the sorites paradox.

Conversational Synchronicity: There is a way of getting into a conversational sync that is exemplified by Wally and Andre at the end of the movie.