Reductionist live in a vacuum of their own creation every idea that enters is prodded and poked relentlessly--the squirming carcass thrown back to the living to revitalize itself and resume its infinite course.

The [postmodern iteration of the] philosophy of Epicurus (341–270 B.C.E.) [is] a complete and interdependent system, involving a view of the goal of human life ([Maslow’s hierarchy of needs]), an empiricist theory of knowledge ([the scientific method]), a description of [the real and hyperreal] based on [quantum mechanical] materialism, and a naturalistic account of evolution, from the formation of the world to the emergence of human societies.

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.