Hiram Crespo's Blog - Posts Tagged "epicurus"
Tending the Epicurean Garden is available!
My new book Tending the Epicurean Garden is now live on amazon, as well as the Spanish translation (in paperback and Kindle). I am very thrilled that, after the many months of hard work that went into the book, I'm finally able to take others on this adventure with me to discover Epicureanism on its own terms.
There are sources on Epicureanism, but many are indirect and some are hostile. It's important for us in the Epicurean movement that there exist Epicurean sources for our tradition that explain it on our own terms.
Another reason why this book is extremely important is that there is a huge body of interdisciplinary research that vindicates the teachings of Epicurus, which calls for an update to how they're presented. This includes not just research by social scientists but also in fields as varied as diet and neuroplasticity.
Epicureanism is not a fossilized, archaic Greek philosophical school but a cosmopolitan, contemporary, scientific wisdom tradition that is alive and changing as new information becomes available on the science of happiness and wellbeing.
I hope you find as much pleasure in reading the book as I found in writing it!
Hiram Crespo
societyofepicurus.com
There are sources on Epicureanism, but many are indirect and some are hostile. It's important for us in the Epicurean movement that there exist Epicurean sources for our tradition that explain it on our own terms.
Another reason why this book is extremely important is that there is a huge body of interdisciplinary research that vindicates the teachings of Epicurus, which calls for an update to how they're presented. This includes not just research by social scientists but also in fields as varied as diet and neuroplasticity.
Epicureanism is not a fossilized, archaic Greek philosophical school but a cosmopolitan, contemporary, scientific wisdom tradition that is alive and changing as new information becomes available on the science of happiness and wellbeing.
I hope you find as much pleasure in reading the book as I found in writing it!
Hiram Crespo
societyofepicurus.com
The Philodemus Series
I've had an amazingly productive last several weeks thanks to the kindness of the people from the Loyola University library, who allowed me access to very rare books: the translations and commentaries of the Philodemus scrolls. Some of these works are impossible to find online, others are prohibitively expensive. The last time I checked, the translation of On Piety was going for $250 on amazon. Although I'm not a student at Loyola, being a neighbor I'm not allowed to take the books out but I can spend time at the library and read them.
It's extremely unfortunate that the writings of Philodemus are so inaccessible to the common man. His scrolls are the intellectual legacy of all of humanity. Philodemus taught Epicurean philosophy in Italy during the first century BCE. A collection of his scrolls was kept in library from the city of Herculaneum, which was destroyed (along with Pompeii) by the Mount Vesuvius eruption during the first century. However, his scrolls were in recent times recovered and many of the fragments have been deciphered.
I've taken it upon myself to read, distill and write commentaries on the scroll as they've become available to me over the months. The result of my work is the updated
Philodemus Series, which is on the Society of Friends of Epicurus webpage and will continue to be updated over the coming weeks.
These teachings represent a second layer of Epicurean tradition and history that evolved away from Greece during the Roman era in the days of Lucretius. Unlike the original founders, Philodemus was teaching to wealthy Romans and his teachings reflect the changing audience and the adaptability of our philosophy.
I hope you take advantage of the availability of this content ... and share the love on your social media!
It's extremely unfortunate that the writings of Philodemus are so inaccessible to the common man. His scrolls are the intellectual legacy of all of humanity. Philodemus taught Epicurean philosophy in Italy during the first century BCE. A collection of his scrolls was kept in library from the city of Herculaneum, which was destroyed (along with Pompeii) by the Mount Vesuvius eruption during the first century. However, his scrolls were in recent times recovered and many of the fragments have been deciphered.
I've taken it upon myself to read, distill and write commentaries on the scroll as they've become available to me over the months. The result of my work is the updated
Philodemus Series, which is on the Society of Friends of Epicurus webpage and will continue to be updated over the coming weeks.
These teachings represent a second layer of Epicurean tradition and history that evolved away from Greece during the Roman era in the days of Lucretius. Unlike the original founders, Philodemus was teaching to wealthy Romans and his teachings reflect the changing audience and the adaptability of our philosophy.
I hope you take advantage of the availability of this content ... and share the love on your social media!
The Humanist Book Review
2014 closed for me with this amazing review of Tending the Epicurean Garden by Cornell University classicist Michael Fontaine, which was written for Jan-Feb 2015 issue of The Humanist, a publication of the American Humanist Association.
The reviewer had previously written works comparing Epicureanism (favorably) with the work of psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. This influenced his response to my book.
The review represents the ideas expressed in my book fairly and sets accurate expectations for readers, and then it closes with a Szasz-inspired challenge to contemporary Epicurean thinkers:
This raises many complex ethical questions, for which we should expect no easy answers. For-profit health care does create a clash between the interests of patients (who want to heal) and the interests of Big Pharma, one of the biggest lobbies in DC whose interests are for patients to purchase, to become dependant, and to keep purchasing, their products. For-profit health care creates a distortion of our values and views that must always be factored into our ethical considerations.
That is just one problem. Then there is the matter of social control via medication, and if Big Pharma profits from keeping the population doped and influences policy, does this not create a (pardon the pun) lethal cocktail of serious moral problems? Some ethical questions we may ask are: who is really pulling the strings when people are doped? Who decides a diagnosis? And to what extent is a person with a certain psychiatric condition (say, schizophrenia) still responsible for his actions?
In my book, I discuss hedonic adaptation, or the hedonic treadmill, which explains how people who suffer great losses or good fortune (even if they’ve won the lottery or lost limbs), always return to a normal, natural, stable level of happiness and how certain pleasures decrease once we get used to them. Therefore, the science of happiness teaches us that we must always have a long-term perspective and while (to cite my own words) my general view is that science should serve to maximize everyone’s pleasure/comfort and minimize everyone’s pain/discomfort, and while I think Epicureanism is about control of our experience, this should not be translated as meaning that addiction-creating drugs should always be favored. Long-term health, ataraxia and stability should be favored, and it is always with this perspective in mind that we should conduct hedonic calculus and make ethical choices.
This is likely to inspire more blogs and discussions among Epicureans in the future. In the meantime, please enjoy and share the review by Michael Fontaine of Tending the Epicurean Garden.
The reviewer had previously written works comparing Epicureanism (favorably) with the work of psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. This influenced his response to my book.
The review represents the ideas expressed in my book fairly and sets accurate expectations for readers, and then it closes with a Szasz-inspired challenge to contemporary Epicurean thinkers:
In candidly pinpointing self-control as a means of achieving happiness, Crespo puts himself squarely at odds with the dominant ethos of the medicalized society in which we now live.
This raises many complex ethical questions, for which we should expect no easy answers. For-profit health care does create a clash between the interests of patients (who want to heal) and the interests of Big Pharma, one of the biggest lobbies in DC whose interests are for patients to purchase, to become dependant, and to keep purchasing, their products. For-profit health care creates a distortion of our values and views that must always be factored into our ethical considerations.
That is just one problem. Then there is the matter of social control via medication, and if Big Pharma profits from keeping the population doped and influences policy, does this not create a (pardon the pun) lethal cocktail of serious moral problems? Some ethical questions we may ask are: who is really pulling the strings when people are doped? Who decides a diagnosis? And to what extent is a person with a certain psychiatric condition (say, schizophrenia) still responsible for his actions?
In my book, I discuss hedonic adaptation, or the hedonic treadmill, which explains how people who suffer great losses or good fortune (even if they’ve won the lottery or lost limbs), always return to a normal, natural, stable level of happiness and how certain pleasures decrease once we get used to them. Therefore, the science of happiness teaches us that we must always have a long-term perspective and while (to cite my own words) my general view is that science should serve to maximize everyone’s pleasure/comfort and minimize everyone’s pain/discomfort, and while I think Epicureanism is about control of our experience, this should not be translated as meaning that addiction-creating drugs should always be favored. Long-term health, ataraxia and stability should be favored, and it is always with this perspective in mind that we should conduct hedonic calculus and make ethical choices.
This is likely to inspire more blogs and discussions among Epicureans in the future. In the meantime, please enjoy and share the review by Michael Fontaine of Tending the Epicurean Garden.
A Few Days in Athens: The Friends of Epicurus Edition
A Few Days in Athens: The Friends of Epicurus Edition is now available in English-language paperback from Amazon and in kindle version. This edition includes the review written for societyofepicurus.com as well as a study guide at the end of the novel.
Interview with DB and Piece for The Humanist
I was recently interviewed, together with a fellow member of the Society of Friends of Epicurus, for Decisiones Bambú which is a Spanish-language program put together by Rey Yacolca Producciones in Perú. The interview has been uploaded to the SoFE youtube channel, with an English transcript of it at societyofepicurus.com. Please subscribe to our youtube channel!
We discussed the differences and similarities between Epicurean and Stoic philosophy, as well as the indigenous sumak kawsay wisdom tradition of South America. We also talked about the science of happiness, Epicurean therapy, and the importance of having values that are aligned with empirical evidence.
I recently also wrote Whose Pleasure? Whose Pain? Applying the Hedonic Calculus to Public Policy for The Humanist, a publication of the American Humanist Association. In the piece, I argue that hedonic calculus is an ideal method for ethical decision-making at the personal level, but that it does not necessarily work at the public policy level and that there are more intelligent ways for secular humanist philosophers to infuence public policy.
The piece was written as part of their May-June issue, which features a piece on the SMART therapy for recovery from alcoholism and addiction. SMART ("Self-Management and Recovery Training") is a fully non-religious alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous, which has been under fire recently for its lack of effectiveness, yet has served for many years to channel public and private funds into religious propaganda.
We discussed the differences and similarities between Epicurean and Stoic philosophy, as well as the indigenous sumak kawsay wisdom tradition of South America. We also talked about the science of happiness, Epicurean therapy, and the importance of having values that are aligned with empirical evidence.
I recently also wrote Whose Pleasure? Whose Pain? Applying the Hedonic Calculus to Public Policy for The Humanist, a publication of the American Humanist Association. In the piece, I argue that hedonic calculus is an ideal method for ethical decision-making at the personal level, but that it does not necessarily work at the public policy level and that there are more intelligent ways for secular humanist philosophers to infuence public policy.
The piece was written as part of their May-June issue, which features a piece on the SMART therapy for recovery from alcoholism and addiction. SMART ("Self-Management and Recovery Training") is a fully non-religious alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous, which has been under fire recently for its lack of effectiveness, yet has served for many years to channel public and private funds into religious propaganda.
FullScream Book Review
A new book review was just published by blogger Tom Church under the title HIRAM CRESPO ON TENDING THE EPICUREAN GARDEN: PLEASURE AND HEDONISM. In it, he covers some of the basic definitions used in our science of happiness. His blog, Screams, blends aesthetics, the arts, history and philosophy and is part of FullScream.com, a "creative studio that specializes in TV branding, motion design, and fashion video production".
Society of Epicurus publishes Epítome
According to Norman DeWitt, ancient Epicureans used to study a Little Epitome, which is extant today as the Letter to Herodotus, and would later on graduate to the Big Epitome for which, he suggests, Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura was used although some other volume must have been used during the first couple of centuries prior to Lucretius.
In celebration of this tradition and to encourage and facilitate the systematic study of its writings in Spain and Latin America, the Society of Friends of Epicurus recently released a Spanish-language Epítome: Escrituras Epicúreas, a collection of the ancient writings of our tradition with commentary and a study guide by Hiram Crespo, author of Tending the Epicurean Garden (Humanist Press, 2014).
The work is written in chapter and verse format, both for ease of reference and to dignify the considerable historical value of its content. It includes a Spanish translation of Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings and the Epistles to Moeneceus, Pythocles and Herodotus, in addition to a summarized chronicle of the lives of the Scholarchs and great masters of the tradition up to Philodemus of Gadara, as well as the Spanish translation of nine reasonings based on the surviving fragments of the Herculaneum Scrolls.
The book is available from Amazon, or directly from CreateSpace.
In celebration of this tradition and to encourage and facilitate the systematic study of its writings in Spain and Latin America, the Society of Friends of Epicurus recently released a Spanish-language Epítome: Escrituras Epicúreas, a collection of the ancient writings of our tradition with commentary and a study guide by Hiram Crespo, author of Tending the Epicurean Garden (Humanist Press, 2014).
The work is written in chapter and verse format, both for ease of reference and to dignify the considerable historical value of its content. It includes a Spanish translation of Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings and the Epistles to Moeneceus, Pythocles and Herodotus, in addition to a summarized chronicle of the lives of the Scholarchs and great masters of the tradition up to Philodemus of Gadara, as well as the Spanish translation of nine reasonings based on the surviving fragments of the Herculaneum Scrolls.
The book is available from Amazon, or directly from CreateSpace.
Contributing Blogger at Partially Examined Life
In recent months, I've joined PEL as one of its bloggers. Some of my initial pieces were introductory blogs about Epicurus' Four Cures and the Herculaneum scrolls. There have also been comparisons between Epicurean and Taoist philosophies, a piece on the delightful comedic literature of Lucian of Samosata, and a piece that presents the hypothesis that religion may be comparable to play activity among social species.
Please visit the PEL site and share the links!
Please visit the PEL site and share the links!
Some Updates
There have been a few developments in the world of Epicurean philosophy. I have a new Spanish-language blog for El Nuevo Día, the most widely-read daily newspaper in Puerto Rico. It is titled Arte de vivir and its initial article was written on the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of Raif Badawi, and in solidarity with secularism and free expression in the Middle East. Raif received a public lashing as a result of his criticism of Islam in Saudi Arabia.
I've long wanted to connect the French-language hedonist tradition with the English-language work we're doing. I finally read a book by Michel Onfray and published an introduction to his counter-history of philosophy discourse in English. Michel is a celebrity philosopher in France, the founder of the Université Populaire de Caen, and a fierce advocate of retelling a philosophical narrative from the perspective of the "friends of Epicurus, and the enemies of Plato". He argues that historiography is a form of ideological warfare, and that the scientific worldview has been under attack since antiquity.
The Society of Friends of Epicurus has put together a few educational videos on its youtube channel on the canon, on friendship, on choices and avoidances, and other aspects of the teaching. The videos are meant to clearly explain the teaching, Please subscribe to our youtube channel!
I've long wanted to connect the French-language hedonist tradition with the English-language work we're doing. I finally read a book by Michel Onfray and published an introduction to his counter-history of philosophy discourse in English. Michel is a celebrity philosopher in France, the founder of the Université Populaire de Caen, and a fierce advocate of retelling a philosophical narrative from the perspective of the "friends of Epicurus, and the enemies of Plato". He argues that historiography is a form of ideological warfare, and that the scientific worldview has been under attack since antiquity.
The Society of Friends of Epicurus has put together a few educational videos on its youtube channel on the canon, on friendship, on choices and avoidances, and other aspects of the teaching. The videos are meant to clearly explain the teaching, Please subscribe to our youtube channel!
Epicurean Economics and a Few Updates
I apologize that it's been a long time since my last update. I have been involved in developing the beginnings of an Epicurean online business--The Twentiers--as part of a project where I've decided to focus my content this year on exploring Epicurean economics and ideas around self-sufficiency. Our main economics source is Philodemus of Gadara' scroll On the art of property management. I will continue to write more on this subject as the project evolves, so please subscribe to my blog if this interest you.
Vintage Books--which is now a division of Penguin Random House--will be publishing a book either in the fall of this year or early next year titled How to Live a Good Life. The book will include approximately 15 chapters on diverse religions and philosophies as practiced by people today. It has already received a brief mention by Publishers Weekly. I was invited to write the chapter on Epicureanism, so be on the lookout for the book! This was, to me, a great privilege, as I'm likely to be the only contributor who is non-academic and not a member of clergy, and the inclusion of Epicurean philosophy signals that there has recently been an increase in visibility for our tradition. In a blog titled Seven reasons why we need Epicurean content creators, I recently wrote:
Also, a few years ago Dara Fogel, author of The Epicurean Manifesto, complained that academics have been treating philosophy as a study of the history of itself, rendering it impractical, useless, sterile, and irrelevant. For all these reasons, our inclusion in a book about living philosophies and religions that are practiced today feels like a bit of a paradigm shift.
I frequently write detailed reviews of great books that are directly or indirectly relevant to Epicurean ideas, like Michel Onfray’s Hedonist Manifesto, or Thomas Nail's Ontology of Motion. Recently, a new indirect source for Epicurean philosophy was unearthed and translated into English by our friends from the Epicurean Gardens in Greece titled Porphyry’s Epistle to Marcella.
After a long hiatus, the Society of Friends of Epicurus has published a new educational video on its YouTube channel based on Epicurus' lecture against the use of empty words. If you like the content, please subscribe to SoFE on YouTube, and also please consider supporting me on Patreon!
Vintage Books--which is now a division of Penguin Random House--will be publishing a book either in the fall of this year or early next year titled How to Live a Good Life. The book will include approximately 15 chapters on diverse religions and philosophies as practiced by people today. It has already received a brief mention by Publishers Weekly. I was invited to write the chapter on Epicureanism, so be on the lookout for the book! This was, to me, a great privilege, as I'm likely to be the only contributor who is non-academic and not a member of clergy, and the inclusion of Epicurean philosophy signals that there has recently been an increase in visibility for our tradition. In a blog titled Seven reasons why we need Epicurean content creators, I recently wrote:
Many of the academic sources and interpreters of Epicurean philosophy are either indirect or hostile, and some online platforms have niches with similar attitudes. The subreddits /atheism and /philosophy have at times removed Epicurean content arbitrarily, rather than allow for an open market of ideas–sometimes relenting only after some level of activism on our part. Martha Nussbaum–one of the main contemporary interpreters of Epicurean sources in academia–has been notorious in her anti-Epicurean bias. She has said that Stoics and Aristotelians are superior to the Epicureans–whom she described as “parasitic” on the rest of the world–, that Seneca was “an advance of major proportions” over the Epicureans, and has even claimed that Epicureanism is not a philosophy. This all points to a need to have more people presenting EP on its own terms, both in our own niches and elsewhere.
Also, a few years ago Dara Fogel, author of The Epicurean Manifesto, complained that academics have been treating philosophy as a study of the history of itself, rendering it impractical, useless, sterile, and irrelevant. For all these reasons, our inclusion in a book about living philosophies and religions that are practiced today feels like a bit of a paradigm shift.
I frequently write detailed reviews of great books that are directly or indirectly relevant to Epicurean ideas, like Michel Onfray’s Hedonist Manifesto, or Thomas Nail's Ontology of Motion. Recently, a new indirect source for Epicurean philosophy was unearthed and translated into English by our friends from the Epicurean Gardens in Greece titled Porphyry’s Epistle to Marcella.
After a long hiatus, the Society of Friends of Epicurus has published a new educational video on its YouTube channel based on Epicurus' lecture against the use of empty words. If you like the content, please subscribe to SoFE on YouTube, and also please consider supporting me on Patreon!
