Hiram Crespo's Blog - Posts Tagged "humanism"
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
E-book sale at Humanist Press
My e-book, Tending the Epicurean Garden, is part of the Humanist Press holiday sale. It can be purchased as an e-book through the holidays for $ 4.99.
Once a reader gets the e-book directly from HP, s/he is able to leave comments on its chapters which, once approved, become forever part of the work. Please share the gift of wisdom and share your love of philosophy with your friends!
Once a reader gets the e-book directly from HP, s/he is able to leave comments on its chapters which, once approved, become forever part of the work. Please share the gift of wisdom and share your love of philosophy with your friends!
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.
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.
New Audiobook and Book Discussion
Ukemi Audiobooks has published Epicurus of Samos – His Philosophy and Life: All the principal Classical texts Compiled and Introduced by Hiram Crespo (amazon link here), which is basically an Epicurean Audio-Bible, and was a very gratifying project for me to work on. The audiobook contains all the ancient sources by the founders and selected passages from Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things" with my introductions and commentaries, as well as my summaries of many of the scrolls by Philodemus of Gadara that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and of passages from Oenoanda's Wall. It also contains chapters on the legacy of Epicureanism, including secondary sources like Seneca, and Cicero's On Ends.
I also participated, together with fellow contributor and editor Massimo Pigliucci, in How to Live a Good Life, Episode 3: Stoicism & Epicureanism. HTLAGL was a limited-edition video discussion series where the various chapters of the book How to Live a Good Life were discussed by the authors of the respective chapters. The format was not a debate, but an informational discussion to help students of philosophy to understand the differences, in this case, between Stoicism and Epicureanism.
I also participated, together with fellow contributor and editor Massimo Pigliucci, in How to Live a Good Life, Episode 3: Stoicism & Epicureanism. HTLAGL was a limited-edition video discussion series where the various chapters of the book How to Live a Good Life were discussed by the authors of the respective chapters. The format was not a debate, but an informational discussion to help students of philosophy to understand the differences, in this case, between Stoicism and Epicureanism.
