Hiram Crespo's Blog - Posts Tagged "new"
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!
