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.
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Thank you for commenting!As for katastematic pleasure, modern research makes this an evolving subject because scientists are researching ways to increase the normal heights for each person, which is why Gilbert's research on the science of happiness helps (he calls it synthetic happiness).
The connotation in our tradition is abiding in gratefulness (one can not profit from Epicurean teachings if one is ungrateful; for that, see my recent piece for The Autarkist on the pleasure-aversion faculty) and being self-sufficient in one's pleasure.
My book's editor (for "Tending the Epicurean Garden") made me coin an English-language term, which ended up making its way into the Urban Dictionary. I chose the term "abiding pleasure" as the English equivalent of katastematik hedone. The UD entry says:
abiding pleasure
The pleasure experienced independently of having achieved one's desires. English term for the katastematic pleasure of Epicurean philosophers.
Ex: What positive psychologists like Dan Gilbert call synthetic happiness, Epicureans call abiding pleasure.
Cheers,
Hiram
When I was a postdoctoral student with Albert Ellis, the founder of RET (Now REBT) he taught that the philosophies of the ancients, including Epicurus, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, was the basis for psychological well-being. His favorite quote was from Epictetus "Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them."
The author is obviously either a psychologist or philosopher in that camp. Our only criticism is that he could do a better job in explaining “Katastemic pleasure.”
Yours truly,
Gil Gaudia, Ph.D.