Hiram Crespo's Blog, page 3
November 27, 2014
Varios días en Atenas / A Few Days in Athens
La traducción al castellano de A Few Days in Athens ya ha sido subida a la página de la Sociedad de Amigos de Epicuro, y el e-book está disponible de smashwords. Se puede disfrutar la novela entera, gratuita, en línea y con comentarios. Varios días en Atenas es una novela didáctica que enseña los fundamentos de la filosofía naturalista de Epicuro y los contrasta con las enseñanzas de otras escuelas.
Frances Wright fue autora, feminista, humanista, abolicionista, filósofa naturalista y discípula de Epicuro, al igual que Thomas Jefferson con quien sostuvo una sana amistad y una mezcla de grandes mentes de enorme importancia histórica. Esta novela didáctica da testimonio de la noble filosofía y ética materialista de felicidad personal que nutrió a ambos.
VARIOS DÍAS EN ATENAS es un reto a cultivar una mente sin prejuicios, a sostener la verdad en alta estima, a honrar la inocencia ajena y a amar las sanas virtudes y valores humanos dentro de un contexto enteramente laico. Es una perla rara en el tesoro del legado intelectual de todos los occidentales.
Además, en días recientes ha sido traducido el artículo El renacimiento epicúreo, que fue publicado en inglés originalmente para Humanist Life.
Frances Wright fue autora, feminista, humanista, abolicionista, filósofa naturalista y discípula de Epicuro, al igual que Thomas Jefferson con quien sostuvo una sana amistad y una mezcla de grandes mentes de enorme importancia histórica. Esta novela didáctica da testimonio de la noble filosofía y ética materialista de felicidad personal que nutrió a ambos.
VARIOS DÍAS EN ATENAS es un reto a cultivar una mente sin prejuicios, a sostener la verdad en alta estima, a honrar la inocencia ajena y a amar las sanas virtudes y valores humanos dentro de un contexto enteramente laico. Es una perla rara en el tesoro del legado intelectual de todos los occidentales.
Además, en días recientes ha sido traducido el artículo El renacimiento epicúreo, que fue publicado en inglés originalmente para Humanist Life.
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The Spanish translation of the didactic novel A Few Days in Athens has been uploaded to the Sociedad de Amigos de Epicuro page, and the e-book is available from smashwords. Its author, Frances Wright, was a feminist, humanist, abolitionist, naturalist philosopher, and personal friend to Thomas Jefferson, who walked around with fragments of this book. The book bears witness to the noble philosophy of personal happiness and ethics that nurtured them both.
A Few Days in Athens challenges us to have a mind without prejudices, to hold truth in high regard, to honor the innocence of others and to love the most wholesome virtues and human values within a purely secular context. It's a rare pearl among the treasures of the intellectual legacy of all Westerners.
The piece El renacimiento epicúreo has also been translated from the original, which was written in English for Humanist Life.
October 2, 2014
E-book Available in English from Humanist Press
Under the tagline Be Smart About Being Happy, the American Humanist Association and its publishing branch Humanist Press sent their press release to announce that Tending the Epicurean Garden is now available via their webpage as an e-book.
Humanist Press has a heavy focus on e-book technology. The paperback had been available from months on amazon, but what makes the HP e-book a worthwhile investment for people who are interested in the profiting from their Epicurean studies is that readers who buy the e-book directly from Humanist Press will be able to leave comments on the book which, once approved, become forever part of the work.
In addition to this, Lucretius by WH Mallock, with commentary has been made available by HP as a free companion volume to Tending the Garden.
Humanist Press has a heavy focus on e-book technology. The paperback had been available from months on amazon, but what makes the HP e-book a worthwhile investment for people who are interested in the profiting from their Epicurean studies is that readers who buy the e-book directly from Humanist Press will be able to leave comments on the book which, once approved, become forever part of the work.
In addition to this, Lucretius by WH Mallock, with commentary has been made available by HP as a free companion volume to Tending the Garden.
September 1, 2014
"Tend Your Garden" review at SBA
Rick Heller, of the Secular Buddhist Association, has written a book review of Tending the Epicurean Garden from a contemporary Buddhist perspective. I'm very happy that the obvious parallels between Zen Buddhism and Epicureanism are being appreciated. I recently gave an interview to the Conscious Resistance and was also asked about the parallels between Buddhism and Epicureanism by Derrick Broze, who mixes elements of Zen and shamanics (another subject that I will likely address in the future).
Both wisdom traditions contain a science of happiness that points the finger at desires as the first place where we need to engage in philosophical hygiene. However, whereas to Buddha all desires are dissatisfaction, to Epicurus there are natural and necessary desires that we MUST attend to in order to live and be healthy: nature does not give us a choice.
The timing is perfect because it comes on the heels of a blog I wrote recently titled Enargeia and the monkey mind, where I discuss the ineffable insights one gets during contemplative practice and how these insights cannot be put into words, how there is a need for a Zen-like mode of face-to-face transmission, and I generally explore the issues around transmission of Epicureanism in view of the non-rational nature of katastemic pleasure, which is the height of hedonic wellbeing in our tradition.
My editor wanted me to stick to verbiage that seemed familiar and to keep away from terms like "katastemic", which I then translated as abiding pleasure. The chapter on the science of contemplation draws mainly from the Zen Buddhist tradition, as it's the tradition of meditation that has the most science behind it and is the most relevant to our epistemology. Inevitably again, the choice of abiding pleasure as the translation for katastemika hedone creates further parallels with Buddhism, as they speak of abiding peace, or peaceful abiding in their practice. As these traditions evolve into an English-language science-infused American context, their similarities become increasingly evident.
Drawing from Buddhism makes sense because of the uninterrupted lineage of wisdom keepers who have consistently bettered and developed their insights and practices for 2,500 years. Why reinvent the dharma wheel?
However, in the modern era and as science vindicates insights given to us by ancient sages, I must echo neuroscientist Sam Harris in his piece Killing the Buddha. While arguing that we no longer speak of Islamic alchemy or Christian physics but of sciences of chemistry and physics, he argues in favor of a science of contemplation:
I agree with Rick Heller: labels are not nearly as crucial as the wordless insights and the sense of wellbeing derived from consistent practice.
Both wisdom traditions contain a science of happiness that points the finger at desires as the first place where we need to engage in philosophical hygiene. However, whereas to Buddha all desires are dissatisfaction, to Epicurus there are natural and necessary desires that we MUST attend to in order to live and be healthy: nature does not give us a choice.
The timing is perfect because it comes on the heels of a blog I wrote recently titled Enargeia and the monkey mind, where I discuss the ineffable insights one gets during contemplative practice and how these insights cannot be put into words, how there is a need for a Zen-like mode of face-to-face transmission, and I generally explore the issues around transmission of Epicureanism in view of the non-rational nature of katastemic pleasure, which is the height of hedonic wellbeing in our tradition.
My editor wanted me to stick to verbiage that seemed familiar and to keep away from terms like "katastemic", which I then translated as abiding pleasure. The chapter on the science of contemplation draws mainly from the Zen Buddhist tradition, as it's the tradition of meditation that has the most science behind it and is the most relevant to our epistemology. Inevitably again, the choice of abiding pleasure as the translation for katastemika hedone creates further parallels with Buddhism, as they speak of abiding peace, or peaceful abiding in their practice. As these traditions evolve into an English-language science-infused American context, their similarities become increasingly evident.
Drawing from Buddhism makes sense because of the uninterrupted lineage of wisdom keepers who have consistently bettered and developed their insights and practices for 2,500 years. Why reinvent the dharma wheel?
However, in the modern era and as science vindicates insights given to us by ancient sages, I must echo neuroscientist Sam Harris in his piece Killing the Buddha. While arguing that we no longer speak of Islamic alchemy or Christian physics but of sciences of chemistry and physics, he argues in favor of a science of contemplation:
What the world most needs at this moment is a means of convincing human beings to embrace the whole of the species as their moral community. For this we need to develop an utterly nonsectarian way of talking about the full spectrum of human experience and human aspiration. We need a discourse on ethics and spirituality that is every bit as unconstrained by dogma and cultural prejudice as the discourse of science is. What we need, in fact, is a contemplative science, a modern approach to exploring the furthest reaches of psychological well-being.
I agree with Rick Heller: labels are not nearly as crucial as the wordless insights and the sense of wellbeing derived from consistent practice.
July 23, 2014
Primera reseña en español ... y muy favorable
El escritor radicado en Argentina Alan Furth ha escrito la primera reseña en castellano de mi libro, titulada Cultivando el jardín epicúreo con Hiram Crespo, donde acentúa la tradición de sabiduría concerniente a la felicidad que presento en mi libro, y habla de la amistad y otros aspectos que componen esta felicidad epicureana.
Entre las intuiciones acertadas que encontré en la reseña de Alan, es digna de mención la que concierne el reto que representa la filosofía sana al consumerismo. Hacia el final de la reseña, Alan incluye esta cita del sicólogo de la Universidad de Harvard, Dan Gilbert, que ha estudiado y da charlas sobre la ciencia de la felicidad:
Entre las intuiciones acertadas que encontré en la reseña de Alan, es digna de mención la que concierne el reto que representa la filosofía sana al consumerismo. Hacia el final de la reseña, Alan incluye esta cita del sicólogo de la Universidad de Harvard, Dan Gilbert, que ha estudiado y da charlas sobre la ciencia de la felicidad:
Y resulta casi irresistiblemente evidente que entre los factores socioculturales que refuerzan ese sesgo están las escalas de producción artificialmente infladas predominantes en el capitalismo de amigotes. O como Gilbert lo plantea en su charla TED:La felicidad natural es lo que obtenemos cuando logramos obtener lo que queremos, y la felicidad sintética es lo que manufacturamos cuando no obtenemos lo que queremos. Y en nuestra sociedad, tenemos un fuerte sesgo a creer que la felicidad sintética es de una calidad inferior. ¿Y por qué tenemos esa creencia? Bueno, es muy simple. ¿Qué tipo de motor económico podría funcionar si creyésemos que no obtener lo que queremos puede hacernos tan felices como obtenerlo?
June 23, 2014
Cultivando el Jardín is live
The Spanish translation of my book Cultivando el Jardín Epicureano (Paperback and Kindle Editions) is now available through amazon. So is the Spanish translation of the Society of Epicurus webpage.
La versión en castellano de mi libro Cultivando el Jardín Epicureano (y también la versión Kindle) ya están disponibles en amazon, al igual que la traducción de la página de la Sociedad de Amigos de Epicuro.
La versión en castellano de mi libro Cultivando el Jardín Epicureano (y también la versión Kindle) ya están disponibles en amazon, al igual que la traducción de la página de la Sociedad de Amigos de Epicuro.
June 16, 2014
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!
June 11, 2014
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
