emotional well-being taught in schools? AGAIN?!
Jules Evans informs us that the London Philosophy Club has scheduled a special event on this topic Should we teach emotional well-being in schools?
Emotional well-being (aka happiness / eudaimonia) was the only subject taught in the Epicurean garden schools. For 800 years: from 300 BE to 500 CE. The Christian Emperors changed the topic for the next 1500 years: unhappiness has been taught in school ever since the cultural takeover by Church(es) and Platonic Academia.
Are we contemplating an eudaimonistic revolution?
What Joe Heller knew
I have found this little poem on Joseph Heller by Kurt Vonnegut in Robert I. Sutton’s excellent book “The No Asshole Rule”:
Joe Heller
True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel ‘Catch-22′
has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!”
–Kurt Vonnegut
The New Yorker, May 16th, 2005
I am really thankful to Bob Sutton for reprinting the poem in his book and also in his blog: http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/kurt_vonnegut_a.html
And I am, of course, thankful to Kurt Vonnegut for outing Joe Heller as a true Epicurean.
Who can be an Epicurean today and why not
To my mind being “Epicurean” today may mean many thins to many people. We cannot simply pretend to ignore that the word “epicurean” is being used to describe at least three semantically different categories:
1. fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures; having luxurious tastes or habits, especially in eating and drinking.
2. fit for an epicure: epicurean delicacies.
3. ( initial capital letter ) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Epicurus or Epicureanism.
We might, of course agree to exclude the foodies but the rest of the world might ignore our decision. But even after the arbitrary exclusion of the first two established meanings of the word we would have at one end of the remaining wide spectrum the people who have heard that it is not the same as being a foodie , plus, on reading Lactantius’s “if god is willing to prevent evil, but not able?…then he is not omnipotent..” they feel they like it and repost it on Facebook’s Epicurus wall (every month or so). At the other end might stand those people who would live in an Epicurean community an Epicurean way of life, communally practicing the teachings. We could agree, of course, that by barely subscribing to a set of principles, like for instance the Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and the Letter to Menoeceus, or maybe even just the Tetrapharmakos, one should be entitled to describe oneself as a n“ Epicurean”. Or maybe as a “non-practicing Epicurean” or “principled Epicurean” or “philosophical Epicurean” etc.. The above mentioned general principles are general enough to be acceptable for the vast majority of those people who value a minimum level of rationality and honesty, even though they might have been baptized/incorporated/engulfed into some vast and vague and abstract worldview ‘community’ like Christianity, or Buddhism, or the Islam – or any of their local branches.
Without practicing the teachings the subscribers to a set of Epicurean principles might be no more ‘Epicureans’ as the majority of Christians and other members of the established mass-religions are. (I never stop being astonished by seeing the word “Christian” describe an honest Amish craftsman and Ken Lay, the Christian Extraordinaire. )What is the meaning of the word Christian then? And what should be the meaning of the word “Epicurean”? Or what word or combination of words should more or less appropriately describe the non-foodie branch of practicing Epicureans?
Maybe we should start by agreeing on whether being a member of an Epicurean community is a necessary element of designating someone or oneself as Epicurean. The freemasons decided that there is no such thing as a freemason outside of a lodge. Can or should this principle be applied to self-proclaimed Epicureans? Or shall we try to develop a more precise terminology?
As you see, we have two problems to deal with
1. define what we mean by the word “Epicurean”
2. then find a better word for it
We can, of course eschew the challenge and go on messing up the terms further describing our own personal mixture of philosophical and/or psychological and/or sociological ingredients as “Epicureanism” or even “Neo-Epicureanism”.
Message to the Friends of the Epicurean Philosophy
Today like-minded friends gather together in Athens, Greece, to exchange their thoughts and experiences: the Second Panhellenic Symposium of Epicurean Philosophy takes place between February 11-12, 2012. The organizers asked me to send a message to the participants of the symposium. This is what I sent them:
Dear Friends of the Epicurean Philosophy, I am happy that you make Epicurus’s voice heard again.
His is the only Gospel that has been valid unchanged for 2300 years.
He has taught us how to break free from our fears and from the slavery of unnecessary and unnatural desires by finding out what we really need.
Epicurus has shown us the proven pathway from pain to pleasure and how we can lead a happy life by cultivating mental peace (ataraxia) and companionate love (philia).
His teachings will never lose their liberating relevance because they are based on the study of the nature of things.
The more people follow in his footsteps the better place our world will be to live in.
Stefan Streitferdt
author of the Epicurean happiness guidance
“From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness”
You can dissolve all your fears when you realize how little you really need to lead a blissful life
Epicurus’s core teaching in a nutshell: “You can dissolve all your fears when you realize how little you really need to lead a blissful life.”
To encapsulate a felling or a thought in as few words as possible: this endeavor engendered the literary genre of the Japanese haiku. It also produced the famous four-fold cure (tetrapharmakos) of Epicurean practical wisdom :
- There is nothing to fear from God
- There is nothing to feel from death
- Good things can be acquired
- Bad things can be endured
It sounds simple. It shows the state of mind you can reach after consciously practicing the Epicurean conduct of life by daily reflections and mental exercises under the guidance of an Epicurean coach as Epicurean self-educating communities were practicing it unchanged in 800 years (300 BCE – 500 CE). It has been boiled down to this concentrated formula by the Epicurean community in the famous Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, maybe by their in-house instructor, the philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara, or his disciples, but more probably obtained collectively, as happiness itself is obtained.
Today I tried to boil it down further, the way cooks keep on reducing their stock. What I found at the bottom of my mental saucepan was this:
You can dissolve all your fears when you realize how little you really need to lead a blissful life.
My goal was to show not only the end-result but also indicate that it takes your individual decision and efforts to reach that state. The three-letter word ‘can’ must hint not only at the individual’s responsibility in making choices that further his own happiness but also at the fact that it might take the assistance of like-minded friends and experienced guides and coaches to reach that goal. And maybe long years of dedicated practice.
“From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” now as paperback, too
Finally, I can accommodate the wish of those friends of mine who demanded a paperback book they can lay back with on the sofa and read leisurely, instead of having to sit in front of their computer, or to print out the eBook.
My friends can buy the little funny Epicurean happiness guidance “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” I wrote with my wife as a paperback either form Amazon or directly from my own eStore, also powered by Amazon through CreateSpace.
I encourage my friends to buy from my eStore, as the royalties paid by Amazon are less than one dollar per sold copy and will not contribute substantially toward paying my huge hospital bills.
I have also reminded my friends that life is too short to spend any minute of it worrying or stressing out ourselves and others and that stress can be deadly. (If they want to have the facts, they can read my stress report – downloadable for free here.)
The one question most people stress out over every year in December is “What presents to make whom?” Those of my friends who have not made a decision yet should seriously consider buying my little funny Epicurean happiness guidance “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” as it it is the ideal present they can give anybody you love and care for, including their precious selves.
If they are on a lower budget this year, they can still get the downloadable eBook version for half of the price of the paperback here
In addition, they can still download the first chapter for free here
The most precious present I received came from my oncologist: as per last medical checkup: I am still cancer-FREE, no recurrence so far.
I gave a talk on Epicurus’s life, teachings, and influence in August this year in Madison, Wisconsin. The professional young man who made the video recording lost most of it. My son edited the footage I recorded myself from a silly angle and he uploaded the first two parts – Epicurus’s life and teachings – to his ownYouTube channel as it is 34 minutes long and I cannot upload to my own channel anything longer than 15 minutes.
As for the third part, Epicurus’s influence, I still have the slides and the sound recording and I plan to make more slides and record a presentation at home.
My recommendation to my friends was this year to enjoy every single day of their remaining lives in leisurely stress-FREEDOM, quoting Epicurus: “We have been born once and cannot be born a second time; for all eternity we shall no longer exist. But you, although you are not in control of tomorrow, are postponing your happiness. Life is wasted by delaying, and each one of us dies without enjoying leisure.”
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