Greenblatt on the Epicurean Lucretius and the Epicurean Jefferson
Stephen Greenblatt, the author of “The Swerve” talking about the Epicurean attitude to pleasure, about Lucretius’s poem and about the Epicurean Thomas Jefferson in an interview with Charlie Rose:
the full interview (23 min): http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11977
a 5 minutes cut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOv4KPkUDY
how the pleasure principle shapes our world
THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE in the New Yorker: Stephen Greenblatt explains how Lucretius and his poem “On the Nature of Things” shaped the modern world.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2011/08/08/110808on_audio_greenblatt
Are you still “wandering around in all directions”?
Are you still one of those who are “wandering around in all directions, roaming here and there, looking for a path in life, competing in their natural gifts, striving for honors, seeking with all their effort night and day to rise to the top, to win great power”?
Or have you started noticing “nature barking out her one demand, that pain be kept away, divorced from body, so that, free from care, free from fear, she may derive enjoyment in her mind from a sense of pleasure?”
Lucretius: On the Nature of of Things, Translated by Ian Johnston, 2010, Book II, lines 8-19 and 23-27
besotting love
Lucretius and Esther Vilar have given the best descriptions and analyses of besotting love. We have all been forewarned. Still: it happens all the time:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,577900,00.html
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