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Tending the Epicurean Garden
This book by Hiram Crespo, the founder of the Society of Friends of Epicurus, discusses the ancient wisdom that seems to be the best philosophical solution for current problems such as widespread anxiety, thoughtless confusion of values, socioeconomic crisis, religious fanaticism, and environmental hazards.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
196 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2014
18 people are currently reading
515 people want to read
About the author
Hiram Crespo
13 books38 followersHiram Crespo is the founder/editor of SocietyOfEpicurus.com, and the author of Tending the Epicurean Garden
(Humanist Press, 2014), How to Live a Good Life (Penguin Random House, 2020) and
Epicurus of Samos - His Philosophy and Life: All the principal Classical texts Compiled and Introduced by Hiram Crespo
(Ukemi Audiobooks, 2020). He's been featured in The Humanist (a publication of the American Humanist Association), occupy.com, the online classics journal Eidolon, Partially Examined Life, The Secular Web, Europa Laica, and many other outlets. He has been featured in the Seize the Moment podcast, and in the special edition How to Live a Good Life series of philosophical discussions.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Northeastern Illinois University with a focus on Mass Media and French. He is also fluent in Spanish and English. He lives in Chicago and edits SocietyofEpicurus.com.
(Humanist Press, 2014), How to Live a Good Life (Penguin Random House, 2020) and
Epicurus of Samos - His Philosophy and Life: All the principal Classical texts Compiled and Introduced by Hiram Crespo
(Ukemi Audiobooks, 2020). He's been featured in The Humanist (a publication of the American Humanist Association), occupy.com, the online classics journal Eidolon, Partially Examined Life, The Secular Web, Europa Laica, and many other outlets. He has been featured in the Seize the Moment podcast, and in the special edition How to Live a Good Life series of philosophical discussions.He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Northeastern Illinois University with a focus on Mass Media and French. He is also fluent in Spanish and English. He lives in Chicago and edits SocietyofEpicurus.com.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 7, 2022
Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up
A practical guide to applying Epicurean principles to your 21st-century life. I was very impressed at the simplicity that Author Crespo brought to his clear advocacy of Epicureanism. It takes experience and a tendentious mindset to make this effort work as intended. Often an apologist or advocate can tip over the edge of effectively making the case for their subject and become chest-pokey.
I feel a little sorry that the title chosen was just slightly misleading. This is about the metaphorical garden of one's soul, not the plant-heavy one outside. A very good metaphor but permaybehaps not as plain to the uninitiated as it might be.
A practical guide to applying Epicurean principles to your 21st-century life. I was very impressed at the simplicity that Author Crespo brought to his clear advocacy of Epicureanism. It takes experience and a tendentious mindset to make this effort work as intended. Often an apologist or advocate can tip over the edge of effectively making the case for their subject and become chest-pokey.
I feel a little sorry that the title chosen was just slightly misleading. This is about the metaphorical garden of one's soul, not the plant-heavy one outside. A very good metaphor but permaybehaps not as plain to the uninitiated as it might be.
March 13, 2020
Great primer for epicurean philosophy by a specialist on the subject. Could be considered a self-help book but is more informative and less preachy. Author doesnt come across as a coach which i appreciate. Touches on everything from terminology and definitions, meditation, taxes/retirement, physics, and more. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in learning more about epicurean philosophy newbie or experienced. Only con i found was that i didnt learn shit about gardening.
July 17, 2014
This is an excellent book focused on how you can apply ancient Epicurean principles to live a happier life in the modern world. Hiram Crespo is the founder of the Society of Epicurus, and this is his first book, explaining his suggestions for living according to the principles of Epicureanism. This is not an academic treatise or a primer on basic Epicurean doctrines, but a practical guide written for general audiences. The book explains Epicurean views in context with similar views from numerous other traditions, and shows how techniques from a variety of sources can be combined to assist in living more pleasurably. The book is well written and well organized, providing essentially a "self-help" approach with lots of specific advice. This is one of the few absolutely pro-Epicurean books to have been written in the last several hundred years. As far as I know, one has to go back to Frances Wright's "A Few Days In Athens" for another book which comes out swinging in its unreserved advocacy of Epicureanism as a lifestyle and as a philosophy. One can read this book without any knowledge at all of the history or doctrine of Epicurus, because the author provides a good measure of both history and teachings in the course of the book. However the reader who is new to Epicureanism would profit from consulting websites such as www.Epicurus.info, www.Epicurus.net, and of course Crespo's own www.SocietyofEpicurus.com for more background on the specifics of Epicurean ideas. It appears that Crespo's work as an advocate for Epicurean ideas is just getting started, so hopefully there will be more to come from the same author.
September 22, 2020
Not only a very well written overview about Epicureanism, it is (to my knowledge) also the only one giving concrete tips and tasks how to implement the philosophy in daily life. Devoured it in one evening and took A LOT of notes.
January 30, 2016
Stoicism is not the only Greco-Roman school of practical philosophy experiencing a revival these days. Epicureanism, long reduced to a synonym for food-and-wine-snobs, has found an audience within the increasingly secularized west, among people who cannot countenance traditional religious claims, but do not wish to dismiss all of their accumulated wisdom. In Tending the Epicurean Garden, Hiram Crespo explains that wisdom tradition that was Epicureanism, and offers ways it might be practiced today.
Epicureanism is a novelty among classical schools of philosophy in being largely materialistic; its four-sentence credo begins with the assertion that there is nothing to fear from the gods. They may exist, but they have nothing to do with us. They certainly do not watch over us and create punishments and pleasures for us after life. After life there is nothing, for in death we no longer exist; there is no 'us' to experience anything. What good there is must be obtained in life -- and it can be found, and what evil exists can be endured. The Epicureans believed that atarexia, a kind of imperturbable happiness, was the only good in life, and that it could be achieved through mindfulness, the cultivation of genuine friendships, and self-reliance.
Tending the Garden mixes Greek philosophy, Zen Buddhism, and some generic self-help advice together in a mix that might spark some interest in its subject. Key to understanding and practicing Epicureanism is the practice of mindfulness; while Epicureans might be regarded today as hedonistic libertines, prudence was their mainstay. Epicureanism bears a closer resemblance to simple living than it does to living it up. Crespo doesn't delve into the aspect of moderating pleasure a great deal, but the idea is to be content with little. It is the longing after things that makes us truly unhappy, and here Crespo makes frequent connections to Buddhism and its contention that desire is the root of suffering. Mindfulness is a superb practice, but what makes Tending interesting is the attention given to community life and autarky. Driven into unemployment by the 2008 blowup, Crespo advocates an ownership society in which capital is widely dispersed among private owners and cooperatives. Although the Epicurean and Stoic approaches to mindfulness are quite similar, especially in the habit of mentally girding oneself for bad news, the only reference Crespo makes to Stoicism is to dismiss it as a false philosophy, being too theistically based.
Tending the Garden is a enthusiastic introduction to Epicureanism, but problematic; Crespo doesn't seem grounded in the world of the Greeks; because he is chiefly concerned with reviving Epicureanism, he doesn't examine its historical context. There is no survey of the lives of professed Epicureanisms, for example, except to mention distant personalities like Thomas Jefferson who admired it. This is certainly not the Epicurean answer to Stoicism's A Guide to the Good Life, but it may inspire moderns to look into it. There are an awful lot of eclectic ideas under the Greek tunic, though.
Epicureanism is a novelty among classical schools of philosophy in being largely materialistic; its four-sentence credo begins with the assertion that there is nothing to fear from the gods. They may exist, but they have nothing to do with us. They certainly do not watch over us and create punishments and pleasures for us after life. After life there is nothing, for in death we no longer exist; there is no 'us' to experience anything. What good there is must be obtained in life -- and it can be found, and what evil exists can be endured. The Epicureans believed that atarexia, a kind of imperturbable happiness, was the only good in life, and that it could be achieved through mindfulness, the cultivation of genuine friendships, and self-reliance.
Tending the Garden mixes Greek philosophy, Zen Buddhism, and some generic self-help advice together in a mix that might spark some interest in its subject. Key to understanding and practicing Epicureanism is the practice of mindfulness; while Epicureans might be regarded today as hedonistic libertines, prudence was their mainstay. Epicureanism bears a closer resemblance to simple living than it does to living it up. Crespo doesn't delve into the aspect of moderating pleasure a great deal, but the idea is to be content with little. It is the longing after things that makes us truly unhappy, and here Crespo makes frequent connections to Buddhism and its contention that desire is the root of suffering. Mindfulness is a superb practice, but what makes Tending interesting is the attention given to community life and autarky. Driven into unemployment by the 2008 blowup, Crespo advocates an ownership society in which capital is widely dispersed among private owners and cooperatives. Although the Epicurean and Stoic approaches to mindfulness are quite similar, especially in the habit of mentally girding oneself for bad news, the only reference Crespo makes to Stoicism is to dismiss it as a false philosophy, being too theistically based.
Tending the Garden is a enthusiastic introduction to Epicureanism, but problematic; Crespo doesn't seem grounded in the world of the Greeks; because he is chiefly concerned with reviving Epicureanism, he doesn't examine its historical context. There is no survey of the lives of professed Epicureanisms, for example, except to mention distant personalities like Thomas Jefferson who admired it. This is certainly not the Epicurean answer to Stoicism's A Guide to the Good Life, but it may inspire moderns to look into it. There are an awful lot of eclectic ideas under the Greek tunic, though.
January 5, 2023
I have some misgivings about the tone / writing style of this book, and parts of its overall message. However, at the same time it did reliably put me in a better mood just by reading it – I suppose it emanates hope. It's likely only worth a read if you already have some interest in Epicurean philosophy.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews