Second Edition of Haris Dimitriadis' "Epicurus And the Pleasant Life" Now Released

    It has just come to my attention that Haris has released a second edition of his "Epicurus and the Pleasant Life." His detailed preface is available on his website here. The following is an excerpt:

    Quote from Haris Dimitriadis

    My deep confidence in the truthfulness of the Epicurean philosophy and, in particular, in its capacity to help modern people live a happy life, is the driving force that motivates me to do whatever is possible within my powers to make this largely unfamiliar philosophy accessible and meaningful to the general public. I have tried to objectively present the alternative views, both ancient and contemporary, so that the truth reveals itself transparently by the sheer comparison of the evidence.

    Five years since the first publication of the book and fifteen years since my first encounter with the Epicurean philosophy, I feel that the circumstances are ripe now to go through the second edition. There are several reasons that nourish my desire to improve the quality of the first edition: my accumulated personal experience from the application of the philosophy in everyday life; my continuous research on the Epicurean philosophy over the years; and the feedback I received from an ample number of reviewers of the first edition.

    All these reasons are powerful motives to present a comprehensive version of the Epicurean philosophy, shed light on the remaining dark areas, and lastly, address the reported weaknesses of the first edition.

    I have been an appreciative fan of Haris for the many years that I have been in (unfortunately sporadic) communication with him over at Facebook. In fact we have at least one article from him featured here on Epicureanfriends:

    Blog Article

    "Challenging Ataraxia" - By Haris Dimitriadis

    Haris Dimitriadis is author of “The Pleasant Life – The Philosophy of Epicurus [URL:https://epicurusphilosophy.com/buy-the-book].” Born in Greece, Haris studied Mathematics at the Aristotelian…
    Cassius
    May 15, 2020 at 1:54 PM

    I think we have missed too long being more engaged with Haris and his work, and I'm going to try to work to remedy that in the coming months. With the recent release of Emily Austin's "Living for Pleasure," 2022 has turned into a landmark year for publication of accessible introductions to Epicurus.

    For any of you who are so inclined I hope you will join me in looking over Haris' book and even more, let's try to engage with him more closely over the coming months and years. I am embarrassed to say that I am not sure whether Haris has an account here or not, but if he doesn't I will try to talk him into dropping in every so often.

    Quote from Cassius

    Haris has two music videos and two presentation videos

    So far I have listened to the first music video, which is sort of good, and yet when it says "When we have someone reassure us then we can live like Epicurus" then I feel a little hesitant because to me it seems that so much of the Epicurean philosophy is about using the power of your own mind to understand the true nature of things, so we don't depend on someone reassuring us.

    So I would need to look into this a bit more to see what else is in his presentation of Epicureanism, before I would be fully on-board.

    Another section of the updated preface worth highlighting:

    Quote

    A Comparison of Epicurean and Aristotelian Ethics

    The root differences between the Epicurean views and those expressed by Aristotle concern the roles that reason and emotion play in decision-making and well-being. Epicurus, on the one hand, claims that the truth about happiness is revealed by nature because nature possesses the accumulated knowledge of existence.

    Further, Epicurus asserts, human nature plainly shows that pleasure is the ultimate good in life, and the maximization of it is the purpose of one’s life. Aristotle, on the other hand, declares that the truth about happiness is revealed by one’s character and capacity for rational thinking.

    Therefore, to be happy, one has to shape a virtuous character and excel in one’s capacity for reasoning. The virtuous character reveals the purpose and actions that would make one happy, and reason finds the most effective ways to serve the purpose and accomplish the associated actions. Pleasure and happiness, says Aristotle, are simply the natural consequence of succeeding in those actions.

    Epicurus rejected this theory on the grounds that virtues are mental concepts that derive meaning through the definitions, interpretations, and practices society attaches to them. Taking into account that the beliefs and habits of society are mostly corrupt, it is evident that people’s desires and thoughts are likewise spoiled, with detrimental consequences to their well-being.

    I just discovered that I'm not as late in talking about this as I thought. It appears that Haris has just recently updated the book on Amazon, and I am finding that when I try to read it they still have the old version rather than the second edition.

    I have messaged Haris about this and he tells me he is working on it -- -I will update here when fixed.

    Quote from Kalosyni

    and yet when it says "When we have someone reassure us then we can live like Epicurus" then I feel a little hesitant because to me it seems that so much of the Epicurean philosophy is about using the power of your own mind to understand the true nature of things, so we don't depend on someone reassuring us

    I think epicureans can accept, more easily than a stoic, that we depend on others. That's why Epicurus insists so much on the importance of a community of reliable friends. At least that's what I've observed in Emily Austin's interpretation in Living for pleasure, which I think is very reasonable. In some parts of the book, for example, she points out the role of friends in enjoying daily life (ch. 18) or facing adversity (including the death of loved ones) (ch. 15, 21).
    I guess the song takes the important role of friends in an epicurean life, but without explicitly say the word "friend". :D