A Search and a Journey

Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life 

by Daniel Klein

Daniel Klein's Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life is a humorous, approachable, and perceptive reflection on how to age well. The book is part travelogue, part memoir, and part philosophical exploration, all centered on the theme of finding fulfillment and authenticity in one's later years.

Klein's personal struggle in his early seventies—deciding between a more straightforward denture plate that represented his acceptance of aging and costly, uncomfortable dental implants to preserve a youthful appearance—served as the inspiration for the book. Because of this, he decides to travel to the Greek island of Hydra, which he had visited as a young man, in pursuit of "authentic old age."

Klein challenges the Western preoccupation with staying "forever young" and the desire to prolong one's prime indefinitely. He contends that doing so deprives people of the unique, worthwhile, and introspective stage of life known as old age. With a suitcase full of philosophy books, Klein consults philosophers such as Sartre, Aristotle, Seneca, and Epicurus, who serves as the book's main character. He frames his thoughts on aging, happiness, and mortality with their concepts.

The idea that Epicureanism equates to excessive hedonism is debunked by Klein. He instead emphasizes Epicurus's core beliefs, which include appreciating life's basic, timeless joys, being free from pain—particularly that which results from needless striving—and enjoying the company of others (philia). The elderly residents of Hydra, whom the author observes and befriends, provide an inspiring contrast to the fast-paced modern world with their laid-back, unhurried lifestyle and acceptance of their advanced age.

The book's lighthearted tone, humor, and light touch make academic philosophy approachable and applicable to the common human experience of aging. Inspiring readers to value their own life stages, lessen anxiety, and acknowledge the special pleasures accessible to an adult mind, it is a delightful and upbeat manual on living well in old age. It is an interesting read, particularly for people who are thinking about entering their later years.



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Discovery of a Lost Poem

The Swerve: 

How the World Became Modern 

by Stephen Greenblatt

“What human beings can and should do, he wrote, is to conquer their fears, accept the fact that they themselves and all the things they encounter are transitory, and embrace the beauty and the pleasure of the world.”  ― Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern




The fifteenth century was one of discovery and reinvigoration of culture. It is rightly known as the Renaissance. Stephen Greenblatt has written a book, The Swerve, about one of those discoverers who remade culture and gained fame in particular from one book, On The Nature of Things by Lucretius. This work by a Roman of the first century BC is an extended poem about philosophy and science. The extent to which Lucretius covers things and described them in a way that is very modern is breathtaking. Added to that is the beauty of his poetry. Yet, in spite of this, the book had been lost for more than a thousand years hidden away in a remote monastery.

Greenblatt provides the background of the discoverer, one Poggio Bracciolini, a classicist who for a time became secretary to the Pope. He scoured the Italian countryside for old books and with Lucretius found a book that would influence thinkers from Machiavelli to Montaigne and beyond into the twentieth century. The Swerve derives its name from one of the most important concepts in Lucretius' poem, that everything is made of small particles called atoms by the Greek philosopher Democritus, and that everything in the Universe is informed by the movement of these particles - the "swerve" - and not by the gods of the Romans or the god of the Catholic church.  Perhaps more importantly Lucretius was a follower of Epicurus whose philosophy taught that one should take no part in the struggle for wealth and power, one should attach the greatest importance to friendship, and thus achieve tranquility of mind. All of this to be achieved without a reliance on gods (although he did not deny the existence of gods, rather that they did not interact with humans).  Cicero, while disliking Epicureanism, read On the Nature of Things and thought well of Lucretius' poetry.

Greenblatt's prose is a delight to read and his history reads like a novel. Some critics think that he speculates too much and does not provide enough evidence for some of his claims, but that is part and parcel of writing about the world that is removed from our current age by more than a millennia.

After providing the story of Poggio's life and his discovery Greenblatt concludes the book with a discussion of the impact of Lucretius in the centuries after the discovery. The book was reprinted with copies spreading throughout Europe. Greenblatt writes: "Once Gutenberg's clever technology was commercially established, printed editions quickly followed. The editions were routinely prefaced with warnings and disavowals." (to placate the ecclesiastical authorities).

This is cultural history that proves both entertaining and enlightening. It may encourage some to read Lucretius' poem which this reader has enjoyed reading more than once. It is accessible and worth the effort to discover for yourself what an ancient Roman poet had to say about the way things are.

De Rerum Natura

On the Nature of Things: 
De rerum natura 
by Titus Lucretius Carus



"Then withdraw from cares and apply your cunning mind
To hear the truth of reasoned theory,
That the verses I give you, arranged with diligent love,
You will not scorn before you understand.
I open for you by discussing the ultimate law
Of the gods and sky;  I reveal the atoms, whence
Nature creates and feeds and grows all things
And into which she resolves them when they are spent;"
- On the Nature of Things, Book I, lines 50-57)



The philosophy of Epicurus is not presented any better than in the classic poem,  On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) by Titus Lucretius Carus. We know little about his life.  He was probably born in the early first century B.C.  This meant that he lived during the turbulent era of the end of the Roman Republic and beginning of the Empire that saw the rise of Sulla and Pompey and, ultimately, Julius Caesar. On the Nature of Things, posthumously edited by Cicero, was his poetic plea to the Roman elite that they change course. 

The poem by Lucretius has the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. It was written in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean philosophy and physics through richly poetic language and metaphors. It is a rational and materialistic view of the world that presents the principles of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul; explanations of sensation and thought; the development of the world and its phenomena; and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by fortuna, "chance", and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities.  He extols the life of contemplation as seen in these lines from the opening of Book Two:
"But nothing is sweeter than to dwell in the calm
Temples of truth, the strongholds of the wise." (II, 7-8)

Thankfully we can still enjoy the vision of the good life as presented in this beautiful poem. The basics of Lucretius' philosophy include acknowledging pleasure (or the absence of pain) as the highest good, basing ethics on the evidence of the senses, and extolling plain living and high thinking. He also is a committed atheist, denouncing the gods in Book I of the poem, advocating free will in Book II, and reassuring his readers that they have nothing to fear from death in Book III. This lucid translation by Anthony M. Esolen reminds me why Lucretius is still worth reading.

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