Friday, November 6, 2009
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De rerum natura is a first century BC poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience.
The poem is divided into six books, and concentrates heavily on Epicurean physics. It deals with 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 poem grandly proclaims the reality of our role in a universe which is ruled by chance, with no interference from gods.
It is a statement of personal responsibility in a world in which everyone is driven by hungers and passions with which they were born and do not understand.
Arguments The poem contains the following arguments. 
- Substance is eternal.
- The human soul consists of minute atoms that dissipate into smoke when a person dies.
- Gods exist, but they did not start the universe, and they have no concern for humans.
- Likely there are other worlds in the universe much like this one, likewise composed of changing combinations of atoms.
- Being mere shifting combinations of atoms, this world and the other worlds are not eternal.
- The other worlds out there are not controlled by gods any more than this one.
- The forms of life in this world and in the other worlds change, increasing in power for a time and then losing power to other forms.
- Humankind went through a savage beginning, and there has been noticeable improvement in skill and ability, but even this world will pass away.
- People know by either the senses or by reason.
- Senses are dependable.
- Reason infers underlying explanations, but reason can reach false inferences. Hence, inferences must be continually verified against the senses.
- (Compare to Plato, who believed that senses could be fooled and reason was reliable.)
- The senses perceive the macroscopic collisions and interactions of bodies.
- But reason infers the atoms and the void to explain what the senses perceive.
- People avoid pain and seek what gives them pleasure.
- The average person then is driven to maximize pleasure while avoiding pain.
- People are born with two big vulnerabilities for hurt, the fear of gods and the fear of death.
- But the gods will not hurt you, and death is easy when life is gone.
- When you are gone, the atoms in your soul and the atoms in your body will still be here making up something else, a rock, a lake, or a flower.
De Rerum Natura, Book One, from the 1675 edition by Tanaquil Faber
Libro VI
On The Nature Of Things (PG e-text)
On the Nature of Things