On the Nature of the Universe

by Lucretius, Ronald Melville, Don Fowler (Introduction), Peta Fowler (Introduction)

Overview

Based on the tenets of Epicurean philosophy, The Nature of Things sets forth a world view anticipating our own. All that exists is composed of atoms that united to form matter and dissipate with time. Even the soul is made up of atoms; however, there is no place in the Epicurean universe for the Roman gods, whose existence Lucretius refutes. Lucretius considers the fear of death to be the source of most human ills, and seeks to dispel it by demonstrating that the soul, like the body, dissolves painlessly into its constituent atoms after death. There is no afterlife, therefore no cause for fear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199555147
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2009
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	203,816
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Titus Lucretius Carus (who died c.50 BC) was an Epicurean poet writing in the middle years of the first century BC. His six-book Latin hexameter poem De rerum natura survives virtually intact, although it is disputed whether he lived to put the finishing touches to it. As well as being a pioneering figure in the history of philosophical poetry, Lucretius has come to be our primary source of information on Epicurean physics, the official topic of his poem.

Table of Contents

On the Nature of the UniverseReviser's Preface
Introduction
Bibliography
ON THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE
Synopsis
Book One: Matter and SpaceBook Two: Movements and Shapes of Atoms
Book Three: Life and Mind
Book Four: Sensation and Sex
Book Five: Cosmology and Sociology
Book Six: Meteorology and Geology
Notes

Appendix A: The Prelude to the Poem
Appendix B: Memmius
Appendix C: Smallest Parts
Appendix D: The Text
Appendix E: The Ending of the Poem