Lucretius
From Philosopedia
Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) (ca. 99 BCE - ca. 55 BCE)
Contents |
The Author
In De Rerum Natura, the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius wrote
- Nothing can be created out of nothing
and
- Tantus religio potuit suadere malorum [So much wrong could religion induce].
Little is known of Lucretius, some of whose works were destroyed. St. Jerome alleges that Lucretius produced his didactic masterpiece - six books totaling 7,400 hexameter lines - in a fit of madness, culminating in suicide. Thoughtfully, states Antony Flew in the Encyclopedia of Unbelief, “the saint added that his affliction was the result of taking a poisoned love philtre.”
Antony Flew explains that what Jerome held against Lucretius was that his work expounds the most coherent system of materialism in the ancient world, that of Epicurus. Hobbes agreed, that stuff is all there is and that everything which is not stuff is nonsense. Stuff consists of atoms. All our knowledge of all there is, therefore, is based upon sensory perception.
Leucippus, Democritus, and Aristotle
Although Aristotle did not accept his theory, Lucretius developed Leucippus’s and Democritus’s idea that matter is composed of tiny, indivisible particles in constant motion. It was not until the 18th century that the atomic theory was updated, and in 1808 John Dalton held that all the atoms of an element are of exactly the same size and weight.
Maréchal
During the French Revolution, Maréchal cited Lucretius as being one of the greatest atheists of all time.
Epicurus
According to J. M. Robertson, On the Nature of Things,
- with its enthusiastic exposition of the doctrine of Epicurus, remains to show to what a height of sincerity and ardour a Roman freethinker could rise. No Greek utterance that has come down to us makes so direct and forceful an attack as his on religion as a social institution. He is practically the first systematic freethinking propagandist; so full is he of his purpose that after his stately prologue to alma Venus, who is for him but a personification of the genetic forces of Nature, he plunges straight into his impeachment of religion as a foul tyranny from which thinking men were first freed by Epicurus.
Gore Vidal
A contemporary who has been significantly influenced by Lucretius is novelist Gore Vidal, who, in Palimpsest (1995), told how Lucretius anticipated Darwin by two thousand years. Lucretius reasoned, “For it is not true as I think, that the race of mortal creatures [man] were let down from on high by some golden chain,” to which Vidal added, “So much for the antique notion of Cadmus sowing dragon’s teeth to create human beings or the peculiarly silly story of Adam and Eve believed by so many of my countrymen.” Vidal continued: “Lucretius is aware - how, I wonder? - that we evolved. I’ve often quoted his law that nothing can come from nothing, but wonder about his corollary that nothing can go to nothing since, if the it is transitive - the going, that is - then it must be something and so, by definition, not nothing.” Further, Vidal notes, Lucretius was a “proto-ecologist, fretting about overpopulation. Nature ‘of her own accord first made for mortals the bright corn and the luxuriant vineyards of herself; she gave forth sweet fruits and luxuriant pasturage,’ but now ‘we exhaust our oxen and the strength of our farmers, we wear out the plow share, and then are scarce fed by our fields’; man seems congenitally unaware that ‘all things gradually decay, and go to the reef of destruction, outworn by the ancient lapse of years.’ Thus he anticipates,” wrote Vidal, “the second law of thermodynamics, not to mention giddy entropy.”
Critics
Christian fundamentalists generally frown upon Lucretius’s work, some calling it the ravings of a mad man.
Many philosophers, however, are favorably impressed by his sociology or philosophy of history. Joseph Mazzini Wheeler wrote of Lucretius, “Full of animation, dignity, and sublimity, he invests philosophy with the grace of genius.” Joseph McCabe, taking Lucretius literally rather than figuratively, finds it interesting “that Lucretius seems to take seriously Epicurus’s idea of gods, more or less of the Olympian type but respectable, living a lotus-life in some remote part of space.” Others take Lucretius’ ideas figuratively, not literally.
His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance
Lucretius, His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance (Rochester Institute Press, 2011) is a work edited by Timothy Madigan and David B. Suits, the title of which was that of a conference on Lucretius held at St. John Fisher College in 2009. The work includes essays by
- Vincent Bissonette, teacher of English at Allendale Columbia School in Rochester, New York;
- Dane R. Gordon, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology;
- William B. Jensen, Oesper Professor of Chemical Education and History of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati;
- John R. Lenz, Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He received his Ph. D. in Classical Studies from Columbia University, was a Fullbright scholar in Greece, and has also taught at Columbia, Union College, and Texas A&M University. He served as President of the Bertrand Russell Society from 1994-1998;
- Timothy Madigan is Assstant Professor of Philosophy at S. John Fisher College. He is a U. S. Editor of Philosophy Now and the author of W. K. Clifford and "The Ethics of Belief';
- John R. A. Mayer is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Brock University, in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He has taught at McMaster University in Hamilton and completed his Ph. D. at Emory University. He is an active Unitarian and an activist on a variety of social issues;
- Charles M. Natoli is Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy and Classical Studies, St. John Fisher College. He is the author of Fire in the Dark: Essays on the Pensées and :rovinciales of Pascal.:Melissa M. Shew teaches at Marquette University, where she works in both the history of philosophy and contemporary Continental philosophy. She has completed her dissertation in Ancient Greek philosophy at the University of Oregon (2008); and
- David B. Suits is professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology Among his research interests are Epicureanism, anarchism, and the philosophy of mind.
{BDF; CE; CL; EU; ER; HNS2; JM; JMR; JMRH; RE; TSV; TYD}
(Also, see Lvcretius.
