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Title: On the Nature of Things: De Rerum Natura by Lucretius, Anthony M. Esolen, Translator, Titus Lucretius Carus ISBN: 0-8018-5055-X Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Poetic philosophy
Comment: How incredible it is to read a poet and philosopher from 60 B.C. writing on the derivation of the idea that atoms must exist and that there is conservation of matter in nature! These thoughts about "atomism" might have been lost except for their inclusion in a very good Latin poem. Although credit is given to Leucippus and Democritus for starting the idea of atomism, Epicurius and Lucretius were strong exponents of these ideas. This poem utilizes common observations to illustrate that the world about us is simply a combination of atoms and void. This had strong implications not only for the demise of the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses but also for how humans should live in the real world, and how they largely create their own misery. Lucretius loved life, speaks strongly against the fear of death, and promotes a rational calm life in which friendship is very important. The poetry is wonderful and powerful in itself. Two quotes from the early part of the poem speak clearly and dramatically to the modern reader: "When before our eyes man's life lay groveling, prostrate, crushed to dust under the burden of Religion (which thrust its head from heaven, its horrible face glowering over mankind born to die), one man, a Greek, was the first mortal who dared oppose his eyes, the first to stand firm in defiance. Not the fables of the gods, nor lightning, nor the menacing rumble of heaven could daunt him, but all the more whetted his keen mind with longing to be first to smash open the tight-barred gates of Nature....And yet your virtue and the hoped-for pleasure of a delightful friendship urge me to persevere in my work, to watch through the calm nights, seeking choice words, the song by which at last I can open to your mind such dazzling light that you may see deep into hidden things." This is a great and astonishing poem, translated powerfully by Esolen. The book has a 21 page introduction at the beginning and 49 pages of notes at the end to help the reader understand the place of this poem in the history of ideas.
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Title: The Basic Works of Aristotle by Richard McKeon, C.D.C. Reeve, Aristotle ISBN: 0375757996 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 11 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Confessions (Oxford World's Classics) by Saint Augustine, Henry Chadwick ISBN: 0192833723 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism by Sextus Empiricus, Julia Annas, Jonathan Barnes, Karl Ameriks, Desmond M. Clarke ISBN: 0521778093 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 20 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: The Enneads by Plotinus, John Dillon, Stephen MacKenna ISBN: 014044520X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1991 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Essential Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Fragments (Great Books in Philosophy) by Epicurus, Eugene Michael O'Connor ISBN: 0879758104 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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