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For a 2000 year old poem, De rerum natura offers a surprisingly scientific take on the world, as well as a fascinating insight into what was going on at the edg
by briga 7y ago
For a 2000 year old poem, De rerum natura offers a surprisingly scientific take on the world, as well as a fascinating insight into what was going on at the edge on Roman thought at the time. It's still a great and fairly accessible read, and if reading ancient poems is your thing I'd recommend the Rolfe Humphries translation.
- jfengel 7y agoIndeed. Lucretius is often credited for his prescient understanding of "atoms", but that's really a red herring. His view of atoms isn't all that similar to the 19th century atomic theory, and even less to modern atomic theory. What he really had going for him was empricism. The win was the notion that the universe is governed by a small set of physical laws, and that we can understand those laws. The sun and moon operate by the same principles as our bodies do. He anticipated what this would mean for free will, and cobbled in a "swerve" to allow for it. But it was still a world dominated by natural forces, not supernatural ones, in which science could be a thing.