Has anyone read De rerum natura?
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Has anyone read De rerum natura?
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Having read the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Swerve, about Poggio and Lucretius, I am reading De Rerum Natura by Lucretius in English (Latin one day) and am interested if anyone has read it
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Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 30/10/2012 12:13 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2949
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Having read the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Swerve, about Poggio and Lucretius, I am reading De Rerum Natura by Lucretius in English (Latin one day) and am interested if anyone has read it or has any thoughts on this amazing book. It is to me one of the most refreshing books of logic, science, philosophy and poetry I have read. |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 30/10/2012 1:02 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 339
First: 17/12/2011 Last: 15/5/2013 |
Not yet. But I have ordered it from Amazon! English translation, I did lots of Latin in school but never 'got Latin'. I also recommend 'Limits to Medicine :Medical Nemesis, the Expropriation of Health', by Ivan Illich. I think Nemesis is a Greek word, another Greek God! |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 30/10/2012 3:05 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
I has gone through the 'The Swerve' by Stephen Greenblatt, who has crafted both an innovative work of history and a thrilling story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions. The copying and translation of this ancient book- would be the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age. |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 30/10/2012 3:49 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 533
First: 6/9/2012 Last: 23/5/2013 |
Sorry - no... but I remember from the bits we read at school that it deals with Epicurean philosophy ( I have read Epicurus in translation, not a great task as he did not write much, and certainly latin hexameters would be much more enjoyable, the combination of poetry and philosphy sounds really promising - although I really like Epicurus ) - so thank you very much for reminding me of another item on my to-do-list!! |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 30/10/2012 11:32 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2059
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
No, but recently, I found a Penguin edition of Machiavelli's, The Prince. He really is a horrible little man, but I'm still reading. John PS I have a mental image of Machiavelli, and it's Bernie Eccleston! |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 31/10/2012 7:35 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2949
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 24/5/2013 |
De Rerum Natura was a virus replicated methodically by the Church's monks to be eventually released and to attack the notions of the Church which nutured it. The wasp's egg ate the catapillar. |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 1/11/2012 10:28 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2949
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 24/5/2013 |
The reason I raise this book for discussion is that it essentially dispels the notion of religion and explains this little but amazing life through a very logical schema based on atomic theory. The world we see around us is one of life, death and renewal. This substance indestructible as it has as its very essence, an atomic nature and thus is indivisible and indestructible not withstanding black holes, and expanding or shrinking universe and entropy. His insights are remarkable for man in the first century BC but its implications are disturbing for men of religious persuasion in the 21st century CE. His feeling is that religion is destructive and breeds hatred which I also subscribe to. It is divisive and not inclusive in general. We hate those who don't live within our own box. Our intellectual and religious immaturity is such that we cannot see a broader horizon. We do not see the earth from the perspective of the moon, let alone from the sun or another galaxy. However, the West has embraced the philosophy of Lucretius without knowing. We have long since banished the gods of Olympus to the pages of history although the Titans including Kronos still govern our mortal bodies and our Rolex watches. It is my feeling that inherent in the human condition is a longing for a companion which is both internal and eternal and which many call God in his or her various brands and mutations. We long for someone to walk with us at eventide in the quiet of a dewy garden, for someone to talk to in the dead of night, for someone to cry to in suffering, for someone to wrestle with in times of contention, for someone to rejoice with at a perfect sunset. I admire the logic of Lucretius, his beauteous poetry and his courage for saying something which might have invoked the wrath of the gods we now regard as pagan and defunct. He does not say how atoms were created thus leaving a wee crack in the door for those who still love logic and see God as logical also. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. It is a solitary path of ups and downs where the gate is strait, but which should lead to a place of inner peace as well as compassion for one's fellow travellers both next door and in foreign lands. All rivers lead to the same great sea. Read Lucretius and see the world with fresh eyes, and what is more, think. Odysseus |
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Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?
posted at 1/11/2012 12:30 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 23
First: 11/9/2009 Last: 1/11/2012 |
In Response to Re: Has anyone read De rerum natura?: I reviewed this for the BMJ as a medical classic a while ago: http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b4562 |
