lvcretivs de rerum natura. vita c.94-55 no biographical information reference in cicero ad fam dated...
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Vita• c.94-55• no biographical information
• reference in Cicero ad fam dated 54– “flashes of genius” “craftsmanship”
• accd to St. Jerome– he was driven mad by a love philtre
– wrote poetry in his lucid intervals
– died by his own hand, • leaving his poem to be edited posthumously by Cicero
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De Rerum Natura
• 6 books • Didactic poem
– dactylic hexamter – Epicureanism
• Dedicated to Memmius– Roman aristocrat – Governor of Bithynia– Patron or equal?
De Rerum Natura
1. The permanent constituents of the universe: atoms and void
2. How atoms explain phenomena
3. The nature and mortality of the soul
4. Phenomena of the soul5. The cosmos and its
mortality6. Cosmic phenomena
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De Rerum Natura
• Physics• Atomism
• Nihil ex nihilo• Void & atom per se• Swerve• Finite number of atoms• Infinite Universe
• Nature of the soul• Anima/animus
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De Rerum Natura
• Ethics• Tetrapharmakos fourfold cure
• God holds no fears, death no worries. • fear of the divine eliminated through physical
understanding• the fear of death must be countered
• Good is easily attainable, evil easily endurable. • the rational management of pleasures and pains• life of detached tranquility
• maintain modest and easily satisfied appetites• shun lofty ambitions and the disquiet these
inevitably bring in their wake
De Rerum Natura
• Religion• Existence of the gods
• simulacra• live a supremely tranquil life,
never disquieted by either favor or anger towards us
• we should not fear the gods because they do not, and never would, intervene in our world
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