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casparb's review against another edition
3.0
Something like if Ovid wrote an encyclopedia.
There's an awful lot of breadth here - from describing atomic structures to why some men are infertile. How the sound of thunder works and why death is pretty chill.
It's certainly peculiar, but lovely in its more poetic elements, and remarkable for the time.
There's an awful lot of breadth here - from describing atomic structures to why some men are infertile. How the sound of thunder works and why death is pretty chill.
It's certainly peculiar, but lovely in its more poetic elements, and remarkable for the time.
carkid2's review against another edition
4.25
Atomic theory before the Middle Ages wrapped up in a Poetic way of writing. If you’re interested in philosophy, religion, science, or ancient history this is a fantastic book. No need for a god, the world can be formed by random interactions. The behavior of tiny elements and how they react is all that’s needed according to this theory
generalheff's review against another edition
2.0
Halfway through reading this book I took a note to give it four stars. At that point I was thoroughly enjoying this verse-rendition of Epicurus' philosophy as it was an enlightening look at both the metaphysical basis and the atheistic conclusions of the Greek's philosophy.
I even wrote a quote that summarised the atomistic theory Lucretius bases the rest of the work on and which I felt nicely summarised the surprisingly modern physical theory of the universe:
"The seeds of things || In random and spontaneous collision || In countless ways clashed, heedless, purposeless, in vain || Until at last such random particles combined || As suddenly united could become || The origins always and mighty things, || Of earth, sky, sea, and breeds of living creatures."
In other words, given infinite space and time, atoms have collided so often that things like the earth and living creatures simply must have come into being. This isn't a theory of evolution but the notion that most things likely have happened somewhere in the universe and so our Goldilocks planet not being so unlikely after all, a point of view that is certainly a feature of modern cosmology.
And from here Lucretius began to delve into the more ethical conclusions of such a theory: that the Gods do not exist, that man is insignificant and should not believe his own delusions of importance and so on. All very Epicurus.
Unfortunately, the moral and ethical aspects of the philosophy slowly vanished in the later chapters in place of tedious, wrong (and without a hint of surprising modernity as above) 'explanations' of numerous phenomena, from the weather to volcanos to plagues (though this part was a little more engaging as I read this in mid-2020). These discussions were perhaps important use cases of the atomistic theory back in 50-odd BC, but today they are just patently incorrect pseudo-scientific (as not rooted in any evidence whatsoever) hypotheses presented as fact. There is little here to interest anyone bar perhaps a historian of science and, unfortunately, the book totally lacked what I came for - which was an interesting Roman example of atheistic philosophy.
A real shame as if the book had stayed the course and developed a theory of life out of its metaphysics it might have been insightful and worth reading. As it is, I should probably have taken the title - On the Nature of the Universe - a little more literally and not assumed that this famed tome of Epicureanism would only speak to those aspects of that philosophy which I personally think are of interest.
I even wrote a quote that summarised the atomistic theory Lucretius bases the rest of the work on and which I felt nicely summarised the surprisingly modern physical theory of the universe:
"The seeds of things || In random and spontaneous collision || In countless ways clashed, heedless, purposeless, in vain || Until at last such random particles combined || As suddenly united could become || The origins always and mighty things, || Of earth, sky, sea, and breeds of living creatures."
In other words, given infinite space and time, atoms have collided so often that things like the earth and living creatures simply must have come into being. This isn't a theory of evolution but the notion that most things likely have happened somewhere in the universe and so our Goldilocks planet not being so unlikely after all, a point of view that is certainly a feature of modern cosmology.
And from here Lucretius began to delve into the more ethical conclusions of such a theory: that the Gods do not exist, that man is insignificant and should not believe his own delusions of importance and so on. All very Epicurus.
Unfortunately, the moral and ethical aspects of the philosophy slowly vanished in the later chapters in place of tedious, wrong (and without a hint of surprising modernity as above) 'explanations' of numerous phenomena, from the weather to volcanos to plagues (though this part was a little more engaging as I read this in mid-2020). These discussions were perhaps important use cases of the atomistic theory back in 50-odd BC, but today they are just patently incorrect pseudo-scientific (as not rooted in any evidence whatsoever) hypotheses presented as fact. There is little here to interest anyone bar perhaps a historian of science and, unfortunately, the book totally lacked what I came for - which was an interesting Roman example of atheistic philosophy.
A real shame as if the book had stayed the course and developed a theory of life out of its metaphysics it might have been insightful and worth reading. As it is, I should probably have taken the title - On the Nature of the Universe - a little more literally and not assumed that this famed tome of Epicureanism would only speak to those aspects of that philosophy which I personally think are of interest.
richardpapensympathiser's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
slow-paced
4.75
hilly_em's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I would recommend reading this out loud for maximum comprehension
jcampbell's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Almost a philosophical Encyclopaedia - the poem is awfully poetic in places while still covering a wide breadth of topics from atoms forming everything, to creation, to thunder.
cassgagnon's review against another edition
Much more focused on the metaphysics of Epicurianism. Although DNF, realized interest lies in philosophy on how to live life (ie. morality, ethics, etc.) more over then metaphysics.