protomattr reviewed On the nature of the universe by Titus Lucretius Carus (Penguin classics)
Review of 'On the nature of the universe' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The subtitle to Carl Sagan's book Demon_Haunted_World is "Science as a Candle in the Dark." Lucretius uses the same metaphor to describe the power of his Epicurean natural philosophy to dispel the shadows of fear, superstition, and the supernatural from our experience of the world. Sure, many of his ideas and theories strike us as quaint, strange, or just plain wrong, but he often puts forward ideas that we would recognize as common with our understanding. That everything is composed of atoms and void, that these atoms hook together in various ways to make different things; that the Universe is infinite and therefore has no center; that there are other worlds; even that survival of the fittest works to cull out species poorly adapted to their environment. But I think the main takeaway is that we can figure it out. Human intellect is sufficient to discover the nature of the …
The subtitle to Carl Sagan's book Demon_Haunted_World is "Science as a Candle in the Dark." Lucretius uses the same metaphor to describe the power of his Epicurean natural philosophy to dispel the shadows of fear, superstition, and the supernatural from our experience of the world. Sure, many of his ideas and theories strike us as quaint, strange, or just plain wrong, but he often puts forward ideas that we would recognize as common with our understanding. That everything is composed of atoms and void, that these atoms hook together in various ways to make different things; that the Universe is infinite and therefore has no center; that there are other worlds; even that survival of the fittest works to cull out species poorly adapted to their environment. But I think the main takeaway is that we can figure it out. Human intellect is sufficient to discover the nature of the Universe. There is no need to invoke gods. The gods, if they exist at all, are ambivalent to us and the stuff of the Universe. Being pious by fearing gods, performing rituals to them, or ascribing what we don't know to them, is unnecessary and even harmful. True piety, Lucretius says, lies rather in the power to contemplate the Universe with a quiet mind.
