A Review of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (The Way Things Are)

This book represents the classic statement, in poetic form, of the natural and ethical philosophy of Epicurus. The natural philosophy is materialist and atomic. It is surprisingly prescient, as will be seen later. This materialist philosophy of nature, which argues that the soul/mind/spirit is a material substance dispersed at death and that the universe shows no evidence of divine planning or providence lays the foundation on ethical philosophy which advocates the pursuit of the simple and tranquil life. Pleasures are to be pursued within the limits of prudence, above all the pleasures of friendship and learning. Political ambition and avarice are to be shunned as disrupting tranquility and engendering pain, unreflective hedonism is to be avoided as leading to a surplus of harm over pleasure, and the observance of the natural justice of reciprocity and honesty is argued to be the key to security. Above all, Lucretius wants to free us from the baseless fears of religion, which spoil our lives with a spectre of post-mortem torment and waste it on needless and even harmful ritual. For him, the surest way to achieve this goal is to understand ‘the way things are’ (one possible translation of the title) and realize that death is nothing to be feared and that there is no divine wrath to be engendered by breaking taboos.

Source: http://www.cdla.co.uk/?page_id=1859

Lucretius explanation is expansive, touching on physics, chemistry, cosmology, astronomy, geology, biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology. As is to be expected, he gets a fair amount wrong but what is surprising is the number of things he gets right. He was able to discern a number of principles and facts that were later confirmed thousands of years later using only his own reason and observation, informed by the teachings he had inherited from previous philosophers. I will here expand on an argument formulated by Saif Rahman in his book “The Islamist Delusion.” It is frequently claimed that a certain religious scripture is miraculous because it contains scientific knowledge that was unknown to the people of the time and only recently confirmed by modern science. Common examples of this argument include the description of embryology in the Qur’an, the order of creation in the Book of Genesis, and the anticipation of the quantum mechanics in the Tao Te Ching. Any scientific absurdities in these texts are either ignored or explained away. Lucretius work is a strong argument against the tenability of these arguments. The list of scientific advances he anticipated rivals that adduced to any of the scriptures considered sacred by the world’s religions and his mistakes can, like those in the Bible and the Qur’an, be ignored or re-interpreted. Given that this is the case and that we know that Lucretius was not the recipient of supernatural revelations, these supposed scientific miracles are not in need of a non-naturalistic explanation. The naturalistic explanation of human insight and observation combined with luck is sufficient to explain these supposed miracles, just as they explain Lucretius numerous successes. Lucretius poem also refutes another old saw used to explain the lack of scientific rigor in the sacred texts: they were addressed to the people who lived at the time of their composition/revelation who would not have have been able to integrate advanced scientific knowledge into their worldview. Yet we find Lucretius discoursing at length and eloquently on particle physics, an infinite universe teeming with worlds and alien life, and causes of lunar phases. If a man could do it, why couldn’t an infinitely wise God?

The following is a list of the scientific discoveries and modern philosophical notions that Lucretius anticipated, referenced by the page number of the Penguin Classics edition of 1951 (R.E. Latham, translator) (NB: inclusion on this list does not imply a claim that Lucretius originated the idea, merely that he reported it):

Atomic theory- Page 28
The first law of thermodynamics- Page 31, Page 33
Ecological circulation of matter- Page 34
The circle of life- Page 35
Our sense of smell is caused by sensing particles- Page 36
‘Solid objects’ are actually full of space- Page 37
Newton’s first law- Page 62
Experimental inference- Page 63
Lack of teleology in nature- Page 65, Page 156, Page 177
Quantum indeterminacy- Page 66
Galileo’s law of falling bodies- Page 67
Lightning is a finer substance than fire- Page 71
Particle theory of light- Page 71
The properties of a smell depends on the properties of the particles that cause them- Page 72
Water filtration- Page 74
Visible bodies are composed of atoms of various types- Page 80
Atoms are colourless- Page 81
The properties of bodies are due to the types of particles of which they are composed and their arrangement- Page 82
Colour is a result of the eye being stimulated in a certain way by light- Page 84
“We are all composed of heavenly seed”- Page 89
Infinite worlds and extraterrestrial life; Carl Sagan’s ‘what a waste of space!’ argument- Page 91
Metaphysical naturalism- Page 92
Arguments justifying SETI/precursors of the Drake equation- Page 92
The problem of evil- Page 92,93
The role of circulatory system in distributing nutrients- Page 93
The Earth has finite resources- Page 94
The mind and body are one material unity- Page 101
Physiology determines personality traits and temperaments- Page 105
The eyes see, not the mind- Page 107
There are thresholds of sensation below which we sense nothing- Page 107
Reincarnation is bunk- Page 116
Theory of the eternal recurrence- Page 122
Dreams can be explained naturalistically- Page 131, Page 155, Page 160
The underlying objects of sense are the same objects experienced by different modalities- Page 137
Darkness is the absence of light- Page 141
Absolute skepticism is self-refuting- Page 145
Argument for Empiricism- Page 145
Naturalistic explanation of echoes- Page 148
Nutritional value is independent of taste- Page 150
Physiology determines diet- Page 150
Physical underpinnings of smell- Page 151
Parts of the brain associated with sight are stimulated when ‘seeing’ things in a dream- Page 153
The psychology of expectation in explaining dreams- Page 155
The organs of the body predate their current uses- the tongue predates its current use by humans in speech- Page 156
The psychology of habituation in explaining dreams- Page 160
Naturalistic/Physiological explanation of sexuality, infatuation, and lust- Page 161
Women enjoy sex- Page167
Genetic basis of heredity- Page 168
Offspring are the result of the mingling of both male and female seeds- Page 169
Naturalistic explanation of sterility/infertility- Page 169
Fertility is influenced by diet- Page 170
Mind is a natural phenomenon- Page 172
The Earth and the heavenly bodies are neither eternal nor divine- Page 174
The reality of entropy- Page 180
Nebular hypothesis of the origin of the Earth and heavenly bodies- Page 184
The sun and moon are both globes- Page 185
The moon reflects the Sun’s light- Page 188, Page 192
The moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun- Page 190
Correct explanation of Lunar phases- Page 192
The Earth’s shadow can cause eclipses of the moon- Page 194
An inkling of natural selection- wasteful diversity filtered by trial in nature- Page 197
The social contract- Page 202
An inkling of Chomsky’s universal grammar- Page 203
Naturalistic account of the origins of religion- Page 207
The cause of thunder- Page 220
The origin of lighting- Page 222
Natural disasters are natural phenomena, not divine judgments- Page 229
The water cycle- Page 231, Page 236
Partial explanation of earthquakes- Page 234
Explanation of avernian lakes- Page 240
Epidemics can be explained naturalistically- Page 250
Environmental causes of human variation- Page 251