Lucretius and the modern world W.R. Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, W. R., author.

Series:

Classical inter/faces.

Classical inter/faces

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lucretius Carus, Titus. De rerum natura.

Lucretius Carus, Titus.

Atomism.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (174 p.)

Place of Publication:

London Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Pub. Plc 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Lucretius' On the Nature of Things - one of the glories of Latin literature - provides a vivid poetic exposition of the doctrines of the Greek atomist, Epicurus. The poem played a crucial role in the reinvention of science in the seventeenth century, its influence on the French Enlightenment was powerful and pervasive, and it became a major battlefield in the wars of religion with science in nineteenth-century England. But in the twentieth century, despite its vital contributions to modern thought and civilisation, it has been largely neglected by common readers and scientists alike. This book offers an extensive description of the poem, with special emphasis on its cheerful version of materialism and on its attempt to devise an ethical system that suits such a universe. It surveys major relevant texts form the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Dryden, Diderot, Voltaire, Tennyson, Santayana) and speculates on why Lucretius and the ancient scientific tradition he championed has become marginalised in the twentieth century. It closes with a discussion of what value the poem has for students of science and technology in the new century: what advice it has to offer us about how to go about reinventing our machines and our morality."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Lucretius' On the Nature of Things - one of the glories of Latin literature - provides a vivid poetic exposition of the doctrines of the Greek atomist, Epicurus. The poem played a crucial role in the reinvention of science in the seventeenth century, its influence on the French Enlightenment was powerful and pervasive, and it became a major battlefield in the wars of religion with science in nineteenth-century England. But in the twentieth century, despite its vital contributions to modern thought and civilisation, it has been largely neglected by common readers and scientists alike. This book offers an extensive description of the poem, with special emphasis on its cheerful version of materialism and on its attempt to devise an ethical system that suits such a universe. It surveys major relevant texts form the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Dryden, Diderot, Voltaire, Tennyson, Santayana) and speculates on why Lucretius and the ancient scientific tradition he championed has become marginalised in the twentieth century. It closes with a discussion of what value the poem has for students of science and technology in the new century: what advice it has to offer us about how to go about reinventing our machines and our morality

Contents:

pt. 1. The poem itself

pt. Our Lucretius

Preface

PART I

The Poem Itself

1. No Truth But in Atoms

2. The Gospel of Pleasure

PART II

Our Lucretius

3. A Genealogy of Melancholy

4. The Anti-Lucretius Himself

5. Wizards in Bondage

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

First published in 2000 by Gerald Duckworh & Co. Ltd

Includes bibiliographical references and index

ISBN:

9781472502285

1472502280

9781472539908

1472539907

9781472502278

1472502272

OCLC:

902957970