home Audience 6 Philosopher Titus Lucretius Car. All that is known about the life of Lucretius comes down to the message of St. Jerome, who, in all likelihood quoting Suetonius, says: “Drunk with a love potion, Lucretius lost his mind, in bright intervals he wrote several books, according to

Philosopher Titus Lucretius Car. All that is known about the life of Lucretius comes down to the message of St. Jerome, who, in all likelihood quoting Suetonius, says: “Drunk with a love potion, Lucretius lost his mind, in bright intervals he wrote several books, according to

History of natural science in the era of Hellenism and the Roman Empire Rozhansky Ivan Dmitrievich

Titus Lucretius Carus

In talking about Celsus's encyclopedia, we have somewhat violated the chronological presentation of the subject. Now it will be necessary to return again to the first century BC. e. - the century of M. T. Varro and M. T. Cicero - and focus on the most remarkable (and, undoubtedly, the most popular) monument of Roman science, namely the poem by Titus Lucretius Cara “On the Nature of Things” (De rerum natura) .

We know almost nothing about the life of Lucretius; We also do not know whether he wrote anything else other than his poem, which, in any case, was his main and most important creation. Based on information reported by later sources, we can conclude that Lucretius was born around 99–95. BC e. and died while still a relatively young man, being forty-four years old. The first statement that has come down to us about the poem of Lucretius belongs to Cicero. In February 65 BC. e. the great Roman orator wrote to his brother Quintus: “The poem of Lucretius is as you characterize it in your letter: it contains many glimpses of natural talent, but at the same time of art.” Among the authors of later times, Ovid, Virgil and Tacitus highly appreciated the poem. The poetic merits of the poem were undoubtedly the most important factor contributing to its widespread popularity. We will also talk about the extent to which these poetic virtues helped the author of the poem to present its scientific and philosophical content as clearly and clearly as possible.

The historical and philosophical value of Lucretius's poem lies in the fact that it represents the most complete and systematic presentation of Epicurean philosophy that we generally have. Let us recall that three letters have reached us from the founder of the Epicurean school (to Herodotus, Pythocles and Menoeceus), cited in the biography of Epicurus by Diogenes Laertius and representing brief extracts from the main works of his that have not reached us; further, a collection of ethical maxims entitled “Main Thoughts” (?????? ?????); and a number of fragments, also mostly of ethical content. Without the poem of Lucretius, our knowledge of Epicurean philosophy and, in particular, Epicurean physics would seem much more meager.

The poem “On the Nature of Things” consists of six books. Let us briefly outline the contents of these books. For those who are familiar with the poem, this presentation may seem redundant, but for those who have not read it, it will give an idea of the breadth and diversity of its content and may serve as an incentive to read it. We take the liberty of asserting that reading Lucretius's poem - even in translation - will be a source of inexhaustible pleasure for every inquisitive and receptive reader. And for many who read it in the original, it became a favorite book for life. Let us recall that one of the heroes of Anatole France’s novel “The Gods Thirst” did not part with the poem until the last minutes before his execution on the guillotine.

The first book of the poem opens with an appeal to the goddess Venus, according to Roman legend, the ancestor of the Latin tribe. A contemporary of the tragic and bloody events of Roman history, Lucretius turns to Venus with his characteristic appeal:

Therefore, grant my words eternal charm,

Having in the meantime made cruel strife and war

And on earth and in the seas everywhere they became silent and still (I, 28–30)

After this, Lucretius invites the Roman figure Memmius, to whom this poem is dedicated, to strain his ears and mind in order to comprehend the meaning of the “true teaching” (verum rationem), which will be discussed in the poem. The concept of matter is immediately introduced, which is identified with the “seeds of things” (semina rerum) or “primary bodies” (corpora prima), i.e., in other words, with atoms.

The next passage is interesting for its anti-religious orientation. The poet recalls those times when people's lives were dragged out under the painful yoke of religion. Epicurus is praised for speaking out against religion and dispelling the darkness of ignorance that had until then obscured the minds of people. The possible charge of wickedness is refuted by pointing out that it was religion that gave rise to many wicked and criminal acts. People have a fear of natural phenomena, generated by ignorance of the causes of these phenomena and the belief that they occur by the will of the gods. In fact, nothing happens by divine will; everything that happens occurs naturally, and “nothing can arise from nothing” (nil posse creari de nilo). This position is substantiated with the help of a number of convincing arguments and is directly associated with the law of conservation of matter (nihil ad nihilum interire). Lucretius's argumentation was obviously borrowed from Epicurus (see, for example, the letter to Herodotus), although it is possible that it underwent a certain development in the poem.

Starting to present the foundations of atomism, Lucretius proves that the primary particles from which things are composed, or, as he says, “the beginnings of things” (primordia rerum), are inaccessible to vision due to their exceptional smallness. But not everything is filled with these particles; there is a void between them. Without emptiness there could be no movement, bodies could not be compressed and would not have different weights for the same volume. The various arguments given by Lucretius on this issue do not belong, of course, to him or even to Epicurus, but ultimately go back to Leucippus and Democritus. The same applies, obviously, to the characterization of atoms as absolutely dense, eternal, indestructible and unchanging bodies.

What follows is a historical and philosophical digression. The views of some pre-Socratic philosophers, primarily Heraclitus, Empedocles and Anaxagoras, have been severely criticized. Lucretius does not actually add anything new to the existing information about these philosophers, and in some cases (for example, when presenting the concept of Anaxagoras’ homeomory) he makes obvious inaccuracies.

The end of the first book is devoted to the substantiation of the provisions about the infinity of space and the innumerability of atoms. From the point of view of these provisions, a concept is criticized that recognizes the presence of a center in the Universe, postulates the division of elements into light and heavy, and admits the possibility of the existence of antipodes. Here the polemical arrows of Lucretius (or rather, Epicurus) are obviously directed against Aristotle, although the latter is not mentioned by name anywhere in the poem. It must, however, be taken into account that some of the provisions of Aristotelian cosmology were also shared by the Stoics, with whom the school of Epicurus conducted a long and fierce polemic.

The second book of the poem also begins with an introduction in which Lucretius sets out the main provisions of Epicurean ethics. He praises wisdom, calls? to moderation and peace of mind and opposes false passions, excesses and vain fears.

Following this, Lucretius proceeds to develop the principles of Epicurean atomism. Much space is devoted to the analysis of the movement of atoms, which is interpreted as their eternal and inalienable property. It is here that we find passages that still cause amazement to physicists and allow us to talk about the anticipation of such things as the molecular theory of aggregate states of matter (II, 95-111), Brownian motion (II, 125-141), etc. Curious considerations expressed by Lucretius about the enormous speed of atoms in emptiness, far exceeding even the speed of light. We now know that the speed at which material bodies move can never exceed the speed of light, but, as academician wrote. S.I. Vavilov, “one should hardly study such a school exam for the two-thousand-year-old patriarch of atomism.”

Can we attribute these insights to the insight of Lucretius himself? Of course no. There is no doubt that he borrowed them from his teacher Epicurus, who largely repeated the ideas expressed by the founders of atomism - Leucippus and Democritus.

And ultimately, the guesses of the ancient atomists that amaze us should be attributed to the exceptional productivity of the atomistic hypothesis itself. The logical development of the principles of atomism, even in such an archaic form as we find in Democritus and Epicurus, made it possible to arrive at conclusions that were thousands of years ahead of the time when they were first formulated.

The next section of the second book is devoted to the specific postulates of Epicurean physics: that all atoms tend to fall downward at a constant speed (and, contrary to Plato and Aristotle, up and down are considered absolute directions, in no way dependent on our point of view) and that in their fall they imperceptibly and completely arbitrarily deviate from the vertical direction of movement. Of course, one can see in this idea an anticipation of modern physical theories (Heisenberg's uncertainty principle), but one must take into account that it did not follow from the basic principles of atomism. The postulate about the arbitrary deviation of atoms from a rectilinear fall (clinamen - in Lucretius, ??????????? in Epicurus) was needed by Epicurus to substantiate the thesis of free will, which had no place in the strictly deterministic physics of Democritus.

Among the characteristic features of Epicurean atomism is also the assumption that each atom consists of several “smallest parts” (minimae partes or Cacumina; in Epicurus they are called respectively ?? ???????? or ?? ???? ); Lucretius mentions them, however, already in the first book (I, 599–634). Since the sizes of atoms are strictly limited (this is also one of the differences between the atomism of Epicurus and the atomism of Democritus), each atom consists of several “smallest” ones inextricably fused with each other. Hence the conclusion is drawn that atoms cannot be infinitely varied in their shapes. “Indivisibles” cannot exist independently, separately from atoms; If we continue to draw parallels with modern microphysics, then they can most likely be likened to quarks.

Lucretius then moves on to what we would call the problem of primary and secondary qualities. Atoms differ only in their figures or shapes; As for such properties as colors, sounds, smells, warmth, softness, flexibility, looseness, etc., all of them are inherent only in “mortal” objects consisting of a large number of atoms.

The end of the book is devoted to substantiating the concept of the plurality of worlds. Worlds, like all other things, are born and die; The world in which we live will also perish, for, according to the inescapable law of nature:

...everything is becoming decrepit and little by little

Life's long journey, exhausted, goes to the grave

(II, 2173–2174).

The following books of Lucretius's poem can be discussed more briefly. The third book opens with an enthusiastic praise of Epicurus, after which Lucretius proceeds to consider the nature of the soul (anima) and the spirit or mind (animus or mens, respectively). Their nature is essentially the same: both consist of the finest, smallest and very mobile atoms; but if the seat of the spirit (mind) is the middle of the chest, then the soul is scattered throughout the body. The soul occupies a subordinate position in relation to the spirit: without the spirit it cannot remain in the members of the body and immediately dissipates.

Contrary to the opinion of Democritus, who believed that the atoms of the soul and body are numerically equal and alternate with each other (like ions of a crystal lattice, we would say), Lucretius argues that the atoms of the soul are not so numerous and are distributed less frequently in the body. The distance between two neighboring atoms of the soul corresponds to the minimum size of an object, the touch of which is still felt by our body.

The most important thesis of Epicureanism, proven by Lucretius with the help of a number of arguments, is that the spirit and soul are mortal; their constituent atoms scatter in space simultaneously with the death of the body. Fairy tales about the immortality of the soul and the existence of the afterlife instill in people the fear of death. We should not be afraid of death, for death is pure nothingness that awaits each of us. Does it matter when it comes - now or later? There is no point in clinging to life and begging for its extension, because the infinite duration of death is the same for everyone.

So you can live as many generations as you like,

Still, eternal death certainly awaits you.

Destined to remain in oblivion for the same long time

To those who put an end to their lives today, and also

To those who died months and years earlier

(III, 1090–1094).

These lines, filled with calm resignation, end the third book of Lucretius’ poem.

The fourth book is devoted mainly to the problem of sensory perceptions. After a short introduction, Lucretius expounds the famous theory of images or ghosts (imagines or simulacra in Latin, ?????? or ????? in Epicurus). This theory itself was not an original invention of Epicurus; as all ancient authorities testify, it was entirely borrowed from Leucippus and Democritus. But in Lucretius, as a conclusion from this theory, we find the purely Epicurean idea of the infallibility of feelings. Senses cannot give false evidence about the world around us; It is not the feelings, but the mind that is to blame for all mistakes and delusions. Along with vision, other sources of sensations are considered - hearing, taste, smell. An explanation for dreams is given.

The fourth book ends with a discussion about the feeling of love, striking in its emotionality. Love for Lucretius is “madness and grave grief”; he writes about her with undisguised hatred. This passage of the poem was apparently dictated by the deeply personal and not very happy experiences of the author.

The fifth book is of particular interest to us, since it deals with various aspects of atomistic cosmogony. The thesis about the mortality of our world and everything that it contains is formulated in lines filled with solemn grandeur:

First of all, look at the seas, the lands and the skies;

All these three natures, three separate bodies, Memmius,

Three very different forms and three main plexuses

Will disappear one day, and stood for many years

The community will collapse then, and the structure of the world will perish

And since the world and all its parts are mortal, they cannot have a divine nature. The deification of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other heavenly bodies is, according to Lucretius, one of the most absurd prejudices. All luminaries arose naturally and will someday die. Next, the cosmogonic concept of Epicurus is outlined, the main provisions of which go back to Leucippus and Democritus. However, in some details it departs from the teachings of the founders of atomism. Moreover, Epicurus, who emphasized that “in the knowledge of celestial phenomena ... there is no other goal than serenity (????????)”, there are statements repeated by Lucretius that even the ancient philosophers must have seemed archaic and anti-scientific. So, for example, Epicurus (and after him Lucretius) believed that the sizes of the Sun and Moon cannot differ significantly from what they seem to us (among the Pre-Socratics, only Heraclitus expressed similar views). As Cicero wrote on this occasion, “Democritus, as an educated man and an expert in geometry, considers the Sun to be of great size, but to Epicurus it seems perhaps a foot in size, because he thinks that it is as it appears, and unless a little more or less." This absurd point of view was in conflict with all the data of astronomy of that time, but it corresponded to the fundamental position of Epicurus that sense perceptions cannot deceive us. Epicurus and his followers considered the earth to be something like a flat cake located in the center of a sphere enclosing our world (remember that, according to the teachings of atomists, there can be an infinite number of such worlds). In this matter, their views did not differ from the views of Leucinpus and Democritus. But already in the era of Epicurus these views were hopelessly outdated. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, the idea of the spherical shape of the Earth was finally established in Greek science, and in the 3rd century. BC e., that is, almost two centuries before Lucretius, Erarosthenes determined with great accuracy the circumference of the globe. But these results were simply ignored by the Epicurean school.

In relation to celestial phenomena, Epicurus adhered to a peculiar pluralistic position. He believed that each of these phenomena can be explained in different ways, and all these explanations are, in principle, equal, because we are not given the true reason to know. In a letter to Pythocles, he justifies this position by the fact that only it gives us true serenity; in this regard, he calls not to be afraid of the “slavish intricacies of astronomers.”

This point of view is also accepted by Lucretius. So, for example, to explain the phases of the Moon, Lucretius considers the following hypotheses equally valid: 1. The Moon borrows its light from the Sun, and depending on its position in relation to the Sun and to us, we see different parts of the lunar disk illuminated.

2. The moon has its own light. With this assumption, it is possible: a) that a dark body, invisible to us, rotates with it, which obscures first one and then another part of the lunar disk; b) that only one half of the Moon glows, but the Moon turns to us first on one side or the other.

3. Every day a new moon is born, with a different shape.

We know that only the first of these hypotheses is true. Greek astronomers, contemporaries of Epicurus and Lucretius, also knew this. But Epicurus and his followers had an amazing ability to ignore the achievements of contemporary science. This can be partly explained by the complete ignorance of the Epicureans in the field of mathematical disciplines. One way or another, this attitude of the Epicureans was one of the reasons why Epicurean philosophy found few supporters among the most educated circles of Hellenistic and Roman society (see the above remark of Cicero), and subsequently generally lost all influence. Lucretius's poem was readily read and even admired, but this did not at all mean agreement with the fundamental principles of its author.

In a similar “pluralistic” way, Lucretius explains such facts as the change of day and night, the unequal duration of days and nights in different seasons, solar and lunar eclipses, etc. We will not dwell in more detail on all these explanations: in many of them In them one can notice echoes of pre-scientific, naive ideas, but, in fact, they do not have historical and scientific significance.

But along with this, in the same fifth book we can find curious considerations and insightful guesses, related, however, not to cosmology, but to the problems to which the second part of the book is devoted: to the emergence of animals and humans, to the history of human society and to the development of culture . The extent of Lucretius's dependence on Epicurus in these matters is unclear, for we do not know the writings of Epicurus in which these problems would be reflected. The description of the emergence of animals and humans reveals Lucretius’s familiarity with the views of a number of Pre-Socratics - Anaximander, Empedocles, Archelaus, Democritus, and also, possibly, with the treatises of the Hippocratic Code. As for the history of human society, here we do not know the predecessors of Lucretius at all. It is curious that in this part Lucretius does not resort to “pluralistic” explanations, but directly and unequivocally expresses the opinions that he considers correct. Rejecting the legend of the Golden Age and other mythological fantasies, Lucretius, with his characteristic imagery, depicts the primitive state of man, when people did not yet know either clothing or housing and led a miserable existence, eating acorns and berries and hunting wild animals. The changes that took place in a person’s life are described when he began to dress in skins, build huts, communicate using language, and make fire. The reasons for the emergence of religious beliefs are analyzed. The passage dedicated to the discovery of metals subsequently attracted the attention of M.V. Lomonosov, who translated it into Russian. Subsequent stages of human development were, according to Lucretius, associated with the domestication of animals (horses and livestock), with the emergence of agriculture and crafts, and with the invention of the arts. Then man learned to build ships, lay roads, and erect cities. In short, Lucretius gives a broad (and in its main features correct) picture of the evolution of mankind, painted with the bright strokes of a great and thoughtful artist.

The sixth - last - book of the poem is devoted mainly to meteorological and geological phenomena. Sources for this book could include, in addition to Epicurus (the letter to Pythocles only partially covers the content of the sixth book), the works of Posidonius, as well as Greek popular science compilations compiled on the basis of the corresponding works of Aristotle, Theophrastus and other authors. The second part of the book develops a “meteorological” theory of the origin of diseases, which is believed to go back to the follower of Epicurus, the famous physician Asclepiades of Bithynia, who lived in Rome in the era of Lucretius. The book ends with a vivid picture of an epidemic that took place in Athens in 430 BC. e. and described by Thucydides in the History of the Peloponnesian War. After this, the poem ends suddenly. It is possible that it remained not completely finished.

Such is this amazing poem, which has no analogues in the history of world literature. Many scientists have studied it from a variety of angles - philological, literary, aesthetic, historical and philosophical, etc. Leaving aside all these aspects, we will emphasize only two points, the most significant, as it seems to us, for a historian of science.

1. Although the poem “On the Nature of Things” is dedicated to the presentation of Greek scientific and philosophical doctrine and was written on the basis of exclusively Greek sources, in general it should be considered an extremely characteristic monument of Roman science. And the point here is not only that it is written in Latin. As in the works of other Roman scientists - be it Varro or Cicero, Celsus or Seneca, in the poem of Lucretius we find few original thoughts, our own ideas (the exception is, perhaps, only the second part of the fifth book, and this is not accidental: history has always been closer and more understandable to the Roman way of thinking than theoretical natural science), but Lucretius finds a truly artistic form for presenting other people’s ideas. For Roman authors - be they scientists, historians or essayists - literary form was always of great importance. All the writers mentioned above were brilliant stylists, while such great Greeks as Aristotle and Theophrastus cared primarily about the accuracy of the presentation of their thoughts, and not at all about the style of their prose. As for Lucretius, it’s not enough to call him a stylist (we don’t know his prose at all), he was “simply” a highly talented poet. A rich poetic imagination allowed him to present even the most abstract ideas of the atomistic doctrine in a visual and figurative form. Let us cite the famous passage where Lucretius explains why in macroscopic (in modern terminology) bodies we do not notice the movement of atoms:

...For it lies far beyond our senses

All nature began. Therefore, since they are not available

While they are visible to our eyes, their movements are hidden from us.

Even what we are able to see hides

Often their movements are at a distance far from us:

Often thick-fleeced sheep graze along the hillside,

Slowly walking to where they are in the fat pasture

Fresh grass beckons, sparkling with diamond dew;

The well-fed lambs jump and frolic there, butting heads.

From a distance all this seems to us to have merged together;

It’s like a motionless white spot on a green slope.

Also, when, having run, the mighty legions quickly

Everywhere across the field they scurry about, imagining an exemplary battle,

The shine from their weapons rises to the sky, and everywhere

The earth sparkles like copper, and from the tread of heavy infantry

The hum is heard all around. Shocked by screams, the mountains

They echo them loudly, and the noise rushes to the heavenly constellations;

Riders gallop around and suddenly in a fast onslaught

They cross the fields, shaking them with loud stomps.

But on high mountains there is certainly a place where

It seems like a spot, motionless sparkling in the field

(II, 312–332).

Lucretius should be judged not as a scientist who expressed his ideas in poetry (such were Parmenides and Empedocles), but as a remarkable poet, whose only theme was the philosophical teaching of Epicurus. This explains both the advantages and disadvantages of his poem. What a pity that in our time there is no poet who could so talentedly express in verse the foundations of Einstein’s theory of relativity or the quantum mechanical theory of the atom! 2. Lucretius’s enormous merit to Roman and European science in general was the creation of Latin scientific and philosophical terminology (this merit, however, he shares with Varro and Cicero). Lucretius himself was well aware of the importance of this task, which he, for example, writes about in the following lines of his poem:

I have no doubt that the teachings of the dark Greeks

It will be difficult to express clearly in Latin verses:

The main thing is that I will often have to resort to new words

Given the poverty of language and the presence of new concepts...

When presenting the content of the poem, we gave examples when Lucretius successfully found Latin equivalents of Greek terms. He did not always succeed in this, and sometimes he resorted to Latin transcription of Greek words. So, for example, trying to explain Anaxagoras’s concept of homeomerism, Lucretius writes:

Anaxagoras, now we will consider “homeomerism”,

What do the Greeks call her, and let us pass on this word

Our poverty does not allow the language and dialects...

In the time of Lucretius, Greek was still firmly the international scientific language, and it continued to largely maintain its position until the fall of the Roman Empire. But over time, the situation began to change. At least in Western Europe, the Latin language began to gain a dominant position - first in such areas as law, history, theology (the latter was facilitated by the fact that Latin, from the time of Augustine, became the official language of the Western European Christian Church, which later received the name Catholic ). And in the Middle Ages, Latin became the only language in which science and philosophy were explained. One of the pioneers of Roman science, who gradually prepared the hegemony of the Latin language, was undoubtedly the poet and philosopher of the 1st century. BC e. Titus Lucretius Car.

From the book History of Psychology: Lecture Notes author Luchinin Alexey Sergeevich

10. Epicurus and Lucretius Carus on the soul After Aristotle and the Stoics, noticeable changes in the understanding of the essence of the soul were outlined in ancient psychology. The new point of view was most clearly expressed in the views of Epicurus (341–271 BC) and Lucretius Cara (99–45 BC). Epicurus

Main interests:

For materialist philosophers of later times, it was Titus Lucretius Carus who is the main propagandist and doxographer of the teachings of Epicurus. His philosophy gave a powerful impetus to the development of materialism in antiquity and in the 17th-18th centuries. Among the prominent followers of Epicurus and Lucretius is Pierre Gassendi. The first annotated edition of Lucretius's poem was published in 1563 and was carried out by the French philologist Lambin. In 1884, fragments of the poem were translated and published as a textbook for a course in rhetoric and philosophy by the philosopher Henri Bergson.

Carianism is named after Titus Lucretius Cara - a “religion” that arose in the spring of 2004 on the forum of the website Membrana.ru, preaching faith in reason and common sense.

Texts and translations

In the series “Loeb classical library” the poem was published under number 181.
In the “Collection Budé” series, the poem was published in 2 books.

Russian translations:

About the nature of things. / Per. A. Klevanova. - M., 1876. XXII, 191 p.
About the nature of things. / Per. the size of the original by I. Rachinsky. - M.: Scorpion, 1904. XVI, 231 p.
- (reissues 1913 and 1933)
About the nature of things. / Per. F.A. Petrovsky, entry. Art. V. F. Asmus. - M.-L.: Academia, 1936. - 285 p. ( reprinted several times)
- Titus Lucretius Carus. About the nature of things. / Per. F.A. Petrovsky, entry. Art. T. V. Vasilyeva. [With the attachment of fragments of the work of Heraclitus, the poems of Parmenides and Empedocles, the letters of Epicurus]. (Series “Library of Ancient Literature. Rome”). - M.: Fiction, 1983. - 384 p.

Literature

Markovnikov V. The idea of cultural and historical development in the poem of Lucretius // “Scientific Word”, 1903. No. 10.- P. 97-122.
Vandeck V. Titus Lucretius Carus and his philosophy of militant atheism. M.-L., 1931.
Rabinovich V.I. Vitruvius and Lucretius. // Questions of Philosophy 1963. No. 3.
Borovsky Ya. M. Designation of matter and space in the vocabulary of Lucretius // Classical philology. Rep. editor A.I. Dovatur. L., 1959. - P.117-139.
Borovsky Ya. M. Issues of social development in the poem of Lucretius // Ancient World. Sat. articles in honor of academician V.V. Struve. M., 1962.- P.475-484.
Pokrovskaya Z. A. F. A. Petrovsky - translator of the poem by Lucretius. // Antiquity and modernity. To the 80th anniversary of Fyodor Alexandrovich Petrovsky. M., 1972.- pp. 11-27.
Verlinsky A.L. Lucretius in the works of Ya.M. Borovsky // Cathedra Petropolitana: Interuniversity collection. To the 70th anniversary of the Department of Classical Philology. Rep. ed. V. S. Durov. St. Petersburg, 2004. (Philologia classica. Issue 6). P.69-87.
Diskin Clay: Lucretius and Epicurus. Cornell University Press, Ithaca/New York 1983, ISBN 0-8014-1559-4.
D. Sedley, Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom (Cambridge, 1998).
Godwin, John, Lucretius (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2004) (“Ancient in Action” Series).
Anne Janowitz The Sublime Plurality of Worlds: Lucretius in the Eighteenth Century // Tate Papers Issue 13 Spring 2010

Notes

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Titus Lucretius Carus in the library of Maxim Moshkov (fragments)

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Titus Lucretius Carus- (99 55 BC) poet and materialist philosopher Man himself does not know what he wants, and is constantly looking for a change of place, as if this could relieve him of his burden. The only reason that fear grips all mortals is that they see many phenomena on earth and on... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

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Lucretius, Titus Lucretius Carus- Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus (lat. Titus Lucretius Carus, c. 99 55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher. He is considered one of the brightest adherents of atomistic materialism, a follower of the teachings of Epicurus. Committed suicide by throwing himself on... ... Wikipedia

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LUCRETIUS Titus Lucretius Carus- LUCRETius, Titus Lucretius Carus, Roman poet and materialist philosopher of the 1st century. BC e. Didactic. the poem “On the Nature of Things” (edited by Cicero c. 54 BC) sets out the philosophy. system of Epicureanism.■ On the nature of things, [trans. F. Petrovsky], t.... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

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Carus Lucretius(99-55 BC) - an outstanding Roman poet-philosopher, materialist. In his work “On the Nature of Things,” Lucretius expounds in poetic form the philosophy of atomistic materialism. In full agreement with the Greek philosophers (q.v.) and (q.v.), he proclaims the basic principles of materialism: there is nothing in the world except eternally existing matter, consisting of small, indivisible particles - atoms. The Universe, according to Lucretius, is infinite and consists of countless worlds, eternally arising, developing and dying. Lucretius refutes the teaching of idealists and priests of religion about the creation of the world by God, “Out of nothing nothing is created and in the divine field,” he said.

All the diversity of things in the world, according to the teachings of Lucretius, is only the diversity of the cohesion of particles of matter, atoms. The destruction of things is only the disintegration of atoms. Not a single atom can be destroyed. The main condition for the formation of things of nature, according to Lucretius, is the presence of emptiness. Matter and emptiness constitute a unity, without which movement, and therefore the cohesion and disintegration of atoms, is impossible. In matters of cognitive theory
Lucretius stood on the position of knowability of the objective world. The source of knowledge of the external world is sensory perception. Being diverse in shape (round, coal, rough, smooth, etc.), atoms affect the human senses, causing different perceptions. Feelings serve as an instrument of thought; without them, knowledge is impossible.

“For not only will all reason be gained then, but life itself will perish along with it, if you do not dare to trust your feelings...”
Lucretius criticized religious prejudices: religion, in his opinion, is the source of human atrocities. The roots of religion are in man's fear of unknown natural phenomena: the first gods on earth were created by fear. Believing that it is enough to explain to a person the true causes of natural phenomena, how religious prejudices will be destroyed, Lucretius in the poem “On the Nature of Things” paid great attention to the description of natural phenomena (thunder, lightning, rain, etc.). The materialist philosophy of Lucretius and his atheism contributed to the spread of science and had a huge influence on the subsequent development of materialism.

(see), Vanini, Fassendi (see) revive the atomistic materialism of Epicurus and Lucretius. French materialists of the 18th century. . They also pay great tribute to the materialistic philosophy of Lucretius Cara. The Roman philosopher was highly valued by N. G. (see). In his political views, Lucretius was an ideologist of slave-owning democracy, fought against the aristocracy, but called on slaves to submit. The development of society, according to Lucretius, is a progressive process. He sees the source of this development in the mind. Thus, Lucretian’s views on society are idealistic. The work of Lucretius Cara “On the Nature of Things” reflected the level of knowledge and materialistic ideas of that time. This book was published several times in Russian.

In Rome in the first half of the 1st century. BC e. Greek philosophical theories are widespread - Epicurean, Stoic, Peripatetic. The Roman aristocracy was attracted by the ethical side of these philosophical movements; and in Epicurean philosophy the most popular was the ethics of Epicurus.

At the same time, there were also consistent students of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, who accepted the entirety of his philosophical doctrine, based on materialistic atomism.

Titus Lucretius Carus

This is the outstanding Roman poet and philosopher Titus Lucretius Car (c. 98–55 BC), who wrote the philosophical poem “On the Nature of Things.” Unlike the previous Greek authors of didactic poems “On Nature” (Xenophanes, Parmenides, Empedocles), Lucretius turns to an already existing philosophical theory, expounding not his own teaching, but the teaching of the ancient Greek materialist Epicurus.

The poem begins with an appeal to the goddess Venus:

“The family of Aeneas is the mother, people and immortals’ delight,
O good Venus! Under a sky of sliding constellations
You fill the entire ship-bearing sea with life,
And fertile lands; by you all existing creatures
They begin to live and see the light of the sun when they are born.”
(“On the Nature of Things,” book I, verses 1–5).

The content of the poem “On the Nature of Things” is a materialistic interpretation of the origin and existence of various forms of matter, the nature of the universe, the laws of the development of the universe, human life and the evolution of culture from primitive tools to the contemporary achievements of human civilization by Lucretius Caru. Thus, immediately after the introduction to book I, Lucretius proclaims the Epicurean thesis he adopted:

“We take the following position as a basis here:
Nothing is created from nothing by divine will.”
(“On the Nature of Things,” book I, verses 149–150).

According to the teachings of Epicurus, whose admirer was Titus Lucretius Carus, there is only matter, which is opposed to emptiness, and matter consists of an infinite number of atoms (“atom” - literally “indivisible”). When combined, atoms form various objects, the diversity of which constitutes nature. Objects (things) disintegrate - this is death, but the atoms themselves are eternal and do not disappear with the death of the object, but only provide material for new combinations.

In the poem “On the Nature of Things,” Lucretius strongly points out the mortal nature of the soul, which, like all matter, has an atomic structure and after the death of a person disintegrates along with the body, since it is an integral material part of the human body. Therefore, it makes no sense to be afraid of what will happen after death:

“So when we are no longer there, when they disperse
Body and soul, of which we are closely united into a whole,
Nothing can happen to us after our death,
And we will no longer awaken any sensations,
Even if the sea and the earth and the seas mix the sky.”
(Bk. III, verses 838–842).

The materialistic principle of interpretation of the nature of the universe, which provides an explanation for the emergence, existence and development of the nature of things without the intervention of gods, is a manifestation of Lucretius’ atheism. It is not the denial of the existence of gods, but the assertion that the gods are in no way connected with a universe independent of them - this is what Lucretius’ atheism consists of. In Book III “On the Nature of Things” (verses 18–24), the poet depicts a “calm abode” where the gods live in complete prosperity and bliss, “nothing disturbs the eternal peace of the gods, and nothing ever disturbs.” Twice in the poem there are verses setting out the position of Epicurus, which Lucretius also perceives:

“For all gods must by their nature certainly
Always enjoy immortal life in complete peace,
Alien to our worries and far removed from them.
After all, without any sorrows, far from any dangers,
They have everything and do not need anything from us;
They have no need for good deeds, and anger is unknown."
(“On the Nature of Things,” Book I, verses 44–49; Book II, verses 646–651).

In four introductions to the books of the poem “On the Nature of Things” out of six (each of the books is preceded by an introduction), Lucretius glorifies Epicurus for his wisdom, courage, “divine reason”, which opened the way for people to true knowledge, freeing their souls from all kinds of superstitions and fear before death, as well as showing the path to happiness and the “highest good.” Lucretius Carus pays tribute to his inspirer and predecessor, defining his position in relation to the teachings of Epicurus: “from your writings... we consume golden words” (Book III, verses 10–12). Nevertheless, Lucretius clearly points to his own path, which no one had used before:

“Along the trackless paths of the Pierides I walk, along which
No one has set foot before"
(Book I, verses 926–927; Book IV, verses 1–2).

Lucretius calls the places he walks pathless, untouched the springs from which he draws water, new the flowers with which, as he hopes, the muses will crown his head. Lucretius also speaks about the reasons that give him hope for a successful outcome of the task (Book I, verses 931–934; Book IV, verses 6–9), declaring, first of all, that he teaches and seeks to expound an important and a difficult subject in clear verses that bring pleasure with their charm. And indeed, in the poem “On the Nature of Things,” abstract theoretical propositions, through various methods of artistic concretization and fascination of poetic material, become accessible to a wide range of readers. To demonstrate the movement of the first principles (for Epicurus - atoms), Lucretius draws a ray of sunlight penetrating into dwellings, and in it the flickering of dust particles (Book II, verses 114–122). And here is the picture of the battle of the legions, when “horsemen gallop around and suddenly cross the fields in a fast onslaught,” but from a distance it all seems like a spot, “movingly sparkling in the field” (Book II, verses 324–332). This is an illustration of the idea that the movements of the origins are inaccessible to vision from a distance.

Lucretius is an artist. He is a master of creating paintings and images. The poem “On the Nature of Things” contains many comparisons and allegories. In the hymn to Venus, which opens the poem (Book I, verses 1–43), the readers are presented with personified nature, filling the sea and the fertile land with life. “By you,” Lucretius says, turning to Venus, “all existing creatures begin to live and, having been born, they see the light of the sun” (“On the Nature of Things,” book I, verses 4–5). The poetic merits of this hymn are constantly noted as outstanding. The content and artistic form are associated with the poetic traditions of the Greek classics. The image of the goddess Cybele, the mother of gods and people, is also an allegory of personified nature (Book II, verses 600–643). The description of the cult of the goddess in this passage of the poem “On the Nature of Things” has an oriental flavor. The vocabulary is expressive, “the dugout flute excites the Phrygian rhythm of the heart” (Book II, verse 620). The influence of Alexandrian poetry is felt.

In the spirit of the contemporary Lucretius rhetorical tradition, the image of personified nature is presented not in the form of an allegory, but as a person who appears before a person complaining about the cruel necessity of death. And nature turns her calm and wise speech to an agitated person who is afraid of death:

“What oppresses you, mortal, and worries you with immense sadness
Bitter? Why do you languish and cry at the thought of death?
After all, if your past life served you well before this,
And it was not in vain that all her blessings passed and disappeared,
As if poured into a nailed vessel, flowing away without a trace,
Why don’t you leave like a guest, satiated with the feast of life,
And you, fool, do not taste the serene peace with indifference.”
(“On the Nature of Things,” book III, verses 933–939).

Pictures of severe human suffering do not escape Lucretius’s field of vision: he is indignant at the cruelty of bloody wars, speaks of the base motives of contemporary people, bitterly depicts the disappointments of love, and at the end of Book VI he gives a description of the terrible plague epidemic in Athens (verses 1138–1286). The poem “On the Nature of Things” ends with this description.

But all the pessimistic moments do not reduce the enormous power of optimism, deep humanism and concern for human happiness with which the poem is imbued. Defending the teaching of Epicurus on the mortality of the soul, the teaching that the soul perishes along with the body, Lucretius wants to open the path to happiness for man, freeing him from the fear of death, from the fear of the punishments of Tartarus, from all kinds of superstitions and fear of the gods. And for this there is only one, but the right way - knowledge of the true nature of all things (the nature of things). Penetration of a person by reason into the secrets of nature, knowledge of the laws of its development - this is exactly what should free people from various kinds of fears and superstitions. Lucretius insistently repeats his programmatic refrain:

“So, to drive out this fear from the soul and dispel the darkness
Should not be the rays of the sun and not the light of daylight,
But nature itself by its appearance and internal structure"
(Book I, verses 146–148; Book II, verses 59–61; Book III, verses 91–93; Book VI, verses 39–41).

Explaining the theory of the infinity of worlds, which represents one of the brilliant achievements of ancient materialism, Lucretius resorts to vivid images and illustrates his presentation with clear examples:

“...the greedy sea is always renewed
By the waters of rivers; and the earth, warmed by the heat of the sun,
Produces fruit again; and living creatures, being born,
Blooming again; and the lights gliding in the sky do not go out.
All this would have been impossible if it had not been for
From infinity again the reserves of matter forever"
(“On the Nature of Things,” book I, verses 1031 – 1036).

The poem “On the Nature of Things” by Titus Lucretius Cara has high artistic merit and gives readers great aesthetic pleasure. Abstract theoretical reasoning, illustrated with real-life examples, becomes concrete and convincing. Based on the abstract principles of Epicurean natural philosophy, Lucretius recreates before the reader’s gaze a majestic panorama of nature.

The philosophical poem of Lucretius continues the traditions of the didactic genre. It is written in the spirit and poetic meter (hexameter) of the didactic works that preceded it, widely uses techniques characteristic of this genre (comparisons, repetitions, mythological themes, appeals to muses and gods, etc.), and is quite rightly considered the highest achievement of ancient didactics. Lucretius Carus gives a fascinating character to the didactic genre, having managed to find effective forms of relationship between emotional and intellectual communication with the reader.

Titus Lucretius Carus

Ancient Greek atomistic materialism - the most mature form of ancient materialism - received its further development in the teachings of the Roman philosopher Tita Lucretia Cara(around 99-55 BC). in Ancient Rome in the 1st century BC. Lucretius, the spokesman for the ideology and interests of the democratic strata of Roman slave owners, is the largest materialist and atheist of Ancient Rome. In his philosophical work, the poem “On the Nature of Things,” which he presented in poetic form, Lucretius reproduced the content of the teachings of Epicurus and further developed some of its main provisions.

Lucretius saw the task of philosophy in clarifying the nature of things and the nature of consciousness, that is, in giving a holistic picture of the world. The world, according to Lucretius, consists of atoms and emptiness. Atoms are eternal, indestructible moving tiny particles of matter, which are the limit of divisibility of things. Atoms are of no quality; they differ only in size, shape and heaviness. All things in nature are the result of various combinations of atoms moving in emptiness.

Recognition of the existence of emptiness as an indispensable condition that makes the movement of atoms possible is, according to Lucretius, absolutely necessary. He pointed out that we must either reject the movement of atoms, or recognize the existence of emptiness - a necessary condition for their movement. The fact is that Lucretius, like all his predecessors, understood the movement of atoms only as movement, as a change of place. It follows that he knew the movement of matter only in one, its simplest form - the form of mechanical movement of its particles. Taking atoms as the constituent extremely smallest particles of all things, Lucretius considered them internally unchangeable. Movement as the self-motion of matter, as its continuous change, manifested in qualitatively diverse forms, was not and could not have been known to the materialists of the ancient world, including Lucretius. Thus, the limited understanding of motion as simple mechanical movement led the ancient atomists, in this case Lucretius, to recognize the necessity of emptiness. Without the presence of emptiness in nature, Lucretius taught, atoms could not move, regroup, form new things, since there would be only one dense matter everywhere. Therefore, in reality, Lucretius declared, every object contains emptiness. Even those objects, he said, which people consider absolutely dense, are porous, that is, they contain emptiness. Lucretius also explained their property as permeability by the presence of emptiness in objects.

Emptiness, unlike atoms, has no gravity. Therefore, in nature, Lucretius pointed out, there are both objects of large volume and small weight, because they contain a lot of empty space, and objects of small volume, but heavy, because they contain many atoms, but little empty space.

The ancient materialists, including Lucretius, had not yet reached the understanding of matter as an objective reality. Lucretius called material everything that is corporeal, consists of atoms and has the property of influencing everything immediately surrounding and perceiving external influences. Based on this limited understanding of materiality, Lucretius considered, for example, the human soul to be material, and emptiness to be immaterial, since emptiness, in his opinion, although it exists objectively, does not have the properties of the body, does not have an effect on atoms.

Lucretius reproduced Epicurus's brilliant guess about the uniform fall of atoms of different weights in the void. He rejected the view that heavier atoms move in empty space at a higher speed than lighter ones, and therefore fall onto the lighter ones and produce the movements necessary to form things. In reality, Lucretius said, emptiness, by its nature, does not offer resistance to moving atoms. Atoms of different weights, he pointed out, fall in emptiness at the same speed, and heavier ones cannot in any way collide with light ones when falling, change their movement and thus lead to the formation of things. In this regard, Lucretius developed Epicurus's idea that atoms, when falling, spontaneously deviate from a straight line, which leads to the appearance of vortices and the formation of things.

Matter, according to Lucretius, is atoms moving in emptiness. The difference of all things in the world depends on how the atoms in them are connected, what position they occupy and how they move. The qualities of natural objects are objective; they are the result of appropriate combinations and couplings of the atoms that form them. Atoms themselves, before they combine to form things, are devoid of such qualities as color, smell, taste, etc. Atoms are colorless, and therefore it is unacceptable, said Lucretius, to believe, for example, that black things arose from black atoms, and white things from white ones. But, believing that atoms lack the indicated qualities, Lucretius, like Epicurus, unlike Democritus, considered color, sound, etc. not subjective, but objective qualities, the qualities of the objects and processes of nature themselves. Atoms, Lucretius said, have different shapes, therefore, when combined with each other, they form qualitatively diverse things that have a certain color, taste, etc. What is warm or cold, hard or soft in the external world, Lucretius said, must necessarily seem warm or cold, hard or soft to us. Recognition of the objectivity of such qualities as color, taste, smell, etc. is a serious achievement of the atomistic materialism of Epicurus and Lucretius.

In his poem “On the Nature of Things,” Lucretius expressed a brilliant guess about the law of conservation of matter. The amount of matter, atoms, he wrote, is unchanged, it always remains the same. Nothing can be separated from matter or added to it. Matter is eternal. All things in nature are compounds of atoms. Things are temporary, they arise and disappear, disintegrating into atoms, into their primary constituent particles. The eternity of matter, Lucretius said, lies in the fact that nothing can arise from nothing and cannot turn back into nothing.

Of great interest for the history of science is the teaching of Lucretius about space and time, which he characterized as objective forms of their existence inextricably linked with things. Space, Lucretius said, is the place occupied by atoms and their compounds - things. The eternal universe, consisting of atoms and emptiness, is limitless. In no direction, wrote Lucretius, neither up nor down, neither right nor left, are there any boundaries of the Universe, and therefore there is no middle point. Time, according to Lucretius, is not inherent in atoms, since they are unchangeable and eternal, but it is inherent in things consisting of atoms, as well as natural phenomena. It is impossible to perceive time by itself with the senses, without connection with the movement or rest of things, for time does not exist by itself, but in things and processes of nature. Therefore, the question of time is, Lucretius argued, a question of the past or future of certain things and events.

Lucretius took a materialistic approach to the question of human consciousness. Proving the materiality of the world, he considered spiritual processes, sensuality and consciousness, to be material. The soul (sensuality) and reason (consciousness), according to the teachings of Lucretius, are just as material and consist of atoms, like other bodies. The difference, for example, between the soul and the body, Lucretius, like Epicurus, saw only in the fact that the soul, in his opinion, consists of smaller, more mobile, round and smooth atoms compared to the atoms that make up ordinary bodies.

The soul and reason, Lucretius said, are bodily in nature, because they perceive external influences and themselves influence the human body. The spirit (soul and mind) and body always exist in unity. A body without a spirit cannot feel, a spirit without a body cannot make any movements. The spirit, together with our body, said Lucretius, is born, grows, ages and dies. Proving that along with the death of a person’s body, his soul also dies and dissipates into individual atoms, Lucretius criticized Plato’s idealistic theory of immortality and the transmigration of souls. In his poem “On the Nature of Things” he wrote about this:

“...If the soul has an immortal nature

And it settles in us, introducing itself into the body at birth,

Then why don’t we remember the past life,

Do we not preserve traces of events that happened before?

For if the spirit's ability could change so greatly,

That he completely lost memory of everything that had passed,

This, I think, differs little from death.

And therefore we must make sure that the former souls

They were bent, and the one that now exists was now born.”

Thus, justifying the organic unity of body and soul, Lucretius noted that the soul arises simultaneously with the birth of a person and dies with his death.

Lucretius did not recognize the universal animation of matter. He believed that the soul (sensibility) is a property that is not inherent in everyone, but only in a certain way organized parts of matter.

With their monistic solution to the question of matter and consciousness, their unshakable recognition of the materiality of the world, the ancient atomists dealt serious blows to idealism. At the same time, it should be noted that their specific solution to the problem of the relationship between matter and consciousness, material and spiritual, was limited and left a loophole for idealists. Considering the soul to be the same material as the human body, the ancient atomists did not reach a correct understanding of the qualitative difference between consciousness and matter and their actual relationship as secondary and primary. This weak link in the teachings of the ancient materialists was seized upon by their opponents - the idealists, who so inflated the specificity of consciousness, its active, effective side, that they began to portray consciousness as something primordial, primary in relation to matter.

In the poem “On the Nature of Things,” Lucretius gave the most complete statement of the foundations of the theory of knowledge of atomistic materialism. The purpose of knowledge, according to Lucretius, is to reveal the nature of things and free man from the shackles of superstition and religious ideas about the world. Lucretius cast aside all doubts about the possibility of knowing the world. Unshakably adhering to the point of view of the knowability of the world, he opposed skepticism and wrote that skeptics, by always denying certainty in everything, deprive themselves of the opportunity to have any concept of knowledge or ignorance, of knowability or unknowability, of truth or error. Whoever declares, Lucretius said, that knowledge is unthinkable, also does not know whether it is possible to know that nothing can be known, that is, the very statement of the skeptic about the unknowability of the world already contains his refutation. Based on the knowability of the world, Lucretius believed that knowledge is carried out through the senses and reason (consciousness).

Correctly asserting that the source of human knowledge is the external world, Lucretius, following Democritus and Epicurus, painted the following naive materialistic picture of the process of cognition. In the air surrounding a person, subtle imprints and images that remain similar to the corresponding objects fly, separated from the surface of objects in the external world. These images, acting on the senses, excite them and cause various sensations in the human soul: visual, sound, taste, olfactory and tactile. The reason for vision, for example, said Lucretius, is rooted in visual images separated from objects, which evoke corresponding visual sensations in a person. The very images of objects flying freely in the air are extremely thin, light and fast, and therefore they are not visible to humans. A person sees through the penetration of these images into the senses. For example, Lucretius said, we see Leo because his image flies into our eyes. It is quite obvious that this naive materialist theory of images of things as external causes that evoke corresponding sensations in a person represents the embryo of the subsequently developed materialist theory of reflection.

Lucretius believed that human senses give correct indications about the existence and properties of things and processes in the external world. He consistently defended the doctrine of reliable sensory data as a source of knowledge, and resolutely opposed any statements that expressed distrust in the testimony of the senses. Data from the senses, Lucretius taught, are generally always reliable. From them we develop concepts of truth. There is nothing more reliable in the world than feelings, he said. If the testimony of the senses were unreliable, then all the conclusions of our reason would necessarily become false, and this would make both the adaptation of man to the environment and the very existence of people impossible.

Lucretius noted that the true nature of things is known by man on the basis of the testimony of the senses, processed through the activity of reason (thinking). For example, with the help of the organ of vision - the eye, a person sees things - compounds of atoms, but does not see the atoms themselves, knowledge about which is acquired through thinking. By comprehending sensory data, we come to establish the true nature of the observed phenomena. These true conclusions of ours are possible only because they are based on reliable evidence from the senses.

In resolving issues of morality and religion, Lucretius was also a follower of Epicurus. His ethics are based on the proposition that human happiness lies in a moderate lifestyle and peace of mind.

Lucretius was the most prominent atheist of Ancient Rome. In his poem “On the Nature of Things” he gave a comprehensive criticism of religion. Lucretius considered religion to be a product of human ignorance, the result of people's ignorance of the laws of nature and their fear of the elements. Not understanding that nature is eternal, he said, people began to attribute its emergence to supernatural forces, their invented gods. Not knowing the material essence of the soul, people began to consider it immortal, and at the same time fear eternal torment after death. Unable to explain the natural origin of natural phenomena, for example the change of seasons, etc., ignorant people began to claim that everything in nature happens according to the will of the gods. Lucretius passionately debunked such claims and wrote that they brought nothing to humanity except tears and suffering:

“Oh, unfortunate human race! Such phenomena

He could attribute merciless wrath to the gods and assign them!

How many groans did he have, how many ulcers did it cause us,

It brought so many tears to our children and grandchildren!”

Lucretius was unshakably convinced that nature is eternal and develops according to its own natural laws, that the gods are invented by people and are the product of their spontaneous creativity.

Lucretius's criticism of religion also suffered from significant shortcomings. Not knowing the social roots of religion, seeing the reasons for its emergence and existence only in the minds of people, Lucretius, like all materialists before Marx, considered the only means of getting rid of religious superstitions to be the revelation of the secrets of nature, the dissemination of knowledge about the essence of things.

The materialist philosophy of Lucretius represents the most complete exposition of ancient atomistic materialism. His poem “On the Nature of Things” completed the development of materialism in the ancient world.