De Rervm Natvra: Libri Sex (Oxford Classical Texts Series)

Rating:
Summary: The Pinnacle of Human Intelligence
Review: If there is anything that de Rerum Natura proves,and in the most brilliant fashion, it is that a few men who lived more than two thousand years ago, before the scientific advances of modern times, before Copernicus, Newton and Darwin, were in fact much more intelligent than billions of people living nowadays...
For people nowadays, billions of them,still believe in what ignorant people believed three thousand years ago;namely that God created the "heavens" and earth in six days,that man was created by God independently of other animals, that there was a place called the garden of Eden in which a couple called Adam and Eve lived blissfully, until they were ousted for having transgressed a prescription about not eating a forbidden fruit,that there is a place called Heaven where a supreme being called Jeovah by some, God by others and yet Allah by a third group, is sitting on a throne and waiting to judge humanity on Judgement day...And those who fall out of favor will be sent to a place called Hell,appropriately situated at the center of the earth, where it is really hot!All those who believe in these old notions fail to see that they were born at an age where it was thought that the earth was actually the center of the Universe, a Universe consisting of seven spheres, one for each known planet, and a last sphere, the one for the fixed stars...Heaven and Hell were actually physical places, but where do we place them now?And what place is there, in the post-Darwinian age,in the age of the DNA, for a "soul" that survives independently from the body?Mankind is truly strange: even the ruler of the most powerful and technologically advanced state on earth believes in all these superstitions, and in many others...
And you still doubt that Epicurus and Lucretius were far more intelligent than most modern humans???
Read de Rerum Natura, and you will be convinced,like me, that it was written by a man who has reached the pinnacle of human intelligence.

Rating:
Summary: The best Lucretius
Review: Lucretius isn't an author most come across, but nevertheless the DE RERVM NATVRA is truly a classic. In it he explains his version of epicureanism, taken from Epicurus and tweaked by Lucretius himself. Don't think our word 'epicurean' and this epicureanism are the same thing: epicurean has taken on a set of meanings that usually aren't present in the early philosophy, or in Lucretius's laying-out of it. Epicureanism should appeal to moderns as a very scientific view of the universe (L. offers scientific explanations of natural phaenomena, and isn't afraid to suspend judgement), including early atomic theory. On the other hand, the poetry and storytelling are moving. It is philosophy rimmed with the honey of poetry (as Lucretius puts it himself). As per this edition, it's pricey, but well worth it to completely understand the poet. The book itself is handsome and just the right size, and layed out well. The commentary is actually useful, unlike so many classical commentaries. It's advanced, but doesn't neglect or take for granted too much. At the same time, it doesn't concentrate on matters with a specialistic or only tenuous connection to the poem. In all, this is the place to study Lucretius, and to read a beautiful poem containing a beautiful (because thoughtful and insightful) philosophy.