Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy > Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy > Epicureans > Lucretius

Lucretius

Edited by Sean McConnell (University of Otago)

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Summary

Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 – 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. He is author of the Latin epic poem De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), comprised of six books in hexameter verse that address topics in Epicurean philosophy, including the atomic theory, the nature of the gods, freewill and determinism, the nature of mind and soul, sensation and thought, cosmogony, how the physical world is ordered and regulated, and the development of human civilization. The poem is a key source for our knowledge of Epicureanism and it had a major impact on Western thought in the Enlightenment and early modern period.

Key works

The most accessible English translation of Lucretius’ De rerum natura, with facing Latin text, is the Loeb edition of W. H. D. Rouse (revised M . F. Smith) Rouse & Smith 1975. There is also a verse translation by R. Melville in the Oxford World’s Classics Series with a good introduction by D. P. Fowler Melville & Fowler 1999. The collected papers in Algra et al 1997, Gale 2007, and Gillespie & Hardie 2007 highlight a range of literary and philosophical approaches to Lucretius.

Introductions	David Sedley offers the best introductory article on Lucretius Sedley 2013.

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Epicurus (921)
Philodemus (166)
Epicureans, Misc (226)

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See Also Corpuscularianism.Diego Jose Abad, Aemilius Macer, Mark Akenside, Luigi Alamanni, Aldus Manutius, William Alexander, Ara Pacis & Matthew Arnold - 2007 - In Stuart Gillespie & Philip R. Hardie (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Lucretius. Cambridge University Press.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lukrez Und der Mythos.Erich Ackermann - 1979details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds: A History of Philosophy Wthout Any Gaps, Volume 2.Peter Adamson - 2015 - Oxford University Press UK.details
Peter Adamson offers an accessible, humorous tour through a period of eight hundred years when some of the most influential of all schools of thought were formed. He introduces us to Cynics and Skeptics, Epicureans and Stoics, emperors and slaves, and traces the development of early Christian philosophy and of ancient science. A major theme of the book is in fact the competition between pagan and Christian philosophy in this period, and the Jewish tradition appears in the shape of Philo (...)
Aristotelian Commentators in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Middle Platonists in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Neoplatonists in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Peripatetics in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Stoics in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. [REVIEW]Thomas W. Africa - 1979 - International Studies in Philosophy 11:213-214.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Die Platonische Zahl Und Einige Conjecturen Zu Platon, Sowie Zu Lukrez.Georg Albert - 1896 - A. Hölder.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
The Epicurean Theory of Law and Justice.Antonina Alberti - 1995 - In André Laks & Malcolm Schofield (eds.), Justice and Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy: Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Cambridge University Press. pp. 161--90.details
Epicureans, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
The religious paradigm: Lucretius and the critique of religion as an instrument of power.Roman Alcala - 1996 - Endoxa 7:115-133.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius and His Intellectual Background, Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.K. A. Algra, M. H. Koenen & P. H. Schrijvers - 1997details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Hellenistic Philosophy. [REVIEW]Keimpe Algra - 2000 - Phronesis 45 (1):77-86.details
Epicureans, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Stoics, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Walking Images: Epicurean Catoptrics in Lucretius DRN IV 318-323.Keimpe Algra - 1999 - Elenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 20 (2):359-380.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Aristotle and Hellenistic Philosophy. [REVIEW]Keimpe Algra - 1998 - Phronesis 44 (2):150-161.details
Aristotle, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Philodemus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Stoics, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius and the Epicurean Other.Keimpe Algra - 1997 - In Keimpe Algra, M. H. Koenen & P. H. Schrijvers (eds.), Lucretius and his Intellectual Background. Koninklijke Nederlandse Adademie Van Wetenschappen.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius and His Intellectual Background: [Proceedings of the Colloquium, Amsterdam, 26-28 June 1996].Keimpe Algra, M. H. Koenen & P. H. Schrijvers (eds.) - 1997 - Koninklijke Nederlandse Adademie Van Wetenschappen.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Poetry in Aesthetics
Lucretius, D.R.N. 5.948.Archibald Allen - 1996 - Classical Quarterly 46 (1):304-305.details
In his account of primitive people in D.R.N. 5 Lucretius says that they led a wandering, nomadic sort of existence ; ignorant of agriculture and husbandry, they were content to eat nuts and berries and the like, while streams and springs called them to quench their thirst : denique nota vagis silvestria templa tenebant nympharum… The rest of the sentence is a lush description of the streams which welled up from those woodland shrines, washing over rocks and moss, and sometimes (...) breaking out over the plain. (shrink)
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius, D.R.N. 5.948.Archibald Allen - 1996 - Classical Quarterly 46 (01):304-.details
In his account of primitive people in D.R.N. 5 Lucretius says that they led a wandering, nomadic sort of existence ; ignorant of agriculture and husbandry, they were content to eat nuts and berries and the like , while streams and springs called them to quench their thirst : denique nota vagis silvestria templa tenebant nympharum… The rest of the sentence is a lush description of the streams which welled up from those woodland shrines, washing over rocks and moss, and (...)
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius' Laughing Shoes.Archibald Allen - 1976 - Hermes 104 (2):247.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind.Julia E. Annas - 1992 - University of California Press.details
"Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind" is an elegant survey of Stoic and Epicurean ideas about the soul an introduction to two ancient schools whose belief in the soul's physicality offer compelling parallels to modern approaches in the ...
Chrysippus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Stoics: Metaphysics and Physics in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Affirmative Naturalism : Deleuze and Epicurianism.Keith Ansell-Pearson - unknowndetails
In this essay I explore the nature of Deleuze’s commitment to an affirmative naturalism that is based on certain Epicurean principles and insights. The essay is divided into two main parts. In the first part I bring to light some of the key features of Lucretius’s great poem on the nature of things, and I do so with the aid of Bergson and his reading of the teaching as fundamentally melancholic. In the second part I switch my attention to Deleuze (...)
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Affirmative Naturalism: Deleuze and Epicureanism.Keith Ansell-Pearson - 2014 - Cosmos and History 10 (2):121-137.details
In this essay I explore the nature of Deleuze’s commitment to an affirmative naturalism that is based on certain Epicurean principles and insights. The essay is divided into two main parts. In the first part I bring to light some of the key features of Lucretius’s great poem on the nature of things, and I do so with the aid of Bergson and his reading of the teaching as fundamentally melancholic. In the second part I switch my attention to Deleuze (...)
Gilles Deleuze in Continental Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Thomas Sprat's 'The Plague of Athens': Thucydides, Lucretius and the 'Pindaric Way'.Raymond A. Anselment - 1996 - Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 78 (1):3-20.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Epicureans on Marriage as Sexual Therapy.Kelly Arenson - 2016 - Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 2 (33):291-311.details
This paper argues that although Epicureans will never marry for love, they may find it therapeutic to marry for sex: Epicureans may marry in order to limit anxiety about securing a sexual partner if they are prone to such anxiety and if they believe their prospective partner will satisfy them sexually. The paper shows that Epicureans believe that the process of obtaining sex can be a major source of anxiety, that it is acceptable for the sage to marry under certain (...)
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Epicurus and Lucretius on Sex, Love and Marriage.B. Arkins - 1984 - Apeiron 18 (2):141 - 143.details
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Epicurean Justice.John Armstrong - 1997 - Phronesis 42 (3):324-334.details
Epicurus is one of the first social contract theorists, holding that justice is an agreement neither to harm nor be harmed. He also says that living justly is necessary and sufficient for living pleasantly, which is the Epicurean goal. Some say that there are two accounts of justice in Epicurus -- one as a personal virtue, the other as a virtue of institutions. I argue that the personal virtue derives from compliance with just social institutions, and so we need to (...)
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Moral Contractarianism in Normative Ethics

The Nature of Justice in Social and Political Philosophy

Virtue Ethics and Eudaimonia in Normative Ethics
Lucretius and the Fears of Death.Peter Aronoff - 1997 - Dissertation, Cornell Universitydetails
The Epicureans argued that death was nothing to us and that we should not fear death, and this thesis takes up these arguments as they appear in our fullest extant source, the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. After an initial look at the general Epicurean theory of emotions, the thesis narrows in on the fears of death. Lucretius starts from a popular dichotomy concerning death: death is either the utter destruction of the person who dies, or the person survives in (...)
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Philodemus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

The Badness of Death in Applied Ethics
Lucretius Poet & Philosopher by E. E. Sikes. [REVIEW]M. Ashley-Montagu - 1937 - Isis: A Journal of the History of Science 27:70-72.details
History of Science in General Philosophy of Science

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius Poet & Philosopher. E. E. Sikes.M. F. Ashley-Montagu - 1937 - Isis 27 (1):70-72.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius' New World Order: Making a Pact with Nature.Elizabeth Asmis - 2008 - Classical Quarterly 58 (1):141-157.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius' New World Order: Making A Pact With Nature.Elizabeth Asmis - 2008 - Classical Quarterly 58 (1):141-157.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius Venus and Stoic Zeus.Elizabeth Asmis - 2007 - In Monica Gale (ed.), Hermes. Oxford University Press. pp. 458-470.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Stoics: Metaphysics and Physics in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Free Action and the Swerve: Review of Walter G. Englert, "Epicurus on the Swerve and Voluntary Action". [REVIEW]Elizabeth Asmis - 1990 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 8:275.details
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Diskin Clay, "Lucretius and Epicurus". [REVIEW]Elizabeth Asmis - 1985 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 23 (3):424.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius and Epicurus.Elizabeth Asmis - 1985 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 23 (3):424-425.details
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Rhetoric and Reason in Lucretius.Elizabeth Asmis - 1983 - Johns Hopkins University Press.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius' Venus and Stoic Zeus.Elizabeth Asmis - 1982 - Hermes 110 (4):458-470.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
The Epicurean Theory of Free Will and its Origins in Aristotle.Elizabeth Asmis - 1970 - Dissertation, Yale Universitydetails
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Reductionism, Rationality and Responsibility: A Discussion of Tim O'Keefe, Epicurus on Freedom.Catherine Atherton - 2007 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 89 (2):192-230.details
O'Keefe's contention that Epicurus devised the atomic swerve to counter a threat to the efficacy of reason posed by the thesis that the future is fixed regardless of what we do, is not supported by the evidence he adduces. Epicurus' own words in On nature XXV, and testimony from Lucretius and Cicero, tell far more strongly in favour of the traditional view, that Epicurus' concerns were causal determinism and its threat to moral responsiblity for our actions and characters.
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius on What Language is Not.Catherine Atherton - 2005 - In Dorothea Frede Brad Inwood (ed.), Language and Learning: Philosophy of Language in the Hellenistic Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 101–38.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Philosophy on Poetry, Philosophy in Poetry.Robin Attfield - 2008 - In Jinfen Yan & David E. Schrader (eds.), Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy. Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 13-19.details
The relations of philosophy and poetry include but are not exhausted by Plato’s hostility to mimetic poetry in the Republic and Aristotle’s defence of it in the Poetics. For poetry has often carried a philosophical message itself, from the work of Chaucer and Milton to that of T.S. Eliot. In yet earlier generations, poetry was chosen as the medium for conveying a philosophical message by (among Greek philosophers) Xenophanes, Parmenides and Empedocles, and (at Rome) by Lucretius, who struggled both with (...)
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Plato: Poetry in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Plato: Republic in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Poetry in Aesthetics
Lucretius Poet and Philosopher. [REVIEW]R. G. Austin - 1936 - The Classical Review 50 (4):132-132.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucretius the Poet E. E. Sikes: Lucretius Poet and Philosopher. Pp. Ix + 187. Cambridge: University Press, 1936. Cloth, 7s. 6d. [REVIEW]R. G. Austin - 1936 - The Classical Review 50 (04):132-.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Nequid or Nequod in Lucretius.I. Avotins - 1998 - Mnemosyne 51 (5):585-590.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
The Question of Mens in Lucretius 2.289.I. Avotins - 1979 - Classical Quarterly 29 (01):95-.details
One of the most widely accepted emendations in Lucretius has been the change by Lambinus in 2.289 of the manuscript reading res to mens. For instance, of the major editors since Lachmann only Bockemüller, Merrill in his 1917 edition, and Martin in his Teubner editions have printed res. Also, few emendations in Lucretius are of equal significance for Epicurean doctrine because, as will be shown, some conclusions of important recent scholarship depend on the acceptance of the reading mens.
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
The Question of Mens in Lucretius 2.289.I. Avotins - 1979 - Classical Quarterly 29 (1):95-100.details
One of the most widely accepted emendations in Lucretius has been the change by Lambinus in 2.289 of the manuscript reading res to mens. For instance, of the major editors since Lachmann only Bockemüller, Merrill in his 1917 edition, and Martin in his Teubner editions have printed res. Also, few emendations in Lucretius are of equal significance for Epicurean doctrine because, as will be shown, some conclusions of important recent scholarship depend on the acceptance of the reading mens.
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
On Some Epicurean and Lucretian Arguments for the Infinity of the Universe.Ivars Avotins - 1983 - Classical Quarterly 33 (02):421-.details
As is well known, Epicurus and his followers held that the universe was infinite and f that its two primary components, void and atoms, were each infinite. The void was infinite in extension, the atoms were infinite in number and their total was infinite also in extension. The chief Epicurean proofs of these infinities are found in Epicurus, Ad Herod. 41–2, and in Lucretius 1.951–1020. As far as I can see, both the commentators to these works and writers on Epicurean (...)
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
On Some Epicurean and Lucretian Arguments for the Infinity of the Universe.Ivars Avotins - 1983 - Classical Quarterly 33 (2):421-427.details
As is well known, Epicurus and his followers held that the universe was infinite and f that its two primary components, void and atoms, were each infinite. The void was infinite in extension, the atoms were infinite in number and their total was infinite also in extension. The chief Epicurean proofs of these infinities are found in Epicurus, Ad Herod. 41–2, and in Lucretius 1.951–1020. As far as I can see, both the commentators to these works and writers on Epicurean (...)
Epicurus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Lucrezio. By Vittorio Enzo Alfieri. Pp. 222; Reproduction of Frontispiece of Lambinus' Lucretius, 1563. Florence: Felicele Monnier, 1929. [REVIEW]C. Bailey - 1929 - The Classical Review 43 (06):242-.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Duff's Lucretius I T. Lucreti Cari de Rerum Natura Liber Primus. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Index, by J. D. Duff, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. One Vol. Pp. Xxvi + 136. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1923. 4s. [REVIEW]C. Bailey - 1923 - The Classical Review 37 (5-6):119-120.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Duff's Lucretius I. [REVIEW]C. Bailey - 1923 - The Classical Review 37 (5-6):119-120.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
A New Verse Translation of Lucretius Lucretius on the Nature of Things. Translated From Latin Into English Verse by Sir Robert Allison. Arthur L. Humphreys. 1919. 7s. 6d. [REVIEW]C. Bailey - 1920 - The Classical Review 34 (5-6):118-120.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
A New Verse Translation Of Lucretius. [REVIEW]C. Bailey - 1920 - The Classical Review 34 (5-6):118-120.details
Lucretius in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

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