On the Nature of Things
It was a treat finally to read Lucretius's masterpiece, "On the Nature of Things" ("De Rerum Natura"). I knew it was an exposition of atomism, but I didn't know what to expect in the way of reasoning behind or developement of the idea. It is actually a poem, and, thanks to the excellent translation, the writing style makes it easier to understand rather than more difficult. (I can't imagine trying to tackle it in Latin, however.) It was written explicitly to argue against religion; right at the beginning, Lucretius makes clear that he thinks religion is nonsense and he is going to prove it by explaining physical phenomena without reference to the gods. The central argument of his explanation is that the world is composed of atoms, and he can use atoms to explain everything from a purely physical point of view. It is truly extraordinary to see how far reason can work out things about the physical world even when observations are made at such a gros...