Great Books II Study Questions for Assignment
7 Lucretius,
The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura, or On The Nature of Things) Books
1-3
- This is an epic poem. How should an epic be read?
What epic conventions does Lucretius follow? (Example: see top of 24, bottom of
25)
- Why does Lucretius begin with an invocation to the
Muse? Who is the Muse? Why her?
- Pages 21-22 What is Lucretius's attitude toward
religion?
- Page 24 By what will our darkness of mind be dispelled?
How will it do this?
- What are the two basic postulates of Lucretius's
atomism? In other words, of what are all things
by-products?
- Pages 52-53 What is the good life according to
Lucretius? How does this contrast with the stereotype of Epicurean hedonism? (Is
this "eat, drink, and be merry"?)
- Pages 58-60 How do atoms and void give rise to all
things? Where does free will come from?
- 87-88 What is the root cause of human
vices?
- Pages 110-114 Why is death nothing to us? 114-118 What
is hell?
- Why does Lucretius use poetry to set forth his
philosophy? (87, 119, etc.)
- Given his example on 119, what good might we take
away from his poem when his philosophy is so
erroneous?
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