Search results for "Lucretiu"

Seneca on the Mother Cow: Poetic Models and Natural Philosophy in the Consolation to Marcia

2020

Seneca’s Consolation to Marcia embraces the orthodox Stoic view that, when unduly protracted, grief reflects a logical misunderstanding of the natural world, human life, and the limits of the self. Seneca is aware that persuading Marcia to leave her false beliefs is the only way to reawaken her interest in communal life, family reciprocity, and constructive memory. He conceives his consolatory writing as an intellectually engaging didactic work tailored to the needs and disposition of his addressee. The main purpose of the present paper is to show that in this and several other respects the Consolation to Marcia makes a conscious move towards the different but evidently related genre of did…

Between Atoms and Humours. Lucretius' Didactic Poetry as a Model of Integrated and Bifocal Physiology

2012

Lucretius has often been regarded as one of the fathers of modern science, and also in recent years several studies have explored his influence far beyond a merely literary perspective. In this paper I analyse specifically the importance of the poet's 'eclectic' attitude in physiology from the point of view of his 'Fortleben' in early modern thought. I suggest that the typical eclectic combination of physics and biology, atomism and macroscopy, which the 'De rerum natura' shows in its didactic structure both through its images and even more through its conscious scientific reflection, built an attractive basis for attempts in the modern period at harmonising corpuscularian theories and qual…

Epicureanism

2019

A brief sketch of the reception of Epicureanism in early modern natural philosophy and metaphysics (15th-18th centuries)

Coming to Know Epicurus’ Truth: Distributed Cognition in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura

2020

Until recently, Descartes' idea that the human mind is, by definition, a non-extended entity (res cogitans, non extensa), enclosed in the body but constitutionally different from common bodily and external realities, found wide acceptance among students of cognitive sciences. But in the past few years the barriers between outer and inner worlds have begun to blur, projecting the process of cognition as a complex distributed phenomenon. According to the so-called distributed cognition thesis (and its more “radical” version, the extended mind hypothesis), “the thinker in this world is a very special medium that can provide coordination among many structured media – some internal, some externa…

Seneca on the Nature of Things: Moral Concerns and Theories of Matter in Natural Questions 6

2017

It is generally recognized that Lucretius' treatment of earthquakes and pestilences (6.535-607; 1090-1286) exerted great influence on Book 6 of Seneca's Natural Questions. But while a large consensus exists that both authors tend to emphasize the moral value of scientific knowledge, further research is needed with respect to Seneca's “technical” re-use of Epicurean physics and meteorology. In the present paper, I shall address this issue in three stages. First, I will analyze the structure and intellectual goals of Seneca's “doxographic” review of seismological theories (6.5-20). Far from being a doxographic account sensu proprio, such a careful review constructs the inspiring image of an i…

Review of M. Beretta, La rivoluzione culturale di Lucrezio. Filosofia e scienza nell'antica Roma (Rome: Carocci, 2015)

2018

By reviewing Marco Beretta's recent book on Lucretius' "cultural revolution" and its intellectual foundations, the present article re-assesses several key issues of the current debate about the literary, philosophical, and scientific value of De Rerum Natura.

Lucretius Franco-Hibernicus: Dicuil’s Liber de Astronomia and the Carolingian Reception of De Rerum Natura

2020

Abstract Since its coinage in the nineteenth century, the concept of Carolingian renaissance has been primarily based on the revival of classical texts promoted by Charlemagne and his successors. Among the positive consequences of Carolingian classicism is the careful—if discreet—preservation of the text of Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura, which survives in three valuable ninth-century manuscripts. Whereas rigorous philological studies of these manuscripts have been offered, little attention has been paid to their role in, and connection with, the reception of Lucretius in ninth-century literature. It has been generally assumed that for the Carolingians the DRN was essentially a source for gram…

Non est pura voluptas. Fisiologia e psicopatologia dell’amplesso in Kafka e Lucrezio

2015

Due brani del romanzo di Kafka Il castello descrivono gli amplessi del protagonista K. con una servetta dell’ostello presso cui egli si trova ospitato. Le due scene e le espressioni usate dallo scrittore per descriverle rimandano a due noti brani del De rerum natura di Lucrezio. Non è facile stabilire se si tratti di una ripresa consapevole (l’“arte allusiva” di Pasquali) o di una semplice reminiscenza, ma la circostanza costituisce in ogni caso la testimonianza di un’affinità spirituale fra i due autori. Two passages from Kafka's novel The Castle describe the embraces of the protagonist K. with a servant of the hostel where he is staying. The two scenes and the expressions used by the writ…

Su alcune imitazioni di Lucrezio in un capitolo dei Florida apuleiani

1999

A View from the Garden: Contemplative Isolation and Constructive Sociability in Lucretius and in the Epicurean Tradition

2021

It is often assumed that Epicurean philosophy and its foremost Roman prophet, T. Lucretius Carus, adopted a deeply hostile attitude towards both politics and religion. Individualistic (or even solipsistic) interpretations of Epicureanism – as well as of the Epicurean catechism of De Rerum Natura – have long co-existed with, and provided support to, the claim that the Epicureans attached little value to religious experiences. In the present paper, I shall argue that, in this and many other respects, the modern reception of Epicureanism – with its brave aspirations after the liberation of science from social and religious restraints – has had undue influence on our understanding of De Rerum N…