Lucretius On The Nature Of Things Analysis

Many people began philosophizing problems about the world and creating a new way of thinking during the time of Ancient Greece. One of the earliest atomists, Lucretius, demonstrates his philosophy by rejecting religion as the explanation of creation and simply argues that matter and void make up the universe. Throughout his poem On the Nature of Things, Lucretius lets insight on his philosophy, but also demonstrates an instance of fallacy. As an atheist, Lucretius argues against religion as the primal explanation of how things come to be. For example, “The gods never made a single thing out of nothing” (Lucretius 1). The statement suggests that there is a better explanation for how things come into being. Lucretius argues that nothing is the work of the gods, …show more content…
If every individual thing in the world could be destroyed, then over time everything should have been destroyed. However, things currently exist. Therefore, somethings in the universe cannot be destroyed, known as atoms (Lucretius 3). Lucretius believes that the existence of atoms are invisible to the human eye. Through the use of argument by analogy, he uses an example of the winds and the waters to help strengthen his argument. First, rivers are made of visible physical atoms. Second, rivers are able to move, destroy, and re-arrange other physical objects. Winds are also able to perform the same actions as rivers. According to Lucretius, things that move, destroy, or re-arrange physical objects are physical objects. He concludes that the winds are made up of physical bodies and assumes that only physical things can move, destroy, or re-arrange other things. However, we cannot see the physical bodies that make up the wind. Things are either visible or invisible, and if we cannot see something, then it is invisible. Therefore, winds are made up of invisible atoms (Lucretius

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