John Masson - "The Atomic Theory of Epicurus"

Interesting name of the author - How could his name be so similar to this translator?

The nature of things: a didactic poem : Lucretius Carus, Titus : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

In blank verse

archive.org

1 "s" versus 2 "s" , and eighty years apart. Must be pure coincidence. Never heard of the one you posted Tau Phi so thanks

I note this on page 317 of "Lucretius, Epicurean and Poet," which may give an indication of the writer's perspective. Note the characterization of Epicurus as having ".... a system hardly deserving to be called a philosophy."

Lucretius, epicurean and poet : Masson, John : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Includes bibliographical references and index

archive.org

Quote

In Democritus we recognize not merely a keener intellect, but also, in almost every way, a nobler, fuller, and stronger nature than that of Epicurus. It is only the passionate sympathy of Epicurus with the suffering, with the ignorant, and those who through their ignorance are deceived and terrified, with all who are sore beaten by the storms of life, which alone relieves a system hardly deserving to be called a philosophy.

I've moved this thread into the general Books area so that it will be more findable. It does look to me like there is a lot of good material here on Epicurus' Atomism.

Quote from Cassius

Quote

In Democritus we recognize not merely a keener intellect, but also, in almost every way, a nobler, fuller, and stronger nature than that of Epicurus. It is only the passionate sympathy of Epicurus with the suffering, with the ignorant, and those who through their ignorance are deceived and terrified, with all who are sore beaten by the storms of life, which alone relieves a system hardly deserving to be called a philosophy.

That's a bold statement about a historical figure for whom we have no original works.

Sounds like the author is projecting his own narrative onto history.

yep!

"a nobler, fuller, and stronger nature"

Hard to say what that is even about, but it moves the book significantly down on my "to-read" list.

That question mark in the margin is really doing it for me!

The discussion of teleology that previously was here has been split off into a separate thread:

Thread

Epicurean Views of "Teleology"

Admin Ediit: This thread was split off from a discussion of a book by John Masson on atomism

[…]

Here's a sentiment I can fully endorse, and it might reveal a weakness of our presentation here at the forum. We need to find a way to clearly address Aristotle's teleology! If Lucretius' objection to what DeWitt calls "Purposiveness" in Nature is not of first-tier importance, as are those doctrines in the image below, then it certainly merits a place in any proposed second-tier list of doctrines.

[…]

Joshua

March 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM