Introduction

This introductory chapter provides a background of Lucretius' life as poet and philosopher. It is important to know the elements of Epicurus' philosophy before embarking on the study of Lucretius. Epicurus adopted the Atomist philosophy. The essentials of the Atomist theory are very simple: everything that exists is material, and matter consists of tiny indivisible particles known as atoms. Epicurus' ethical system rested on his physics; if one is made up of atoms just like everything else, then the surest way to happiness is to recognise one's true state and live within one's physical means. If pleasure consists in the liberation from pain, then the ultimate pleasure will be in the total freedom from pain, which is divine ataraxia or serenity. This gives one an idea of the enormous ambition of the De Rerum Natura, a poem whose subject is everything and whose object is the liberation of man from pain. The chapter then explores the structure of the fourth book of the De Rerum Natura. Throughout the book, the reader is presented with the limitations of human experience and also the freedom to transcend them: thus, there is a long section explaining the physical nature of sensation, such that all perception, and even thought, is circumscribed by the images available and by one's tendency to misjudge things.