2-1-Q The Swerve Chp. 8 Greenblatt
2 interesting
- Still one of the most interesting things from this book is the fact that thousands of years ago, the idea of everything be made of the same matter as everything else is amazing. Despite no tools at the time to truly be able to concretely observe this in action, they used such reasoning deduction to understand the world around them, rather than fear the unknown, as the people in Poggio’s time seemed to. On page 185, it talks about how Lucretius deduces that the world is made of matter, stating “Everything is made of invisible particles… Everything is formed of these seeds (referring to matter, or ‘atoms’) and, on dissolution, returns to them in the end.” It is amazing that what took us till the 1800’s to prove, was philosophically thought of back in 400 BCE. Now, we have them to thank for all of our basic understanding of the building blocks of the universe, life, and everything.
- Many of Lucretius’ ideas are heavily based on atheism, or at the very least, an idea that god is not everything. From pages 188 to 196 have more than a handful of anti-church, anti-christian ideas in them. For instance, page 189, “The swerve is the source of all free will.” This directly clashes against the christian idea that free will is given to everyone human by god himself, instead stating that free will is random, given to us by the atoms smashing around inside of our bodies, and all living creatures with free will as well. Another example, on page 190, “The universe was not created for or about humans.” He states that the dangerous world humans inhabit, as well as the fact that, unlike most animals, human babies are completely helpless on their own. As Lucretius describes, “…how a baby, like a shipwrecked sailor flung ashore by fierce waves, ‘lies on the ground naked, speechless, and utterly helpless as soon as nature has cast it forth with pangs of labor from its mother’s womb into the shores of light.'” (page 190) This obviously goes against the idea that the earth, the universe, and everything was created for mankind by god through reasoning that we obviously only exist because we evolved in a way that put us at the top of the food chain. I think his most brave idea is the idea that “There is no afterlife.” (page 193) This is practically a spit in the face of all christians, as he goes on to say that there is no reason to fear death. for there is nothing after, and instead you should focus on living your life to the fullest for it is all you shall receive.
1 connection
Lucretius says that he does not believe god doesn’t exist, just that god ignores humans and their troubles for it does not concern God in his omnipotence. It reminds me of how Neil deGrasse Tyson is a philosopher scientist, and yet he considers himself an agnostic, which means he doesn’t believe god truly cares for humans at all, and rather lives in ignorance or neglect. This can be seen, as he describes it, through the horrible offenses committed against human kind through natural disasters and diseases. It’s interesting to see that even thousands of years later, we still believe in the same ideologies as they once did.
Question?
How exactly does Poggio respond to the text he has received and how do his friends and subordinates respond as well?
