Matters of Life and Death

Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe

Important information before you start:

The course reader includes all of On the Nature of the Universe book III. You only need to read the passages indicated by the marginal numbers in the greensheet. To make these easier to find, I've marked the passages with brackets. (For example, the first passage, III.26-95, runs from the bottom of page 67 to the middle of page 69.)
Lucretius is an atomist. He thinks all that exists in the universe is atoms (little bits of matter) and void (empty space). This means people are just composed of matter and empty space. Understanding atomism will help you understand Lucretius' take on what death really is to a human being.
Finally, Lucretius is an Epicurean. He thinks that the only things that are good are those that bring us awareness of pleasure, and the only things that are bad are those that bring us awareness of pain.

Here are some questions to help guide your reading of these selections.

According to Lucretius, how is spirit related to body?
According to Lucretius, what happens when we die?
According to Lucretius, why do we fear death (i.e., why do we think it's bad for us)?
According to Lucretius, why is death really nothing to worry about? (Why does he claim that such worrying is actually bad for us?)
Do you disagree with Lucretius' claims or conclusions? How?

Strategy for reading these selections:

Read the questions before you start reading the assigned passages so you know what to pay attention to.
When you see a part of the reading that seems to relate to one of the questions, write down the question, the page number, and the answer you think you're getting from this passage.
If you can, try to give the author's answers to the questions in your own words.
Jot down quotations that you find especially striking -- whether because they seem exactly right, dead wrong, or very hard to understand.
Also, jot down words or phrases in the passages whose meanings you don't know.
Finally, after you have read the whole assignment, go back to the questions and try to give at least a partial answer to each. (Don't go back to particular sentences you underlined for this -- try to answer based on what has stayed with you from the reading.)

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