1 of 15

Write now Article Tools

Knowledge is empirical. Everything that we now know has been built on what has gone before. If we reach back far enough into ancient history what was knowledge then was as often as not the product of a fertile imagination, albeit probably of pure genius since only the learned and gifted in those days were literate. Albert Einstein once said, "I value my gift of imagination more than I value my gift for acquiring new knowledge." It is in the episteme of poets and philosophers of old that we find the beginnings of our own knowledge. An important one of these was an independent investigator of nature, a poet who lived just before the time of Christ.

Titus Lucretius Carus lived in Rome between 99 BC and 55 BC. He is famous for the only poem that he appears to have authored, titled "On the Nature of Things" (sometimes translated "On the Nature of the Universe"). Not much is known about his life but that he was probably patronized by one Gaius Memmius, a rogue Tribune known for rigging elections and making questionable deals. Lucretius was a zealous follower of Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher who taught that nothing should be believed except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction. Epicurus taught that the Universe was infinite and eternal, that the gods have no hand in the affairs of men but that the motions and interactions of atoms are the determinants of the world's events. Memmius is reported by Cicero to have owned the estate on which the ruins of Epicurus' house stood, and upon which he intended to build. It was probably this fact that sparked the relationship between Lucretius and Memmius, to whom his epic work is addressed.

Lucretius was not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination but he was a true master of the written word and a poet of substantial talent who through logical analysis hints often albeit unwittingly at the true nature of reality. Just as often as not, his interpretations border on the ludicrous.

In his remarkable work Lucretius fully describes the Brownian motion of atoms and explains clearly the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy. He uses logic to conclude that atoms have a finite number of possible forms otherwise there would be atoms of infinite magnitude, but that the numbers of any one type of atom are infinite because the Universe is infinite. Atoms cannot combine indiscriminately otherwise monsters would arise, suggesting that there is order in this Universe after all, with some atoms

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Imagination vs. knowledge?
We want to hear your view. Write now!