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    Lucretius: atoms and opinions

    Mackay, Alan L. (1990) Lucretius: atoms and opinions. Symmetry 1 (1), pp. 3-17.

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    Abstract

    It is argued that the scientific programme most clearly articulated by Lucretius is still appropriate today, although it continues to represent a minority view of the world. In 'De rerum natura' Lucretius formulated the goals of explaining, without religious or supernatural assumptions, the properties of all living and non-living things in terms of the emergent properties of atoms. We examine five topics: atoms - structure underlies function; group theory and the breakdown of exact equivalence; the emergence of complex properties from simple units; the parallel between letters (of the alphabet) and atoms in the building of complex structures; and the coming coalescence of the mental and physical worlds.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This article was reprinted in 1991 in: Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 16(2):125-139.
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
    Depositing User: Sandra Plummer
    Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2005
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 16:46
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/289

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