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Response To Lucretius Definition Of Pain

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Here, we get a glimpse of Lucretius’ definition of pain. For him, a healthy body filled with pleasure is one where all the atoms inside the body—including the ones constructing the mind and the spirit—are situated at the appropriate or required positions. Any significant deviation from the said-position is interpreted by us as pain. Thus, to Lucretius, the hedonist, a pleasurable and happy life is one that is absent from pain, and a man in either in pain or pleasure, though he does mention cases, though poorly explained, where the pain is considered as pleasure during sexual affairs. The binary division between pleasure and pain will later help us understand Lucretius’ motivation for writing the poem and more importantly decipher as to whether …show more content…

Yes, it allows the world we see to come to be, but it further allows certain collection of atoms to not be dictated by physical parameters (i.e. configuration, type, and motion) of the preceding instance. Lucretius terms this ability to resist fate free will and the collection of atoms where the swerve creates free will heart or mind. Unfortunately, we do not get any description of how this comes to be, but let us see if we can actually formulate how the swerve only on select particles creates free will and the swerve on any other does …show more content…

The sheer volume of ideas passing through our minds, coupled with the fact that motion of our limbs also originate from the heart when the mind first creates the image of our legs moving forward, seem too big to be sufficiently accounted for by irregular swerves. It would be as ridiculous as imagining oranges growing on apple trees, i.e. producing arguments having no observational or logical basis. Furthermore, Lucretius emphasizes on the regularity of human thoughts of a large population: we all fear the unknown, shy from pain and are drawn towards pleasure, tend not to rely upon reason unless encouraged by others. He says humans originally do not differ in personality (just as all lions are predatory and goats cowardly) and he assigns the variety we encounter to the difference in culture and upbringing. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude not all thoughts are based on the utter unpredictability of the swerve and human nature is largely

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