The Presocratic philosophers seemed mostly intrigued by nature and entertained questions such as Where did everything come from? and wondered about creation. These philosophers were not satisfied with the traditional explanations and wanted to seek answers that would better appease their inquiries. Presocratic philosopher, Anaxagoras, believed that all things were scientifically explainable. He did not believe in the mythological and supernatural explanations that were given. Another Presocratic philosopher that rejected the supernatural reasoning, and perhaps was even first in doing so, was Thales of Miletus. Democritus’ views (whom we later learn greatly influenced Lucretius) not only gave way to philosophy, but also to geometry, biology …show more content…
Lucretius hits on many of the problems of philosophy, such as metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics is the nature of being, it questions ‘what is ultimately there’ and ‘what is it like?’ Lucretius was not religious at all, he thought that the explanations of the past were nothing more than superstition. He was taught to view everything from a materialistic philosophy, everything that exists in reality consists of atoms and space. He strongly believed that there was a scientific explanation for all things, even the ‘gods.‘ Lucretius believes that men think things are done by divine power because they do not know how things happen, he believed that all things are done without the hand of the gods and that matter is neither created out of nothing nor will any effect happen without natural cause. Lucretius believed that everything that exists or ever will exist is made of building blocks, small and indestructible, and indivisible. He was referring, of course, to atoms. He believes these atoms exist in great numbers in a universe void of a creator or designer. He differed from other philosophers in the respect that he did not believe the soul to exist outside of the body. His ideas predated the scientific discovery of atoms. I greatly respect his work and contributions, he was extremely intelligent and I was very impressed with his vast knowledge in regards to matter and space. I can not, however agree with everything that he believes, this materialistic philosophy goes directly against the idea of Creation, by a Creator, God, and therefore I can not hold this view as