Poem focus of PLACE lecture on Wednesday
Dr. Del Doughty, dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, will discuss Lucretius’s epic poem “On the Nature of Things” at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the A&MTexarkana campus.
Doughty will present the lecture as part of the university’s Program for Learning and Community Engagement in University Center 217. The lecture is titled “Lucretius’s ‘On the Nature of Things’: A Poem Far Ahead of Its Time.”
The poem advocates the philosophy of Epicurus, a Greek philosopher. “Lucretius’s poem was written in the first century BC Rome, where it was well received, but its fortunes soon declined with the rise of Christianity a few decades later,” Doughty said. “For much of the Middle Ages, the poem was lost, forgotten or suppressed. It was rediscovered in the 16th century and has grown in popularity ever since.”
In addition to the history, Doughty will discuss the poem itself.
“At its core, it’s about atoms and void, randomness and natural selection—topics well ahead of its time but very familiar in ours,” Doughty said. Science is a central theme.
PLACE is a faculty-led program designed to create a community of learners among A&MTexarkana students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community. This year’s PLACE theme is “Science and Technology.”
For more information, contact Dr. Corrine Hinton at corrine.hinton@tamut.edu or visit tamut.edu/PLACE.