La « météorologie » dans le De rerum natura. Fidélité à Épicure et invention

Abstract

Epicurean “meteorology” encompasses cosmology, astronomy, and meteorology (in the Aristotelian sense). If the DRN conforms in general to the innovative epistemology of Epicurus and underlines its importance, it diverges from it sometimes, especially in Book V, through an employment of analogy which an attempt will be made to assess; some theories are not attested elsewhere in the Epicurean corpus. In Book VI, the explanation of meteorological phenomena upholds Epicurean atomism, but their presentation conveys a singular vision—stemming from poetics—of the world.

Keywords

• method of inference
• analogy
• pluralism
• astronomers
• Plato
• Aristotle