Episode 327 - Intelligent Design vs Emergence

About this episode

This episode continues the series on Cicero's 'Academic Questions' from an Epicurean perspective, focusing on philosophical issues relevant to Epicurus.

Welcome to Episode 327 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world. Each week we walk you through the Epicurean texts, and we discuss how Epicurean philosophy can apply to you today. If you find the Epicurean worldview attractive, we invite you to join us in the study of Epicurus at EpicureanFriends.com, where we discuss this and all of our podcast episodes. This week we start are continuing our series reviewing Cicero's "Academic Questions" from an Epicurean perspective. We are focusing first on what is referred to as Book One, which provides an overview of the issues that split Plato's Academy and gives us an overview of the philosophical issues being dealt with at the time of Epicurus. This week will focus on the ending of Section 7 . Our text will come from Cicero - Academic Questions - Yonge We'll likely stick with Yonge primarily, but we'll also refer to the Rackam translation here: Cicero On Nature Of Gods Academica Loeb Rackham : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Topics covered

• Intelligent Design
• Emergence
• Epicurean Philosophy
• Cicero's Academic Questions

Keywords

• Lucretius
• Epicurus
• philosophy
• Plato's Academy

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Cicero - Academic Questions - Yonge, Cicero - Academic Questions - Rackham

Books & works: Intelligent Design vs Emergence, Lucretius Today, On The Nature of Things, Academic Questions, Cicero On Nature Of Gods Academica Loeb Rackham

More episodes of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy

• Episode 329 - Cracks In the Academy On Ideal Forms and Virtue Lead to Aristotle, Stoicism, and Eventually Epicurus · April 17, 2026 · 32 min
• Episode 328 - Sensation - While Neither Right or Wrong - As The Touchstone Of Reality · April 10, 2026 · 52 min
• Episode 326 - Who Cares About Infinite Divisibility? And Why? · March 27, 2026 · 41 min
• Episode 325 - The False Platonic Division of The Universe Between A Force Which Causes All Things And That Which The Force Acts Upon · March 20, 2026 · 44 min
• Episode 324 - Is Pleasure The Good, Or The Enemy Of The Good? · March 14, 2026 · 48 min
• Episode 323 - The Pre-Epicurean View - Three Divisions of Philosophy And Three Divisions of Goods · March 5, 2026 · 27 min