The Swerve
An uncaused, infinitesimal 'swerve' that lets falling atoms veer just enough to collide — and, the Epicureans argued, leaves room for free will.
The clinamen (Greek parenklisis, 'swerve') is the tiny, random, undetermined deviation Epicurus (c. 300 BCE) added to his atomism. Without it, atoms raining straight down through the void would never meet to form worlds, and a rigid chain of causes would leave no room for human freedom. The doctrine survives chiefly through the Roman poet Lucretius's De rerum natura (1st c. BCE), which gave it its famous Latin name. It stands as one of antiquity's boldest attempts to reconcile a material universe with genuine spontaneity.
How it traveled
- De Rerum NaturaRome · -55explains
- De FatoFormiae · -43explains
- de Natura DeorumFormiae · -43explains
- de Finibus Bonorum et MalorumFormiae · -43challenges
Key passages(20)
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Placita Philosophorum · Pseudo-Plutarch
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
ת"ח וגו' אהדר למאי דקאמר כמה אית להו לבני נשא וגו' כי הנטיה המועטת עושה הכרעה מרובה שהרי לשון הרע לאו א' שבתורה וגרם כל זה לשולף חרב חדה דשפיך דמי ואפשר דלהט החרב שהם החצוני' מתעוררים בלשון הרע הנז' ב
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Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius