De rerum natura
E190361
De rerum natura is a didactic Latin poem by Lucretius that expounds Epicurean philosophy and atomistic physics to explain the nature of the universe and dispel fear of gods and death.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| De rerum natura canonical | 3 |
| De natura rerum | 2 |
| On the Nature of Things | 2 |
| De rerum natura by Lucretius | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1677665 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: De rerum natura Context triple: [Lucretius, notableWork, De rerum natura]
-
A.
De vita libri tres
De vita libri tres is a 15th-century philosophical and medical treatise by Marsilio Ficino that explores the care of the scholar’s body and soul through astrology, humoral theory, and Neoplatonic thought.
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B.
Aristotle’s On the Heavens
Aristotle’s On the Heavens is an influential ancient Greek treatise that presents Aristotle’s cosmology and theories about the structure and motions of the universe.
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C.
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher is a philosophical dialogue by George Berkeley that critiques freethinkers and defends Christian religion and immaterialist philosophy.
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D.
Deus sive Natura
Deus sive Natura is Baruch Spinoza’s philosophical conception of God as identical with the single, all-encompassing substance of nature and reality.
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E.
Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum
Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum is the Latin motto of the Australian National University, expressing its commitment to understanding the nature of things as a foundation for knowledge and research.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: De rerum natura Target entity description: De rerum natura is a didactic Latin poem by Lucretius that expounds Epicurean philosophy and atomistic physics to explain the nature of the universe and dispel fear of gods and death.
-
A.
De vita libri tres
De vita libri tres is a 15th-century philosophical and medical treatise by Marsilio Ficino that explores the care of the scholar’s body and soul through astrology, humoral theory, and Neoplatonic thought.
-
B.
Aristotle’s On the Heavens
Aristotle’s On the Heavens is an influential ancient Greek treatise that presents Aristotle’s cosmology and theories about the structure and motions of the universe.
-
C.
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher is a philosophical dialogue by George Berkeley that critiques freethinkers and defends Christian religion and immaterialist philosophy.
-
D.
Deus sive Natura
Deus sive Natura is Baruch Spinoza’s philosophical conception of God as identical with the single, all-encompassing substance of nature and reality.
-
E.
Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum
Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum is the Latin motto of the Australian National University, expressing its commitment to understanding the nature of things as a foundation for knowledge and research.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Latin poem
ⓘ
didactic poem ⓘ epic poem ⓘ philosophical poem ⓘ |
| addresses | Gaius Memmius ⓘ |
| affirms | everything consists of atoms and void ⓘ |
| aim |
to dispel fear of gods and death
ⓘ
to explain the nature of the universe ⓘ |
| approximateDate | c. 60s BCE ⓘ |
| author | Lucretius ⓘ |
| bookCount | 6 ⓘ |
| dateWritten | 1st century BCE ⓘ |
| dedicatedTo | Gaius Memmius ⓘ |
| denies |
divine providence
ⓘ
immortality of the soul ⓘ |
| genre | didactic poetry ⓘ |
| influenced |
Enlightenment thought
ⓘ
Giordano Bruno ⓘ Michel de Montaigne ⓘ
surface form:
Montaigne
Ovid ⓘ Pierre Gassendi ⓘ Virgil ⓘ |
| literaryForm | poetry ⓘ |
| literaryTradition | Roman literature ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
atomism
ⓘ
fear of death ⓘ fear of gods ⓘ nature of the universe ⓘ |
| meter | dactylic hexameter ⓘ |
| notableFeature | combination of poetry and natural philosophy ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | Latin ⓘ |
| philosophicalInfluence | Epicurus ⓘ |
| philosophicalPosition | materialism ⓘ |
| philosophicalSchool | Epicureanism ⓘ |
| placeOfOrigin | Roman Republic ⓘ |
| rediscovered | by Poggio Bracciolini in the 15th century ⓘ |
| structure | six books ⓘ |
| subject |
cosmology
ⓘ
ethics ⓘ physics ⓘ psychology ⓘ |
| survival | transmitted through medieval manuscripts ⓘ |
| topic |
atomic theory
ⓘ
cosmic evolution ⓘ ethics of pleasure ⓘ mortality of the soul ⓘ religion and superstition ⓘ sensation ⓘ soul and mind ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: De rerum natura Description of subject: De rerum natura is a didactic Latin poem by Lucretius that expounds Epicurean philosophy and atomistic physics to explain the nature of the universe and dispel fear of gods and death.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
De natura rerum
this entity surface form:
On the Nature of Things
this entity surface form:
De rerum natura by Lucretius
subject surface form:
On Nature
this entity surface form:
On the Nature of Things
this entity surface form:
De natura rerum