Born: c. 460 BC
Birthplace: Abdera, Thrace
Died: c. 370 BC
Cause of death: unspecified
Birthplace: Abdera, Thrace
Died: c. 370 BC
Cause of death: unspecified
Nationality: Ancient Greece
Executive summary: Early atomic theorist
Executive summary: Early atomic theorist
Democritus,
probably the greatest of the Greek physical philosophers, was a native
of Abdera in Thrace, or as some say -- probably wrongly -- of Miletus.
Our knowledge of his life is based almost entirely on tradition of an
untrustworthy kind. He seems to have been born about 470 or 460 BC, and
was, therefore, an older contemporary of Socrates.
He inherited a considerable property, which enabled him to travel
widely in the East in search of information. In Egypt he settled for
seven years, during which he studied the mathematical and physical
systems of the ancient schools. The extent to which he was influenced by
the Magi and the Eastern astrologists is a matter of pure conjecture.
He returned from his travels impoverished; one tradition says that he
received 500 talents from his fellow citizens, and that a public funeral
was decreed him. Another tradition states that he was regarded as
insane by the Abderitans, and that Hippocrates
was summoned to cure him. Diodorus Siculus tells us that he died at the
age of ninety; others make him as much as twenty years older. His
works, according to Diogenes Laërtius, numbered seventy-two, and were characterized by a purity of style which compares favorably with that of Plato.
The absurd epithet, the "laughing philosopher", applied to him by some
unknown and very superficial thinker, may possibly have contributed in
some measure to the fact that his importance was for centuries
overlooked. It is interesting, however, to notice that Bacon (De Principiis)
assigns to him his true place in the history of thought, and points out
that both in his own day and later "in the times of Roman learning" he
was spoken of in terms of the highest praise. In the variety of his
knowledge, and in the importance of his influence on both Greek and
modern speculation he was the Aristotle
of the 5th century, while the sanity of his metaphysical theory has led
many to regard him as the equal, if not the superior, of Plato.
His views may be treated under the following heads:
1. The Atoms and Cosmology (adopted in part at least from the doctrines of Leucippus,
though the relations between the two are hopelessly obscure). While
agreeing with the Eleatics as to the eternal sameness of Being (nothing
can arise out of nothing; nothing can be reduced to nothing), Democritus
followed the physicists in denying its oneness and immobility. Movement
and plurality being necessary to explain the phenomena of the universe
and impossible without space (not-Being), he asserted that the latter
had an equal right with Being to be considered existent. Being is the
Full (plenum); not-Being is the Void (vacuum), the
infinite space in which moved the infinite number of atoms into which
the single Being of the Eleatics was broken up. These atoms are eternal
and invisible; absolutely small, so small that their size cannot be
diminished; absolutely full and incompressible, they are without pores
and entirely fill the space they occupy; homogeneous, differing only in
figure (as A from N), arrangement (as AN from NA), position (as N is Z
on its side), magnitude (and consequently in weight, although some
authorities dispute this). But while the atoms thus differ in quantity,
their differences of quality are only apparent, due to the impressions
caused on our senses by different configurations and combinations of
atoms. A thing is only hot or cold, sweet or bitter, hard or soft by
convention; the only things that exist in reality are the atoms and the
void. John Locke's
distinction between primary and secondary qualities is here
anticipated. Thus, the atoms of water and iron are the same, but those
of the former, being smooth and round, and therefore unable to hook on
to one another, roll over and over like small globes, whereas the atoms
of iron, being rough, jagged and uneven, cling together and form a solid
body. Since all phenomena are composed of the same eternal atoms (just
as a tragedy and a comedy contain the same letters) it may be said that
nothing comes into being or perishes in the absolute sense of the words
(cf. the modern "indestructibility of matter" and "conservation of
energy"), although the compounds of the atoms are liable to increase and
decrease, appearance and disappearance -- in other words, to birth and
death. As the atoms are eternal and uncaused, so is motion; it has its
origin in a preceding motion, and so on ad infinitum. For the Love and
Hate of Empedocles and the Nous (Intelligence) of Anaxagoras, Democritus substituted fixed and necessary laws (not chance; that is a misrepresentation due chiefly to Cicero).
Everything can be explained by a purely mechanical (but not fortuitous)
system, in which there is no room for the idea of a providence or an
intelligent cause working with a view to an end. The origin of the
universe was explained as follows. An infinite number of atoms was
carried downwards through infinite space. The larger (and heavier),
falling with greater velocity, overtook and collided with the smaller
(and lighter), which were thereby forced upwards. This caused various
lateral and contrary movements, resulting in a whirling movement
resembling the rotation of Anaxagoras, whereby similar atoms were
brought together (as in the winnowing of grain) and united to form
larger bodies and worlds. Atoms and void being infinite in number and
extent, and motion having always existed, there must always have been an
infinite number of worlds, all consisting of similar atoms, in various
stages of growth and decay.
2. The Soul. Democritus devoted considerable attention to the
structure of the human body, the noblest portion of which he considered
to be the soul, which everywhere pervades it, a psychic atom being
intercalated between two corporeal atoms. Although, in accordance with
his principles, Democritus was bound to regard the soul as material
(composed of round, smooth, specially mobile atoms, identified with the
fire-atoms floating in the air), he admitted a distinction between it
and the body, and is even said to have looked upon it as something
divine. These all-pervading soul atoms exercise different functions in
different organs; the head is the seat of reason, the heart of anger,
the liver of desire. Life is maintained by the inhalation of fresh atoms
to replace those lost by exhalation, and when respiration, and
consequently the supply of atoms, ceases, the result is death. It
follows that the soul perishes with, and in the same sense as, the body.
3. Perception. Sensations are the changes produced in the soul by
external impressions, and are the result of contact, since every action
of one body (and all representations are corporeal phenomena) upon
another is of the nature of a shock. Certain emanations or images,
consisting of subtle atoms, thrown off from the surface of an object,
penetrate the body through the pores. On the principle that like acts
upon like, the particular senses are only affected by that which
resembles them. We see by means of the eye alone, and hear by means of
the ear alone, these organs being best adapted to receive the images or
sound currents. The organs are thus merely conduits or passages through
which the atoms pour into the soul. The eye, for example, is damp and
porous, and the act of seeing consists in the reflection of the image
mirrored on the smooth moist surface of the pupil. To the interposition
of air is due the fact that all visual images are to some extent
blurred. At the same time Democritus distinguished between obscure
cognition, resting on sensation alone, and genuine, which is the result
of inquiry by reason, and is concerned with atoms and void, the only
real existences. This knowledge, however, he confessed was exceedingly
difficult to attain.
It is in Democritus first that we find a real attempt to explain color.
He regards black, red, white and green as primary. White is
characteristically smooth, i.e. casting no shadow, even, flat; black is
uneven, rough, shadowy and so on. The other colors result from various
mixtures of these four, and are infinite in number. Color itself is not
objective; it is found not in the ultimate plenum and vacuum, but only
in derived objects according to their physical qualities and relations.
4. Theology. The system of Democritus was altogether
anti-theistic. But, although he rejected the notion of a deity taking
part in the creation or government of the universe, he yielded to
popular prejudice so far as to admit the existence of a class of beings,
of the same form as men, grander, composed of very subtle atoms, less
liable to dissolution, but still mortal, dwelling in the upper regions
of air. These beings also manifested themselves to man by means of
images in dreams, communicated with him, and sometimes gave him an
insight into the future. Some of them were benevolent, others malignant.
According to Plutarch,
Democritus recognized one god under the form of a fiery sphere, the
soul of the world, but this idea is probably of later origin. The
popular belief in gods was attributed by Democritus to the desire to
explain extraordinary phenomena (thunder, lightning, earthquakes) by
reference to superhuman agency.
5. Ethics. Democritus's moral system -- the first collection of
ethical precepts which deserves the name -- strongly resembles the
negative side of the system of Epicurus. The summum bonum
is the maximum of pleasure with the minimum of pain. But true pleasure
is not sensual enjoyment; it has its principle in the soul. It consists
not in the possession of wealth or flocks and herds, but in good humor,
in the just disposition and constant tranquillity of the soul. Hence the
necessity of avoiding extremes; too much and too little are alike
evils. True happiness consists in taking advantage of what one has and
being content with it.
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