Atomism

1. Atomism was devised by Leucippus and his student Democritus. Democritus was born about 460 B.C., which makes him about 40 years younger than Anaxagoras, and about 10 years younger than Socrates. Atomism is the final, and most successful, attempt to rescue the reality of the physical world from the fatal effects of Eleatic logic by means of a pluralistic theory. (Guthrie, vol. 2, p. 389) 2. Overview of atomism: 1. Imagine each atom, taken by itself, as a Parmenidean unit. Each …

…pe, and that his view was therefore internally inconsistent. 4. For more on this interpretation, see Guthrie, vol. 2, Appendix, pp. 503-7. For an opposing view, cf. Barnes, Presocratics, 352-360. Barnes considers the idea that Democritean atoms are theoretically indivisible, in three different senses: conceptually, geometrically, and logically indivisible. He argues that the available texts do not adequately support the idea that atoms are theoretically indivisible, and concludes that the case has not been proven either way.