April 09, 2015 <Back to Index>
PAGE SPONSOR |
Democritus (Greek: Δημόκριτος, Dēmokritos, "chosen of the people") (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos. His
exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from his mentor
Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their
speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial
resemblance to the nineteenth century understanding of atomic structure
that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other
Greek philosophers; however their ideas rested on very different bases. Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern born philosopher Aristotle. Plato is said to have disliked him so much that he wished all his books burned. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science". We know that he wrote on Babylon and Meroe; he must also have visited Egypt, and Diodorus Siculus states that he lived there for five years. He himself declared that among his contemporaries none had made greater journeys, seen more countries, and met more scholars than himself. He particularly mentions the Egyptian mathematicians, whose knowledge he praises. Theophrastus, too, spoke of him as a man who had seen many countries. During his travels, according to Diogenes Laërtius, he became acquainted with the Chaldean magi. A certain "Ostanes", one of the magi accompanying Xerxes was also said to have taught him. After returning to his native land he occupied himself with natural philosophy. He traveled throughout Greece to acquire a knowledge of its culture. He mentions many Greek philosophers in his writings, and his wealth enabled him to purchase their writings. Leucippus, the founder of the atomism, was the greatest influence upon him. He also praises Anaxagoras. Diogenes Laertius says that he was friends with Hippocrates. He may have been acquainted with Socrates, but Plato does not mention him and Democritus himself is quoted as saying, "I came to Athens and no one knew me." Aristotle placed him among the pre-Socratic natural philosophers. The many anecdotes about Democritus, especially in Diogenes Laërtius, attest to his disinterest, modesty, and simplicity, and show that he lived exclusively for his studies. One story has him deliberately blinding himself in order to be less disturbed in his pursuits; it may well be true that he lost his sight in old age. He was cheerful, and was always ready to see the comical side of life, which later writers took to mean that he always laughed at the foolishness of people. He was highly esteemed by his fellow citizens, "because," as Diogenes Laërtius says, "he had foretold them some things which events proved to be true," which may refer to his knowledge of natural phenomena. According to Diodorus Siculus, Democritus died at the age of 90, which would put his death around 370 BC, but other writers have him living to 104, or even 109. Popularly known as the Laughing Philosopher (for laughing at human follies), the terms Abderitan laughter, which means scoffing, incessant laughter, and Abderite, which means a scoffer, are derived from Democritus. To his fellow citizens he was also known as "The Mocker".
Democritus followed in the tradition of Leucippus, who seems to have come from
Miletus, and he carried on the scientific rationalist philosophy
associated with that city. They were both strict determinists and
thorough materialists, believing everything to be the result of natural laws. Unlike Aristotle or Plato, the atomists attempted to explain the world without reasoning to purpose, prime mover, or final cause.
For the atomists questions should be answered with a mechanistic
explanation ("What earlier circumstances caused this event?"), while
their opponents search for explanations which, in addition to the
material and mechanistic, also included the formal and teleological
("What purpose did this event serve?"). Modern science has focused on
mechanistic questions, which have led to scientific knowledge,
especially in physics, while teleological questions can be useful in
biology, in adaptationist reasoning at providing proximate explanations,
though the deeper evolutionary explanations are often held to be
thoroughly mechanistic. The atomists looked exclusively for mechanistic
questions, and only admitted mechanistic answers. Their successors until
the Renaissance became occupied with the teleological question, which
arguably hindered progress. The theory of Democritus and Leucippus held that everything is composed of "atoms", which are physically, but not geometrically, indivisible; that between atoms lies empty space; that atoms are indestructible; have always been, and always will be, in motion; that there are an infinite number of atoms, and kinds of atoms, which differ in shape, and size. Of the mass of atoms, Democritus said "The more any indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is." But his exact position on weight of atoms is disputed. Leucippus is widely credited with being the first to develop the theory of atomism, although Isaac Newton preferred to credit the obscure Moschus the Phoenician (whom he believed to be the biblical Moses) as the inventor of the idea on the authority of Posidonius and Strabo. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes, "This theologically motivated view does not seem to claim much historical evidence, however." Democritus, along with Leucippus and Epicurus, proposed the earliest views on the shapes and connectivity of atoms. They reasoned that the solidness of the material corresponded to the shape of the atoms involved. Thus, iron atoms are solid and strong with hooks that lock them into a solid; water atoms are smooth and slippery; salt atoms, because of their taste, are sharp and pointed; and air atoms are light and whirling, pervading all other materials. Democritus was the main proponent of this view. Using analogies from our sense experiences, he gave a picture or an image of an atom that distinguished them from each other by their shape, their size, and the arrangement of their parts. Moreover, connections were explained by material links in which single atoms were supplied with attachments: some with hooks and eyes others with balls and sockets. The Democritean atom is an inert solid (merely excluding other bodies from its volume) that interacts with other atoms mechanically. In contrast, modern, quantum - mechanical atoms interact via electric and magnetic force fields and are far from inert. The theory of the atomists appears to be more nearly aligned with that of modern science than any other theory of antiquity. However, the similarity with modern concepts of science can be confusing when trying to understand where the hypothesis came from. It is obvious that classical atomists would never have had a solid empirical basis for our modern concepts of atoms and molecules. Russell states that they just hit on a lucky hypothesis, only recently confirmed by evidence. However Lucretius, describing atomism in his de rerum natura gives
very clear and compelling empirical arguments for the original atomist
theory. He observes that any material is subject to irreversible decay.
Through time, even hard rocks are slowly worn down by drops of water.
Things have the tendency to get mixed up: mix water with soil and you
get mud, that will usually not unmix by itself. Wood decays. However,
we see in nature and technology that there are mechanisms to recreate
'pure' materials like water, air, metals. The
seed of an oak will grow out into an oak tree, made of similar wood as
historical oak trees, the wood of which has already decayed. The
conclusion is that many properties of materials must derive from
something inside, that will itself never decay, something that stores
for eternity the same inherent, indivisible properties. The basic
question is: why has everything in the world not yet decayed, and how
can exactly the same materials, plants, animals be recreated again and
again? One obvious solution to explain how indivisible properties can be
conveyed in a way not easily visible to human senses, is to hypothesize
the existence of 'atoms'. These classical 'atoms' are nearer to our
modern concept of 'molecule' than to the atoms of modern science. The
other big point of classical atomism is that there must be a lot of
open space between these 'atoms': the void. Lucretius gives reasonable
arguments that
the void is absolutely necessary to explain how gasses and fluids can
change shape, flow, while metals can be molded, without changing the
basic material properties. The atomistic void hypothesis was a response to the paradoxes of Parmenides and Zeno, the founders of metaphysical logic, who put forth difficult to answer arguments in favor of the idea that there can be no movement. They held that any movement would require a void — which is nothing — but a nothing cannot exist. The Parmenidean position was "You say there 'is' a void; therefore the void is not nothing; therefore there is not the void." The position of Parmenides appeared validated by the observation that where there seems to be nothing there is air, and indeed even where there is not matter there is something, for instance light waves. The
atomists agreed that motion required a void, but simply ignored the
argument of Parmenides on the grounds that motion was an observable
fact. Therefore, they asserted, there must be a void. This idea survived
in a refined version as Newton's theory of absolute space,
which met the logical requirements of attributing reality to not - being.
Einstein's theory of relativity provided a new answer to Parmenides and
Zeno, with the insight that space by itself is relative and cannot be
separated from time as part of a generally curved space - time manifold.
Consequently, Newton's refinement is now considered superfluous. The knowledge of truth according to Democritus is difficult, since the perception through the senses is subjective. As from the same senses derive different impressions for each individual, then through the sense - impressions we cannot judge the truth. We can only interpret the sense data through the intellect and grasp the truth, because the truth (aletheia) is at the bottom (en bythoe).
There are two kinds of knowing, the one he calls “legitimate” (gnesie: genuine) and the other “bastard” (skotie: obscure). The “bastard” knowledge is concerned with the perception through the senses, therefore it is insufficient and subjective. The reason is that the sense - perception is due to the effluences of the atoms (aporroai) from the objects to the senses. When these different shapes of atoms come to us, they stimulate our senses according to their shape, and our sense - impressions arise from those stimulations. The second sort of knowledge, the “legitimate” one, can be achieved through the intellect, in other words, all the sense data from the “bastard” must be elaborated through reasoning. In this way one can get away from the false perception of the “bastard” knowledge and grasp the truth through the inductive reasoning. After taking into account the sense - impressions, one can examine the causes of the appearances, draw conclusions about the laws that govern the appearances, and discover the causality (aetiologia) by which they are related. This is the procedure of thought from the parts to the whole or else from the apparent to non - apparent (inductive reasoning). This is one example of why Democritus is considered to be an early scientific thinker. The process is reminiscent of that by which science gathers its conclusions.
His work on nature is known through citations of his books on the subjects, On the Nature of Man, On Flesh (two books), On Mind, On the Senses, On Flavors, On Colors, Causes concerned with Seeds and Plants and Fruits, and Causes concerned with Animals (three books). He spent much of his life experimenting with and examining plants and minerals, and wrote at length on many scientific topics. Democritus thought that the first humans lived an anarchic and animal sort of life, going out to forage individually and living off the most palatable herbs and the fruit which grew wild on the trees. They were driven together into societies for fear of wild animals, he said. He believed that these early people had no language, but that they gradually began to articulate their expressions, establishing symbols for every sort of object, and in this manner came to understand each other. He says that the earliest men lived laboriously, having none of the utilities of life; clothing, houses, fire, domestication, and farming were unknown to them. Democritus presents the early period of mankind as one of learning by trial and error, and says that each step slowly led to more discoveries; they took refuge in the caves in winter, stored fruits that could be preserved, and through reason and keenness of mind came to build upon each new idea. Democritus
held that the Earth was round, and stated that originally the universe
was composed of nothing but tiny atoms churning in chaos, until they
collided together to form larger units — including the earth and
everything on it. He surmised that there are many worlds,
some growing, some decaying; some with no sun or moon, some with
several. He held that every world has a beginning and an end, and that a
world could be destroyed by collision with another world. His cosmology
can be summarized with assistance from Shelley: Worlds rolling over
worlds; From creation to decay; Like the bubbles on a river; Sparkling,
bursting, borne away. |