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Title: Philosophy/Reference/Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Leucippus 5th century BCE founder of atomism.
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Leucippus [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
Leucippus (fifth century BCE.)
Leucippus was the founder of Atomism. We know next to nothing
about his life, and his book appears to have been incorporated in the
collected works of Democritus. No writer subsequent to Theophrastos
seems to have been able to distinguish his teaching from that of his more
famous disciple. Indeed his very existence has been denied, though on
wholly insufficient grounds.
Aristotle gives a clear and intelligible account of the way Leucippus'
theory arose. It originated from Parmenides' denial of the void, from which
the impossibility of multiplicity and motion had been deduced. Leucippus
supposed himself to have discovered a theory which would avoid this
consequence. He admitted that there could be no motion if there was no
void, and he inferred that it was wrong to identify the void with the
non-existent. Leucippus was the first philosopher to affirm, with a full
consciousness of what he was doing, the existence of empty space. The
Pythagorean void had been more or less identified with 'air', but the void of
Leucippus was really a vacuum.
Besides space there was body, and to this Leucippus ascribed all the
characteristics of Parmenides notion of the real. The assumption of empty
space, however, made it possible to affirm that there was an infinite number
of such reals, invisible because of their smallness, but each possessing all
the marks of the Parmenidean One, and in particular each indivisible like it.
These moved in the empty space, and their combinations can give rise to
the things we perceive with the senses. Pluralism was at least stated in a
logical and coherent way. Democritus compared the motions of the atoms
of the soul to that of the particles in the sunbeam which dart hither and
thither in all directions even when there is no wind, and we may fairly
assume that he regarded the original motion of the other atoms in much the
same way.
The atoms are not mathematically indivisible like the Pythagorean
monads, but they are physically indivisible because there is no empty
space in them. Theoretically, then, there is no reason why an atom should
not be as large as a world. Such an atom would be much the same thing as
the Sphere of Parmenides, were it not for the empty space outside it and
the plurality of worlds. As a matter of fact, however, all atoms are invisible.
That does not mean, of course, that they are all the same size; for there is
room for an infinite variety of sizes below the limit of the minimum visible.
Leucippus explained the phenomenon of weight from the size of the atoms
and their combustions, but he did not regard weight itself as a primary
property of bodies. Aristotle distinctly says that none of his predecessors
had said anything of absolute weight and lightness, but only of relative
weight and lightness, and Epicurus was the first to ascribe weight to atoms.
Weight for the earlier atomists is only a secondary phenomenon arising, in
a manner to be explained, from excess of magnitude. It will be observed
that in this respect the early atomists were far more scientific than Epicurus
and even than Aristotle. The conception of absolute weight has no place in
science, and it is really one of the most striking illustrations of the true
scientific instinct of the Greek philosophers that no one before Aristotle ever
made use of it, and Plato expressly rejected it.
The first effect of the motion of the atoms is that the larger atoms are
retarded, not because they are 'heavy', but because they are more exposed
to impact than the smaller. In particular, atoms of an irregular shape
become entangled with one another and form groups of atoms, which are
still more exposed to impact and consequent retardation. The smallest and
roundest atoms, on the other hand, preserve their original motions best,
and these are the atoms of which fire is composed. In an infinite void in
which an infinite number of atoms of countless shapes and sizes are
constantly impinging upon one another in all directions, there will be an
infinite number of places where a vortex motion is set up by their impact.
when this happens, we have the beginning of a world. It is not correct to
ascribe this to chance, as later writers do. It follows necessarily from the
presuppositions of the system. The solitary fragment of Leucippus we
possess is to the effect that 'Naught happens for nothing, but all things from
a ground (logos) and of necessity'.
The author of this article is anonymous. The IEP is actively seeking an author who will write a replacement article.
© 2006
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5th | century | BCE | founder | of | atomism. |
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