Democritus

Greek philosopher

• Born: c. 460 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Abdera, Thrace (now Avdira, Greece)
• Died: c. 370 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Abdera, Thrace (now Avdira, Greece)

Democritus worked out a far-reaching atomism, which he applied to science, metaphysics, and ethics. His view that the world is made up of changing combinations of unchanging atoms was addressed to one of the central questions of his age, how change was possible, and provided a model of reasoning that was mechanistic, materialist, and nonsupernatural.

Early Life

Democritus (dih-MAHK-ruht-uhs) was born, probably to wealthy parents, in the city of Abdera, Thrace. Although Leucippus, the philosopher who became his teacher, can properly be regarded as the founder of Greek atomism, Leucippus himself wrote very little, and very little is known about him. Democritus, however, was a prolific writer who developed a well-reasoned atomistic view and applied it to a wide variety of fields, including science, metaphysics, and ethics.

As a young man, Democritus traveled to Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia. Some ancient sources hold that he went as far south as Ethiopia and as far east as India, but modern scholars consider this doubtful. It is reported that Democritus boasted that he had visited more foreign lands and carried out more extensive inquiries and investigations than anyone else of his time. He traveled both for the “broadening” experience that falls to any inquisitive traveler and in order to receive instruction from those who were considered wise in many lands. When he returned to Greek soil, he himself earned a reputation for wisdom. He carried with him an aura of the exotic, having delved into cultures that the Greeks thought of as exotic and foreign: the cultures of Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia.

In character, Democritus is reported to have been a man of serenity, strength, and cheerfulness. The ancient Romans referred to him as “the laughing philosopher,” alluding, perhaps, to his attitude toward the typically human fault of taking oneself too seriously. As a thinker and writer, he addressed the most pressing philosophical and intellectual issues of the age in his works, which numbered at least fifty. Unfortunately, his texts have survived only in fragmentary form.

Life’s Work

During the years following his travels, when Democritus began to develop his philosophical system, the Greek intellectual world was occupied with grave difficulties arising from the philosophy of Parmenides of Elea and his followers, the Eleatics. Parmenides was a practitioner of strict deductive logic. Taking premises that he thought would be generally acceptable, he argued logically to necessary conclusions. Many people admired his strong reliance on reason and thought; nevertheless, Parmenides arrived at conclusions that were deeply problematic. He concluded that there is no such thing as change and that no more than one thing exists. This clearly conflicts with common experience, which seems to show constant change and plurality. Still, Parmenides held fast to logic and reasoning as sources of knowledge that are more reliable than sense experience. If reason rules out change and plurality, he thought, then change and plurality do not exist.

The basis of his argument—an argument with which Democritus and Leucippus had no choice but to grapple—is the idea that reason either apprehends something or it apprehends nothing. If it apprehends nothing, then it is not reason (that is, not an apprehending) after all. Thus, reason apprehends what exists, not nothing. Now if things came into existence or passed out of existence, or if things changed their qualities over time, then reason would have to think of the things or qualities as not existing at some time (that is, before coming into existence or after passing out of existence). Reason would then, however, be apprehending nothing—and this, it was said, cannot occur. Similarly, if more than one thing existed, and there was empty space between the things, reason would again have to apprehend nothing. The conclusion is that only one thing exists, and this one thing is eternal, never coming into existence, never passing out of existence, and never changing. This one thing Parmenides called “the One.”

One of the great achievements of Democritus and the atomists lies in overcoming this argument—an argument that probably seemed much more convincing to the ancient Greeks than to modern thinkers—while retaining some of its logical points and, at the same time, acknowledging the reality of change, plurality, and other commonsense ideas that Parmenides apparently denied.

It is a fundamental principle of Democritean atomism that “nothing exists but the atoms and the void.” The atoms (literally, in Greek, “the indivisibles” or “the uncuttables”) are the smallest units of matter, the smallest pieces of being, which cannot be further divided. The void, considered nonbeing, is thought to be just as real as the atoms. It was very important for Democritus that both exist: being and nonbeing, the atoms and the void. In a sense, the atoms are individually much like the One of Parmenides. They do not come into existence or pass out of existence, and they do not change (internally). Nevertheless, the void—a necessary feature of atomism—makes it possible for the atoms to combine and separate and recombine in changing arrangements.

As Democritus envisioned them, atoms differ from one another only in shape, size, and position. Qualities such as color and flavor were said to arise from the particular arrangements of (inherently colorless and flavorless) atoms and their interaction with the senses of the observer.

Atoms are constantly in motion, according to Democritus’s theory, and they do not require any force or intelligence to put them into motion. Surrounded by the void, they are not held in any one position but move quite freely. Atoms crash into one another, become entangled with one another, and sometimes establish regular motions or streams of motion. There is no limit to the void or to the number of atoms, and Democritus thought that the universe visible to human beings was only one among countless worlds, many of which must also contain stars, planets, and living things.

The atomism of Democritus was a reaffirmation of the reality of change as experienced in everyday life, yet it agreed with Parmenides’ concept of the unchanging reality that lies behind observed phenomena. The theory attempted to do justice to both experience and reason, change and permanence. Democritus envisioned a world in which combinations and configurations of atoms change within the void, but the atoms themselves never undergo internal change. Thus, it is the void that makes change possible. Ironically, it could be said that in the theory of Greek atomism, it is really the void (and not the atoms) that is innovative and enables the theory to escape from the unpalatable conclusions of Parmenides and the Eleatics.

Democritus also addressed questions raised by an entirely new movement in Greek thought. Before the time of Democritus, Greek philosophers had been almost exclusively concerned with physical and metaphysical questions—for example, questions about being and change. Around the time of Democritus, however, a revolution in philosophy was brought about by the Sophists and Socrates, who raised questions about human nature, society, and morality, rather than questions that focused on the physical world.

Democritus approached all these questions through his atomism. The soul, he surmised, is made up of highly mobile spherical atoms, which disperse at death. He hypothesized that people who seem to die but who “come back to life” have actually retained their atomic integrity all the while; they did not really die and come back to life. Eventually, in a real death, the atoms in the body begin to lose their connections with one another. This process is gradual, however, so that hair and fingernails might grow for a while even after the life-breath (and the necessary spherical atoms) was gone. Then, as the atoms lose their connections, the entire body decays.

Democritus taught that people should have no fear or apprehension concerning supernatural matters or an afterlife. Because the totality of reality consists of the atoms and the void, when the atoms of a person disperse and the person dies, the person no longer exists. Therefore, according to Democritus, there is nothing to fear in death. The corollary conclusion is that people should not delay pleasures in anticipation of an afterlife; it is in this life—this arrangement of atoms—that human beings can find their only fulfillment and happiness.

The best life is one that is characterized by contentedness and cheerfulness, said Democritus. He believed that passions are powerful, disturbing factors that tend to upset the natural harmony and balance in the arrangement of atoms in human beings. Democritus used his atomism to support traditional Greek views that strong passions can cause much trouble and that moderation is best. The key to moderation and to the achievement of happiness in life is knowledge. Knowledge determines one’s proper goals and activities, while passion is a threat.

It is important, however, to distinguish Democritus’s knowledge-passion polarity from that of many later Platonic thinkers. Platonic thinkers (and some Christian Neoplatonists) are dualists. They distinguish between one’s spiritual or intellectual part—the seat of reason, which is divine and immortal—and one’s physical or irrational part—the seat of passion, which is animal and mortal. The first is the spiritual soul and lives forever; the second is the body, which suffers death and decay. In contrast, Democritus was a thoroughgoing naturalist and materialist; he believed that all the atoms disperse at death and nothing survives. Knowledge was seen as important, and passion was seen as a threat, not for religious or supernatural reasons but because of their import for human contentedness and cheerfulness.

Ancient sources agree that Democritus lived to a remarkably advanced age. Few details of his later life, however, are known. The legend that he blinded himself (in order to root out lustful desires, according to Tertullian) is denied by Plutarch. Democritus is thought to have died in Thrace around the year 370 b.c.e.

Significance

The theory of atomism was not favored by Plato (c. 427-347 b.c.e.) and Aristotle (384-322 b.c.e.), the two major Greek philosophers who followed Democritus, but it was adopted by the Greek Epicurus (341-270 b.c.e.) and the Roman Lucretius (c. 98-55 b.c.e.). Epicurus was attracted to the moral teaching of Democritus and held that human well-being is best achieved by eliminating pain and the painful desire for things that people cannot (or cannot easily) obtain. Consequently, he aimed to live a life of utmost simplicity. Both Epicurus and Lucretius followed Democritus in denying supernatural influences on human life and rejecting the idea of an afterlife. Moreover, all these thinkers believed that their position on these points was not only true but also useful in freeing people from superstitions that lead to pain and suffering.

Atomism, as an essentially physical and mechanical account of the world that leaves no place for “higher purposes” or “meanings,” was particularly unacceptable to religious and theological writers of the Christian tradition, which dominated Western philosophy from about the fourth to the fourteenth century. In the wake of the Renaissance and the scientific revolution (that is, since about the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), however, the influence of Democritus again became apparent in philosophy and science. Modern science, like ancient Democritean atomism, tends to conceive of the world purely in terms of physical objects operating according to natural laws; the question of higher purposes or meanings is considered to lie beyond the scope of science. In some points of detail, there is significant agreement between ancient atomism and the modern scientific view. On both accounts, for example, qualities such as the color of a book or the taste of a cup of coffee are thought to be attached not to individual atoms—there are no red atoms or coffee-flavored atoms—but to combinations of atoms in interaction with a perceiver. One obvious difference between the two forms of atomism, however, is that in the Democritean view atoms cannot be split, while the modern scientific view upholds the existence of many kinds of subatomic particles and has even led to the development of atom-splitting technology that can unleash great power.

However, the atomism of Democritus is not a scientific theory and does not pretend to be based on experiment, experience, and observation. It is basically a philosophical theory, based on argument, which was designed to refute the theory and the arguments of Parmenides and the Eleatics. Thus, interesting as it is to compare ancient and modern atomism, it is not really appropriate to think of the two views as competing in the same arena. Democritus and the Greek atomists succeeded in developing an attitude toward the world that enabled them to look on it as thoroughly physical and mechanical, and it is this attitude, or significant aspects of it, that many modern scientists have shared. According to this view, observable phenomena are explainable in terms of unseen movements that occur according to natural (not supernatural) law.

Bibliography

Bailey, Cyril. The Greek Atomists and Epicurus. 1928. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964. Contains a thorough historical account of the origins of Greek atomism, the contributions and elaborations that derive specifically from Democritus, and the further adaptation of the view at the hands of Epicurus.

Brumbaugh, Robert S. The Philosophers of Greece. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Chapter 11 covers Democritus, atomism, and the development of materialism. Brumbaugh compares Greek, Roman, and modern atomisms. The chapter is brief, but Brumbaugh shows the place of Democritus and the atomists within Greek philosophical history.

Burnet, John. Greek Philosophy: Thales to Plato. 1914. Reprint. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1964. A classic work that has been reprinted many times. Scholarly, with indexes of both English and Greek terms.

Cartledge, Paul. Democritus. New York: Routledge, 1999. In this 64-page introduction to Democritus, Cartledge places the philosopher and his ideas in historical perspective.

Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. 6 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978-1990. Contains more than one hundred pages on Democritus, an appendix on atomism, a bibliography, and three indexes. Democritus has been called an encyclopedic thinker, and Guthrie shows the truth of this remark by exploring a great number of areas with which Democritus was concerned.

Kirk, G. S., and J. E. Raven. The Presocratic Philosophers. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Covers Leucippus, Democritus, and the theory of atomism. This book contains the actual Greek texts of the philosophers, accompanied by English translations and explanations. Kirk and Raven concentrate on the physics of atomism; the ethics of atomism is treated very briefly.

Pyle, Andrew. Atomism and Its Critics: From Democritus to Newton. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 1995. Details the history of the study of matter and voids, from a philosophical as well as a scientific perspective, in contexts ranging from that of the ancient world to that of the age of Isaac Newton.