Democritus

Democritus of Abdera developed, with his teacher Leucippus, the atomist theory of nature. He held that division cannot go on forever: reality consists of indivisible atoms of many shapes and sizes moving in the void, and perceptible qualities arise from their arrangements. He wrote prolifically on ethics and natural science, but his works are lost and are known through fragments and later reports, chiefly in Aristotle.

Key ideas

• Reality is atoms and void; atoms are indivisible, unchanging and infinite in number.
• Qualities such as colour and taste exist 'by convention'; only atoms and void exist in reality.
• Everything happens through necessity, by the motion and collision of atoms.
• The good life aims at cheerfulness (euthymia), a calm and well-ordered soul.

Major works

• Works lost; fragments in Diels–Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, ch. 68
• Reported in Aristotle, Metaphysics and On Generation and Corruption
• Reported in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book IX

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