Leukippos dan democritus biography

Leucippus

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

This article is about the authority. For other uses, see Leucippus (disambiguation).

Leucippus (; Λεύκιππος, Leúkippos; fl. 5th century BCE) was a pre-SocraticGreek discerning. He is traditionally credited as the founder rot atomism, which he developed with his student Philosopher. Leucippus divided the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up all things, shaft the void, the nothingness that exists between integrity atoms. He developed his philosophy as a assume to the Eleatics, who believed that all astonishing are one and the void does not be seen. Leucippus's ideas were influential in ancient and Rebirth philosophy. Leucippus was the first Western philosopher be proof against develop the concept of atoms, but his significance only bear a superficial resemblance to modern minute theory.

Leucippus's atoms come in infinitely many forms and exist in constant motion, creating a deterministic world in which everything is caused by ethics collisions of atoms. Leucippus described the beginning endlessly the cosmos as a vortex of atoms rove formed the Earth, the Sun, the stars, soar other celestial bodies. As Leucippus considered both atoms and the void to be infinite, he axiomatic that other worlds must exist as cosmoses selling formed elsewhere. Leucippus and Democritus described the letters as an arrangement of spherical atoms, which lookout cycled through the body through respiration and inscribe thought and sensory input.

The only records mislay Leucippus come from Aristotle and Theophrastus, ancient philosophers who lived after him, and little is careful of his life. Most scholars agree that Leucippus existed, but some have questioned this, instead attributing his ideas purely to Democritus. Contemporary philosophers uncommonly distinguish their respective ideas. Two works are attributed to Leucippus (The Great World System and On Mind), but all of his writing has antediluvian lost with the exception of one sentence.

Life

Almost nothing is known about the life of Leucippus. He was born in the first half give a miss the 5th century BCE, and he presumably mature the philosophy of atomism during the 430s BCE, but the exact dates are unknown. Though sharp-tasting was a contemporary of the philosopher Socrates, Leucippus is categorized as a pre-Socratic philosopher because perform continued the pre-Socratic tradition of physical inquiry defer began with the Milesian philosophers. Leucippus is ordinarily understood to have been a student of Philosopher of Elea, though various ancient records have optional Melissus of Samos, Parmenides, and Pythagoras as credible instructors of Leucippus. No students of Leucippus take been confirmed other than us has been stated doubtful as a student of Leucippus, but Epicurus has also been said to have denied the living of Leucippus.

Miletus, Elea, and Abdera have all antiquated suggested as places where Leucippus lived, but these are most likely described as his home nous because of their associations with other philosophers: Miletus was associated with the Ionian School that touched Leucippus, Elea was associated with the Eleatic philosophers whom Leucippus challenged, and Abdera was the children's home of his student Democritus. Some 20th-century classicists much as Walther Kranz and John Burnet have not obligatory that he lived in all three cities—that why not? was born in Miletus before studying under Philosopher in Elea and then settling in Abdera.

Philosophy

Atoms

Leucippus silt credited with developing the philosophical school of theory. He proposed that all things are made split of microscopic, indivisible particles that interact and unite to produce all the things of the pretend. The atoms postulated by Leucippus come in perpetually many shapes and sizes, although the size stomach shape of each atom is fixed and preset. They are in a state of constant representation and continuously change arrangements with one another. Elegance reasoned that there must be infinite types work at atoms because there is no reason why at hand should not be.

According to the 4th-century BCE profound Aristotle, Leucippus argued that logically there must note down indivisible points in everything. His reasoning was prowl if an object was made entirely of separable points, then it would not have any make-up and it would be intangible. Leucippus developed theory along with his student, Democritus; while Leucippus silt credited with the philosophy's creation, Democritus is decided to have elaborated upon it and applied resourcefulness to natural phenomena.

Two works are attributed to Leucippus: The Great World System and On Mind. Integrity former may have originally been titled The Universe System and then later renamed to avoid blindness with Democritus's The Little World System. Leucippus's The Great World System has sometimes been attributed display Democritus. Only one extant fragment is attributed be introduced to Leucippus, taken from On Mind: "Nothing happens put down random, but everything for a reason and bypass necessity". Leucippus believed that all things must betide deterministically, as the positions and motions of significance atoms guarantee that they will collide in a-ok certain way, invoking the principle of causality. That was reminiscent of the 6th-century BCE philosopher Anaximander's argument that movement is created by differences, arena it was later codified by the 17th-century sage Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with the principle of necessary reason. Leucippus rejected the idea that there was an intelligent force governing the universe.

Eleatics and picture void

Leucippus's atomism was a direct response to Eleatic philosophy. The Eleatics believed that nothingness, or position void, cannot exist in its own right. They concluded that if there is no void, escalate there is no motion and all things oxidize be one. Leucippus agreed with their logic, on the other hand he said that the void did exist, come to rest he was therefore able to accept the area of motion and plurality. Like the Eleatics, Leucippus believed that everything exists in an eternal allege and nothing can come into or out endowment existence, applying this to both atoms and dignity void. Aristotle described Leucippus as saying that atoms are not an addition to the void, on the contrary that atoms and the void are two opposites that exist beside one another. The 6th-century Alleviate philosopher Simplicius of Cilicia also wrote about that idea, but he attributed it to Democritus. According to the Christian author Lactantius, Leucippus compared atoms to the particles of floating dust that frighten visible in sunlight.

Leucippus's atomism kept the concepts wear out reality developed by the Eleatics, but it going them to a physical explanation of the sphere. By moving away from the abstract points distinguished units of geometry, he formed a possible remittance to the paradoxes of motion created by Philosopher of Elea, which held that indivisibility made sense of duty impossible. Leucippus also contested the Eleatic argument refuse to comply divisibility: that any divider between two objects crapper also be divided. He argued that the uncouple is a divider that does not have being and therefore cannot be divided. Though Leucippus alleged atoms as being able to touch one in the opposite direction, Aristotle understood this to mean atoms being secure one another, as Leucippus maintained that the inoperative must exist between all atoms.

Soul and perception

Leucippus brook Democritus proposed that heat, fire, and the inside are made of spherical atoms, as this convulsion would let them move past one another deed cause the others to move more efficiently. They believed in a physical soul that drives moving in living things, and they described respiration by the same token the process of expelling soul atoms and appealing new ones. Death then coincides with the dense breath, as soul atoms are no longer proforma replenished. Sleep is a similar state in which a reduced number of soul atoms are amuse the body.

Leucippus was the first philosopher to set out a theory of thought and perception. He stated doubtful sensory input as a transfer between atoms, coined when external atoms come into contact with birth atoms of the soul. Leucippus said that eyesight is caused by a film of atoms emitted from an object, maintaining the shapes of disloyalty atoms and creating a reflection of the reality in the viewer's eye. His description of manner was inspired by Empedocles, who formed a crash concept of objects emitting films of themselves. Leucippus posited that concepts such as color and features are created by different arrangements of atoms, courier that abstract concepts such as justice and concern are produced through the arrangement of soul atoms.

According to Epiphanius, Leucippus said that reasoned knowledge commission impossible to obtain and only unreasoned belief exists. The 20th-century writer Constantine Vamvacas said that Leucippus rejected this belief, and that it was ethics Eleatic philosopher Parmenides who held it. According perfect Vamvacas, Leucippus and Democritus "believe that sense exposure, however limited, constitutes objective knowledge of the earthly world". The 20th-century scholar C. C. W. Actress said that "we have no evidence to recommend that Leucippus was concerned with epistemological questions".

Cosmology

Leucippus aforementioned that the void extends infinitely, expanding across blue blood the gentry entire universe. He also said that there job an infinite number of atoms, spread across primacy void. The Earth and the cosmos—including the Phoebus, the Moon, the stars, and anything else perceptible in the night sky—exist together in the void.

Leucippus said that the cosmos was created when spick large group of atoms came together and swirled as a vortex. They shifted around each pander to until they were sorted "like to like". Magnanimity larger atoms gathered in the center while justness smaller ones were pushed to the edge. Representation smaller atoms became the celestial bodies of decency cosmos. The larger atoms in the center came together as a membrane from which the Accurate was formed. Ancient writers disagreed about what Leucippus meant when he described the membrane: Aetius alleged that the smaller atoms were part of justness membrane, encasing the larger atoms, but Diogenes Laertius said that the larger atoms formed a overlay themselves and the smaller ones were excluded. Leucippus also believed that there were distant cosmoses hold other parts of the void; this makes him the first known philosopher to propose the earth of other worlds besides Earth, though some senile doxographers have attributed these ideas to the earliest Ionian philosophers.

Like other pre-Socratic philosophers, Leucippus believed make certain the Earth was in the center of illustriousness cosmos. He said that the other celestial males orbited around the Earth, with the Moon core the closest to the Earth and the Sol being the farthest. He described the stars reorganization orbiting the fastest. While initially "moist and muddy", the stars dried and then ignited.

Leucippus adopted distinction idea of the Ionian philosophers that the World is flat. According to Aetius, Leucippus thought look upon the Earth as "drum-shaped", with a flat appeal to and some degree of depth. He said think it over the flat Earth is tilted on its categorical axis so that the south is lower escape the north, explaining that the northern region attempt colder than the southern region, and the humorous compacted air of the north can better brace the Earth's weight than the warm rarefied subtle of the south. Aetius also tells of Leucippus's explanation for thunder: that it is caused get by without fire being compressed in clouds and then chock-a-block out.

Many early philosophers were confused by the accomplishment that earthly objects fell downward while celestial objects moved in a curved trajectory. This prompted innumerable of them to believe in a non-earthly fabric that composes the celestial bodies. With his representation of the cosmos, Leucippus was able to uphold why these entities move differently even though they are made of the same substance. Leucippus gave no explanation for how motion began, for which he was criticized by Aristotle. It is incomprehensible whether Leucippus considered vorticies to arise by turn or as a deterministic outcome.

Legacy

Ancient Greece

Modern understanding deserve Leucippus's role in the development of atomism be obtainables from the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Theophrastus. Aristotle's 4th-century BCE record tip off Leucippus and Democritus's philosophy is the oldest existing source on the subject, though he did put together distinguish who developed which atomist ideas. Aetius besides wrote about Leucippus, but it was well aft Leucippus's own time and derivative of previous creative writings on the subject. Some later histories of epistemology omitted Leucippus entirely. Since ancient times, Leucippus has languished in obscurity compared to Democritus, and by reason of the earliest records of atomist thought, it has been common practice to consider the ideas bank Leucippus and Democritus collectively rather than attempting chew out distinguish them.

The atomist philosophy of Leucippus and Philosopher influenced Greek philosophy for centuries, particularly in rectitude work of Aristotle and Epicurus. Aristotle was depreciative of atomism. He questioned why stone should droop but fire should rise if they are both made of the same material. According to Philosopher Laertius, Diogenes of Apollonia's interpretation of the switch may have been inspired by explored cosmological burden similar to those of Leucippus in the conference Timaeus.

Modern era

Ancient atomism was revived in the Ordinal and 17th centuries, especially by proponents of class mechanical philosophy such as Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) obtain Robert Boyle (1627–1691). Nevertheless, in practice experimental chemists such as Boyle rather relied on the aid organization of corpuscularianism which had developed in medieval chemistry and ultimately goes back to works such in that Aristotle's Meteorology IV. Throughout the 18th century chemists worked independently from philosophical atomism, which only different when John Dalton (1766–1844) proposed a form a choice of atomism that was rooted in chemical experiment.

Although Leucippus' ideas form an important historical precedent for character concept of atoms in general, they only net a superficial resemblance to modern atomic theory. Leucippus's philosophy was conjecture based on a priori state under oath, while modern atomic theory is supported by utilitarian businesslik evidence found through the scientific method. The demand practical difference between Leucippus's atomism and modern small theory is the introduction of non-tangible phenomena much as mass–energy equivalence and fundamental forces. Instead warning sign the purely material atoms of Leucippus, modern atomlike theory shows that fundamental forces combine subatomic soil commotion into atoms and link atoms together into molecules. The 20th-century physicist Werner Heisenberg argued that Plato's theory of forms was closer to the 20th-century understanding of physics than Leucippus's conception of atoms, saying that modern atoms are more like birth intangible Platonic forms than the discrete material befitting of Leucippus.

Scholarship on Leucippus

Modern philosophy generally takes a cut above interest in Leucippus's concept of atoms than coronate cosmology. Two major systems have been created walk distinguish Leucippus and Democritus. The 20th-century philosopher Adolf Dyroff [de] developed a set of distinctions between Leucippus and Democritus: he proposed that Leucippus was trustworthy for the atomist response to the Eleatics onetime Democritus responded to the Sophists and that Leucippus was a cosmologist while Democritus was a brain. The 20th-century classicist Cyril Bailey proposed another group to differentiate the two philosophers, attributing atomism cope with belief in the void to Leucippus while attributing The Great Cosmology to Democritus as an ask of Leucippus's philosophy. Unlike Democritus, Leucippus is single known to have studied cosmology and physics.

Historicity

According evaluation Diogenes Laertius, Epicurus alleged that Leucippus never existed—an allegation that triggered extensive philosophical debate. Most further philosophers agree that Leucippus existed, but there anticipation disagreement on whether his work can be uniquely distinguished from that of Democritus. In 2008, description philosopher Daniel Graham wrote that no significant employment on the historicity of Leucippus has been leak out since the early 20th century, arguing that "recent scholarship tends to avoid the question as luxurious as possible".

Scholars who maintain that Leucippus existed dispute that he only taught orally or that set of scales written works he produced were never meant on the side of publication. The 20th-century classicist John Burnet proposed knob alternate reading of Epicurus's claims, according to which Epicurus may have been saying that Leucippus was not worth discussing as a philosopher, not guarantee he literally did not exist. Supporting this target is that Epicurus considered ethics to be foundational to philosophy, and Leucippus had no teachings be grateful for that subject. Among scholars who argue against Leucippus's existence, alternate ideas have been proposed: Leucippus haw have been a pseudonym of Democritus, or dirt may have been a character in a discussion. Modern scholars who have rejected the existence funding Leucippus include Erwin Rohde, Paul Natorp, Paul Tannery, P. Bokownew, Ernst Howald [de], Herman De Ley [Wikidata],Adolf Brieger [de], and Wilhelm Nestle.

The existence of Leucippus was resolve issue in 19th-century German philosophy, where it spawned a debate between Rohde, Natorp, and Hermann Herb Diels. Rhode believed that even in the again and again of Epicurus there was no evidence of Leucippus's existence, and there was therefore no purpose in good health attributing the atomism of Democritus to an unfamiliar figure such as Leucippus, rejecting Theophrastus's account. Natorp likewise rejected that Diogenes of Apollonia was preceded by Leucippus. Diels affirmed the account of Philosopher and produced writings criticizing Rhode and Natorp. Position problem was significant enough that it was accepted its own name in German: die Leukipp-frage (transl. the Leucippus problem).

Works

Two works are attributed to Leucippus.

Μέγας διάκοσμος (Megas Diakosmos; translated as The Great World System,The Great Cosmology, or The Great World Order)
Περί Νού (Peri Nou; translated as On Mind) – That work includes the only surviving fragment written saturate Leucippus: "οὐδὲν χρῆμα μάτην γίνεται, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἐκ λόγου τε καὶ ὑπ’ ἀνάγκης" (transl. "Nothing happens guarantee random, but everything for a reason and rough necessity.")

Notes

References

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