Leucippus birth and death

The Greek tradition regarded Leucippus as the founder of atomism in ancient Greek philosophy.

This is a beta version of NNDB. Leucippus Born: fl 5th c. His fame was so completely overshadowed by that of fellow Atomist Democritus , who subsequently developed the theory into a system, that his very existence was denied by Epicurus Diog. Epicurus, however, distinguishes Leucippus from Democritus, and Aristotle and Theophrastus expressly credit him with the invention of Atomism. There seems, therefore, no reason to doubt his existence, although nothing is known of his life, and even his birthplace is uncertain. Between Leucippus and Democritus there is an interval of at least forty years; accordingly, while the beginnings of Atomism are closely connected with the doctrines of the Eleatics, the system as developed by Democritus is conditioned by the sophistical views of his time, especially those of Protagoras.

Leucippus birth and death

View one larger picture. Biography Leucippus of Miletus carried on the scientific philosophy which had begun to become associated with Miletus. We know little of his life but it is thought that he founder the School at Abdera on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Nestos River. Today the town is in Greece and is called Avdhira. At the time that Leucippus would have lived in Abdera it was a prosperous town which politically was a member of the Delian League. The philosopher Protagoras was born in Abdera and he was a contemporary of Leucippus but Protagoras, the first of the Sophists , spent most of his life in Athens and may have left Abdera before Leucippus arrived there. Although now there seems little doubt that Leucippus existed, it is worth remarking that Epicurus , at the end of the fourth century BC, actually believed that Leucippus had never existed since so little was known of him. However we now know enough in the way of independent evidence to be sure that Leucippus did exist. Aristotle refers to Leucippus as a philosopher with rather different views to those of Parmenides. Aristotle refers to him several times and quotes from his works on a number of occasions. For example in De caelo Aristotle writes Unfortunately Aristotle is not entirely consistent in his references to Leucippus. Some quotes suggest that atomism began with Leucippus , other quotes such as the one above bracket Leucippus and Democritus , while in a few places Aristotle seems to imply that Democritus alone invented atomism.

The Earth and the cosmos —including the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and anything else visible in the night sky—exist together in the void. Doric Hexapolis c.

He is traditionally credited as the founder of atomism , which he developed with his student Democritus. Leucippus divided the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up all things, and the void , the nothingness that exists between the atoms. He developed his philosophy as a response to the Eleatics , who believed that all things are one and the void does not exist. Leucippus's ideas were influential in ancient and Renaissance philosophy. His philosophy was a precursor to modern atomic theory , but the two only superficially resemble one another. Leucippus's atoms come in infinitely many forms and exist in constant motion. This creates a deterministic world in which everything is caused by the collisions of atoms.

The first of the Greek atomists, Leucippus was probably the founder of the school of Abdera, whose most famous exponent was Democritus. Although at the end of the fourth century B. Epicurus denied that there had ever been any such person as Leucippus, the evidence of Aristotle is sufficient to establish that he existed and that he was earlier in date than Democritus. Aristotle treated his theories as providing a logical alternative to those of Parmenides, and a later tradition actually made him a pupil of Zeno, of the school of Parmenides. But neither the chronology of Democritus nor the relationship of Leuippus to Parmenides is in any way certain. Leucippus probably came from Miletus in Ionia and may have brought knowledge of the physical theories of the Ionians with him to Abdera in Thrace, either sometime after its refoundation as a colony about B. By the fourth century B. Therefore, at many points it is no longer possible to distinguish what originated with Leucippus from what may have been added by Democritus. For the origins of atomism and the theories given in the Democritean corpus, see Democritus. Both matter and void have real existence.

Leucippus birth and death

The Greek tradition regarded Leucippus as the founder of atomism in ancient Greek philosophy. Little is known about him, and his views are hard to distinguish from those of his associate Democritus. He is sometimes said to have been a student of Zeno of Elea, and to have devised the atomist philosophy in order to escape from the problems raised by Parmenides and his followers. His dates are unknown, other than that he lived during the fifth century BCE. Zeno is best known for paradoxes suggesting that motion would be impossible if a magnitude could be divided into an infinite number of parts, each of which must be traversed, and other absurdities associated with taking magnitudes to be infinitely divisible. The likelihood that atomism is thought to have been formulated at least partly in response to these arguments may account for the story that Leucippus was a student of Zeno.

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However we now know enough in the way of independent evidence to be sure that Leucippus did exist. Natorp likewise rejected that Diogenes of Apollonia was preceded by Leucippus. Lunar Crater Leucippus Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries. Sleep is a similar state in which a reduced number of soul atoms are in the body. It seems likely that Democritus as a pupil of Leucippus, developed the ideas of his teacher but it is quite beyond us to disentangle the contributions of each to this important doctrine. List of ancient Greeks. Bibliography Texts Diels, H and W. Aristotle refers to Leucippus as a philosopher with rather different views to those of Parmenides. Plato Speusippus Xenocrates more The atomist philosophy of Leucippus and Democritus influenced Greek philosophy for centuries, particularly in the work of Aristotle and Epicurus. Barrett; D. The Eleatics believed that nothingness, or the void , cannot exist in its own right. They shifted around each other until they were sorted "like to like".

This is a beta version of NNDB. Leucippus Born: fl 5th c.

The Earth and the cosmos —including the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and anything else visible in the night sky—exist together in the void. 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. The theory of the atomists appears to be more nearly aligned with that of modern science than any other theory of antiquity. Almost nothing is known about the life of Leucippus. Leucippus's atomism was a direct response to Eleatic philosophy. According to Archimedes , [h] Democritus was among the first to observe that a cone and pyramid with the same base area and height has one-third the volume of a cylinder or prism respectively, a result which Archimedes states was later proved by Eudoxus of Cnidus. Both the void and the solid atoms within it are thought to be infinite, and between them to constitute the elements of everything. They shifted around each other until they were sorted "like to like". The atomist philosophy of Leucippus and Democritus influenced Greek philosophy for centuries, particularly in the work of Aristotle and Epicurus. His relationship to Democritus, and even his very existence, was a subject of considerable controversy in nineteenth century scholarship Graham History Geography. The outer membrane continually acquires other atoms from outside when it contacts them, which get ignited as they revolve and form the stars, with the sun in the outermost circle. W, a, The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus. Lunar Crater Leucippus How to cite this entry.