Democritus
At a glance:
- Series: World Philosophers and Their Works
- Categories: Philosophy, Religion, Ethics, Science
- Subcategories: Philosophers, Hellenistic Age, Ancient Greece
- Curriculum: Western Civilization/European History, Ancient History
Article abstract: 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 addressed one of the central questions of his age—How is change possible?—and provided a model of reasoning that was mechanistic, materialist, and nonsupernatural.
Early Life
Democritus 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...
[The entire page is 2562 words long]