Introduction to Democritus

the pre-socratics lecture 7 Democritus we have reached the final lecture in our exploration through the ideas of the earliest known philosophers of Western civilization the pre-socratics in this final lecture we will direct our attention to Democritus who is most famous for being one of the founders of the philosophical doctrine known as atom ISM as a quick side note a philosopher known as Leucippus is often heralded as the founder of atomism and the teacher of Democritus however nothing is known of Leucippus and some ancient philosophers denied that he even existed thus for our lecture we will proceed with attributing the ideas of atomism to Democritus alone the pre-socratics influence on Plato and Aristotle is well known however the ideas of Democritus are somewhat unique among the pre-socratics in that his atom ISM along with playing a formative role in shaping the thought of Plato and Aristotle influenced the mechanical philosophy a view which was to become dominant during the Scientific Revolution the mechanical philosophy was developed by thinkers such as Rene Descartes Pierre Gassendi Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton while many of the ideas of the mechanical philosophers have been abandoned the idea that the universe is composed of tiny building blocks called atoms remained influential up until the 20th century and as we will see the idea of atoms was first put forth by Democritus over 2,000 years ago the great 20th century physicist Richard Feynman once said that if in some Cataclysm all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words I believe that it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms little particles that move around in perpetual motion so who was this man who first put forth the scientific statement which according to Feynman contains the most information in the words Democritus was born in approximately 460 BC in Abdera a town in northern Greece perhaps more than any other pre-socratic philosopher Democritus deserves the epithet genius he is said to have written over 60 works on topics ranging from ethics physics astronomy medicine and musical theory to name but a few of his subjects of interest unfortunately none of these works survive and for knowledge of him we must rely on a few fragments of his works which remain and on the reports of other ancient philosophers although Democritus was interested in a wide range of subjects he is most famous for the claim that the universe is composed of atoms and void an idea which as we mentioned was to have a profound influence on future philosophers and scientists the word atom comes from the greek word a Tomos which combines the privat of AA indicating absence with the verb Tomos which means to split so the word atomos or Adam means unsplit Abel Democritus is atoms were to him the fundamental building blocks of everything in the universe and were indivisible solid and indestructible these atoms exist in the void which Democritus conceived of as empty space or nothingness and all things in this world are created when atoms collide and become entangled with each other along with positing the existence of void something which earlier pre-socratics such as Parmenides had denied as a possibility Democritus was groundbreaking for his explanation regarding the nature of qualities such as hot cold sweet or wet impedir emember from a previous lecture claimed that the basic constituents of the universe are particles of water earth air and fire a fire particle for example is hot while a water particle has the quality of wetness Democritus asserted that atoms are not hot or wet in fact he claimed that they have no qualities what's ever to understand this idea it will be helpful to invoke a concept commonly used today in the discipline of philosophy of mind qualia are the phenomenal qualities that make up our subjective experience our experience of the redness of a rose the sound of a beautiful song or the sweetness of honey are all examples of qualia Democritus proposed that the qualia are not to be found in the atoms as they exist in reality in other words the objective character of atoms is that they are completely devoid of all qualities being devoid of all qualities Democritus thought that atoms are defined solely by three different quantitative measures more specifically he believed that atoms differ from one another according to their shape arrangement and position if atoms are defined solely by quantitative characteristics and are wholly devoid of qualities then how is it that our experience is always an experience of qualia to take a concrete example if a rose is nothing but a collection of atoms that are devoid of color then how is it that we experience a rose as being red to understand how Democritus answered this we must familiarize ourselves with a distinction which was present in the mind of every ancient Greek thinker of the fifth century BC that being the distinction between things that exist by nature and things that exist by convention or custom to use the Greek words thinkers in this ancient period distinguished between that which exists by physics and that which exists by Nomos what exists by nature or by fizzes is something that is objective and written into the fabric of nature or reality so that even if human beings were wiped from this earth that which exists by nature would remain in existence what exists by custom or Nomos is something which is an artificial human construction and dependent on the human mind for its existence if human beings were wiped from the earth that which exists by convention would also disappear ever now Democritus thought that the qualia we experienced do not exist by nature or in reality but exist by convention or Nomos our experience of sweet bitter cold and red arise when the atoms of the world contact the atoms in our body and thus are artificial constructions wholly dependent on human beings qualities to put it another way arise from the physical interaction of the atoms of the world with the atoms of our body in reality sweet bitter cold red and all other qualities do not exist and have no objective basis within the nature of things Democritus is most famous fragment conveys this notion he wrote by convention sweet by convention bitter by convention hot by convention cold by convention color but in reality atoms and void in the 17th century Galileo who as we mentioned at the onset of this lecture was influenced by atom ISM echoed this exact idea of democritus's I think therefore that these tastes odors colors etc so far as their objective existence is concerned are nothing but mere names for something which resides exclusively in our sensitive body so that if the perceiving creatures were removed all these qualities would be annihilated and abolished from existence Democritus is doctrine of atom ism also put forth some intriguing epistemological insights or in other words insights into the nature of knowledge the truth according to Democritus is that in reality there exists atoms and void however this truth lies hidden from our senses just as we cannot see from the surface what lies at the depths of the ocean we cannot through our senses perceive and come to obtain knowledge of atoms which are too small to be perceived in reality wrote Democritus we know nothing for truth is in the depths our experience of the world does not convey the truth regarding the nature of things there are no colors sounds tastes or smells in reality what we perceive with our senses is only apparent knowledge real knowledge or truth lies hidden within the depths of the universe a person must know that he is separated from reality wrote Democritus although according to Democritus the truth lies concealed within the depths of reality it is not impossible to arrive at truths Democritus himself thought he had arrived at a truth with his postulation that objective reality is constituted solely by atoms and void to arrive at the truth Democritus like Parmenides before him thought that one must rely on the mind or reason a view which in the pista mala ji has come to be known as rationalism while Democritus was similar to Parmenides in that he thought it was only through the use of our reason that we could obtain legitimate knowledge or truth he was unlike Parmenides and that he thought we must not disregard our senses altogether but instead utilized them as a starting point on the road to truth before we leave Democritus and conclude this final lecture on the pre-socratics we must briefly attend to his ethical ideas diogenes laërtius in his lives of eminent philosophers had this to say about democritus's thoughts on the good life the end of action is tranquility which is not identical with pleasure as some by a false interpretation have understood but a state in which the soul continues calm and strong undisturbed by any fear or superstition or any other emotion this he calls well-being and many other names in order to achieve tranquility and peace of mind Democritus thought it was necessary that one develop self-discipline and become the master of one's passions the courageous man is he who overcomes not only the enemy but pleasures also but some are masters of cities yet slaves to women he wrote however Democritus did not preach asceticism or a total renunciation of pleasures altogether instead indulging in pleasures in a controlled manner is necessary for tranquillity and peace of mind self-control increases the lights and makes pleasures greater he wrote it is likely that Democritus saw the masses of men as slaves to their passions and desires chasing blindly after money fame honor sexual gratification and social acceptance and concluded that such a slavish life is not a life worth living one must become the master of oneself the maker of one's destiny and the sculptor of one's character such a life is the only life appropriate to the human being as the third century neoplatonist porphyry wrote Democritus said that to live badly and not with prudence and self-control and holiness was not to live badly but to be a long time in dying we will conclude our final lecture of the pre-socratic series with a quote from Democritus which is eerily similar to one of the more famous quotes by Shakespeare Democritus unlike the other pre-socratics was not merely a natural philosopher he was a polymath and a genius with profound insights into the human condition the world is a stage he wrote life an entrance you came you saw you went away

Channel: Academy of Ideas

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Keywords: democritus, atoms, atoms and void, atomism, presocratics, presocratic philosophers, academy of ideas, atomic theory

Id: fEdAvTMYNRU

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 19 2013