ATOMISM

Atomism was founded by Leucippus (who flourished around 440 BC) but was primarily elaborated by Democritus (c. 460-370 BC) as a way of reconciling the Eleatic doctrine of the impossibility of change with our observational evidence for the reality of change. According to Democritus, the world consists of an infinite number of indivisible atoms moving within a void, and while the atoms themselves neither come into being nor perish, we can accommodate our observation of (macroscopic) change in terms of the continuous (microscopic) variation in the position and configuration of these atoms. While any specific similarity to contemporary subatomic physics is quite limited, Atomism represents a methodological shift toward a more recognizably scientific attitude in two important respects: the importance given to reconciling abstract theory with observational evidence, and the attempt to provide a mechanistic explanation for phenomena, in contrast to the genealogical or teleological attempts favored at the time. Democritus further held that since the only real properties are the properties of atoms (namely, weight and mass), and since atoms are invisible, we have no direct knowledge of the world. Much as the Empiricists of the seventeenth century concluded, such properties as taste, color, and sound are primarily due to our sense organs rather than to the inherent reality of the physical world.