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Democritus

About Me

Along with my teacher Leucippus, I am credited with one of the first and most enduring responses to Parmenides' challenge to philosophy, followed by Zeno, which claimed against all common sense that change and becoming are impossible. But the possibility of thought as a motion of the soul already refutes it. Plato famously wished all of my books burned, and viciously excluded any allusion to me in his dialogues, undoubtedly because he was not up to the task to challenge any of my claims. It was, of course, more in vogue at the time to respond to Parmenides' riddle rather, so that is a forgivable case, being the dramatist he was. For already by the 5th C. BCE I was already Plato's greatest rival to a genuinely robust view of the kosmos, which began with the mental map or opinion of an atomistic universe. Epicurus would exploit my view that the soul is an atomic product formed by the mutual attraction of soul atoms (which is not to appeal to an immortality of the soul) and he would moreover adopt my view that the best goal of existence one can choose in this life is the life of tranquility. Yet I am otherwise known as the "laughing philosopher" because of my emphasis on cheerfulness in life. Diogenes Laertius in the 3rd. C CE calls me "the prince of philosophers," perhaps since I was even more prolific than Plato (I wrote thirteen tetralogies, encompassing fifty-five books, whereas Plato only wrote nine tetralogies), but also because of my popular renown for zeal as an orator. Modern science discovered the theory of the atom through laborious and slavish years of experimental observation. I came upon it simply through the intuition of introspection, a method of course owing to Heraclitus, two and a half millenia earlier than today, and logical deduction in Parmenides' spirit, correcting him wherever necessary. There is in existence Being and Not-Being (atoms and the void). The Milky Way is a galaxy, the moon derives its shine from the sun, the universe lacks purposiveness, but all is ordained not through the gods, who do not exist, but through necessity and nothing besides. Naturally, I am the forerunner to Epicurus, Lucretius, natural science (physics), philosophical materialism, and Nietzsche. My works have suffered the common fate of truth in time, that is to say, general amnesia and disrepute. Unlike Plato, whose works have received a greater reception than my own, no complete work of mine remains.

My Interests

Books:

The ethical works are the following:
I. Pythagoras.
Of the Disposition of the Wise Man.
Of those in Hades.
Tritogenia (so called because three things, on which all mortal life depends, come from her).
II. Of Manly Excellence, or Of Virtue.
Alalthea's Horn (the Horn of Plenty).
Of Tranquility.
Ethical Commentaries: the work on Well-being is not to be found.
So much for the ethical works.
The physical works are these:
III. The Great Diacosmos (which the school of Theophrastus attribute to Leucippus). The Lesser Diacosmos.
Description of the World.
On the Planets.
IV. Of Nature, one book.
Of the Nature of Man, or Of Flesh, a second book on Nature.
Of Reason.
Of the Senses (some editors combine these two under the title Of the Soul.).
V. Of Flavours.
Of Colours.
Of the Different Shapes (of Atoms).
Of Changes of Shape.
VI. Confirmations (summaries of the aforesaid works).
On Images, or On Foreknowledge of the Future.
On Logic, or Criterion of Thought, three books. Problems.
So much for the physical works.
The following fall under no head:
Causes of Celestial Phenomena.
Causes of Phenomena in the Air.
Causes on the Earth's Surface.
Causes concerned with Fire and Things in Fire.
Causes concerned with Sounds.
Causes concerned with Seeds, Plants and Fruits.
Causes concerned with Animals, three books.
Miscellaneous Causes.
Concerning the Magnet.
These works have not been arranged.
The mathematical works are these:
VII. On a Difference in an Angle, or On Contact with the Circle or the Sphere.
On Geometry.
Geometrica.
Numbers.
VII. On Irrational Lines and Solids, two books.
Extensions (Projections).
The Great Year, or Astronomy, Calendar.
Contention of the Water-clock .
IX. Description of the Heaven.
Geography.
Description of the Pole.
Description of the Rays of Light.
These are the mathematical works.
The literary and musical works are these:
X. On Rhythms and Harmony.
On Poetry.
On Beauty of Verses.
On Euphonious and Cacophonous Letters.
XI. Concerning Homer, or On Correct Epic Diction, and On Glosses.
Of Song.
On Words.
A Vocabulary.
So much for the works on literature and music.
The works on the arts are these:
XII. Prognostication.
Of Diet, or Diaetetics.
Medical Regimen.
Causes concerned with Things Seasonable and Unseasonable.
XIII. Of Agriculture, or Concerning Land Measurements.
Of Painting.
Treatise on Tactics, and
On Fighting in Armour.
So much for these works.
Some include as separate items in the list the following works taken from his notes:
Of the Sacred Writings in Babylon.
Of those in Meroe.
A Voyage round the Ocean.
Of History.
A Chaldaean Treatise.
A Phrygian Treatise.
Concerning Fever and those whose Malady makes them Cough.
Legal Causes and Effects.
Problems wrought by Hand.
The other works which some attribute to Democritus are either compilations from his writings or admittedly not genuine. So much for the books that he wrote and their number.
~Diogenes Laertius

My Blog

LIFE OF DEMOCRITUS - Diogenes Laertius

..> Lives index   ..> THE LIVES AND OPINIONS OF EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS BY DIOGENES LAERTIUS, TRANSLATED BY C.D. YONGE LIFE OF DEMOCRITUS ..> I. DEMOCRITUS was the son of Hegesistratus...
Posted by Democritus on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:35:00 PST

Reality and Opinion

In reality we know nothing about anything, but for each person opinion is a reshaping [of the soul atoms by the atoms entering from without].
Posted by Democritus on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:30:00 PST