PRESOCRATICS: The Atomists Leucippus and Democritus

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PRESOCRATICS The AtomistsLeucippus and
Democritus
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• ATOMISTS
• Leucippus (480-420?)
• Founder of school, teacher of Democritus
• Know nothing of his writings
• Democritus of Abdera (460-370)
• Migrated to Athens 420, but no one wanted to
  study with me
• Developed complete philosophical theory
• Metaphysics
• Epistemology
• Philosophy of Science
• Ethics
• Political Philosophy

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Atoms (Greek a-tom, no-cut) 

• the substances are so small they escape our
  senses. They have all kinds of forms and shapes
  and differences in size.
• Out of these elements he says, all visible and
  perceptible bodies are generated.
• As they move they strike against one another and
  become entangled in a way that makes them be in
  contact with and close to one another. Then some
  stronger necessity comes along from the
  environment and shakes them and scatters them
  about.

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Becoming (ta phainomena, empirical world as
known by perception) / Being
atoms Nothing the void (archai, origins
or principles underlying reality, known by
intellect)
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Atomic Physical Science

1. Causal explanation
2. System of objective laws of nature
3. Theoretical objects atoms whose combination
   movements explain phenomena
4. Evolving universe
5. Conscious/ subjective experience epiphenomena,
   smoke off engine

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Scientific Reductionism

• When they approach one another or collide or
  become entangled, the compounds appear as water
  or fire or as a plant or a human, but all things
  are atoms there is nothing else.
• -- Democritus

• Seemingly higher-order events or characteristics
  can be explained in terms of simpler elements of
  which the more complex wholes are composed.

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Metaphysical Implication

• World revealed by science is real (physis),
  whereas world of common sense or convention
  (nomos) is a kind of illusion.
• Science, not common sense, discloses the truth
  about things.

• By convention (nomos), sweet by convention,
  bitter by convention, hot by convention, color
  in reality (physis), atoms and the void.
• -- Democritus

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Quasi-Dualism of Atomist Metaphysics Becoming
physis, quantitative properties (qualitative
properties) / \ Being atoms in
relation (human subjectivity, nomos)
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Parable of the Two Chairs

• There is the ordinary chair we are all familiar
  witha solid object, immobile, made of wooden
  legs and seat, painted red or brown, capable of
  holding a two hundred pound manand the very
  different chair of physical science, which is
  composed mostly of empty space and atoms,
  colorless, kinetic.
• The one is what we are accustomed to in our
  normal, pragmatic way of experiencing things. But
  the other is the real chairthe chair that is the
  object of science. We think the chair is solid
  and immobile and colored in reality it is none
  of these.

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Are Qualitative Properties Real?

• Democritus
• quantitative properties of size, shape, position,
  speed of motion objective
• qualitative properties, e.g. blueness, sweetness
  merely subjective
• Likewise Galileo If the perceiving creatures
  were removed, all tastes, odors, colors, etc.
  would be abolished and annihilated from
  existence.
• When a tree falls in the forest, does it make a
  sound?
• Atomists it does not all that happens is the
  movement of atoms.
• (Of course, if a perceiver is nearby, some
  atoms will penetrate its ear-atoms, and this will
  move along the neural paths to the atoms of its
  brain. But in reality, there is no sound. )

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Epistemology

• There are two kinds of judgment, one legitimate,
  one bastard. These are bastard sight, hearing,
  smell, taste, touch.
• the Senses speaking Do you overthrow us,
  Reason? Then you overthrow yourself!

• Democritus basic teaching the senses deceive
  reason must discover the underlying (atomic)
  essence of things.
• But one quote recognizes the senses
  starting-points which lead, via reason, to atoms.
• This undercuts the claim that science articulates
  universal, necessary laws of nature.
• Thus critical reflection on the nature of
  knowledge leads to skepticism re the claim of
  science to explain reality.

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Three Problems

1. Teleology, or the existence of purpose/value in
   nature
2. Consciousness, or the mind-body problem.
3. Freedom and determinism, or the meaning of human
   choice in the world revealed by science.

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1. Teleology

• If nature governed by atoms and the void, there
  is no place for purpose or goals (teloi).
• But there seems to be a need for teleological
  explanation to understand structures and
  activities of living things.

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2. Consciousness or the Mind-Body Problem

• If Atomism is correct, consciousness is based on
  physical events in the brain.
• Which is true?
• Mind or consciousness identical with the brain
  and its operations.
• Mind or consciousness dependent on the brain
  and its operations, but different from it
• Mind or consciousness separate entity from the
  body (incl. the brain).

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Is the self a bundle?

• Atomists argue the self/mind a bundle of
  perceptions, thoughts, memories.
• What unifies these reference to the same body
  and memory
• The basis of mind neurological, biological and
  physical
• Evidence strong correlations between physical,
  esp. brain events and mental phenomena

• Substance and function-dualists argue self/mind
  owner of perceptions, thoughts, etc.
• What unifies these a self or mind that
  functions as an agent
• Self/mind an emergent form of being, that
  depends on but is ontologically different from
  body

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3. Freedom and determinism

• If the Atomists are right, whatever happens must
  happen, since no one could violate the laws of
  nature but then human beings are not morally
  responsible for their actions.
• Criticism It was as if someone said that the
  cause of my being here is that my body consists
  of bones and sinews, and that the relaxation and
  contraction of the sinews allows me to bend my
  limbs and not mention the true cause, namely,
  that the Athenians decided to condemn me, and
  that I decided that it was better and more right
  to endure their punishment than try to escape. -
  Socrates

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Scientism

• From beginning, Presocratics experienced
  alienation from world of conventional belief
• But with Scientistic Metaphysics of Atomists,
  there is a radical alienation
• Alienation from Nature which is revealed as a
  colorless, valueless, meaningless order of
  particles-in-collision
• Alienation from Society, which is revealed as
  governed by false consciousness re human values
  and powers
• Alienation from Self, insofar as human beings
  believe they are free and self-determining
  rational agents

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Politics

• Atomist natural science undercuts claims to human
  superiority or inferiority based on birth, or to
  government or laws based on religious authority
• It also undercuts claims to govern based on
  superior knowledge (wisdom or political
  science)
• Thus legitimate government would the agreement
  individuals would agree on, i.e. a Social
  Contract
• This government would reject slavery and be
  democratic

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Ethics

• Cheerfulness arises in humans through moderation
  and due proportion in life.
• Deficiencies and excesses change suddenly,
  causing disturbances in the soul. Those who
  undergo such movements are neither steady nor
  cheerful.
• It is best for a person is to live his life as
  cheerfully and unstressed as possible. This will
  occur if he does not make his pleasures in
  physical things but in friendship and the
  pleasures of science.

• Hedonism do what leads to the greatest
  pleasure in the long run. This implies
  moderation, not excess.
• Happiness a balanced, un-stressful life,
  enjoying pleasures of the mind, shared with
  friends.
• Epicurus and the Epicureans developed Atomism in
  the Roman era.