Democritus

Democritus of Abdera (c. 460-370 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher, also known as the "laughing philosopher" or "laughing philosopher," for having a tendency to laugh at the world and its problems. One of his main contributions to philosophy and science was atomism, understanding that the universe is made up of millions of tiny particles.

 

According to Democritus, there are two first principles in things: atoms and emptiness. Atoms are indivisible particles of matter, immutable, eternal and are in constant motion in the most varied directions. Democritus' philosophy is inspired by the need to combine the permanence of being with the explanation of change.

 

For Democritus, what we call generation and corruption is nothing more than mixing and separating the original elements. Logic and physics are the foundation of morality, which should provide happiness, freeing from the fear of the gods.

 

Democritus also explained sensations in a mechanistic way, defended hedonistic ethics and cosmopolitan democratic politics. Traditionally he is considered a Presocratic philosopher, although it is a chronological error, since he was a contemporary of Socrates, but from the philosophical point of view he is associated with the Presocratics due to his physical theme (physis), while Socrates and the philosophers who followed him they addressed an ethical-political issue.

 

Furthermore

 

Leucippus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the 5th century BC. C. and founder of atomism. He moved to Elea, where he would have been a disciple of Zeno and a teacher of Democritus 1. Democritus developed the “atomic theory of the universe”, conceived by his mentor, the philosopher Leucippus 2.

 

Democritus's exact contributions are difficult to separate from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in doxographers' texts.

 

Doxography is a branch of philosophy that includes those works dedicated to collecting the views of philosophers and scientists of the past on philosophy, science and other subjects.