The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Democritus

c. 460 – after 400 BCE

Also known as Democritus of Abdera, the laughing philosopher

Co-founder of ancient atomism, who held that the world is made of indivisible atoms moving in void, and that the good life is one of cheerfulness.

By convention sweet and by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention color: in reality atoms and void.

Fragments, DK 68B125, translation as quoted by Patricia Curd

A younger contemporary of Socrates, Democritus came from Abdera in northern Greece, where he was born around 460 BCE. Ancient reports say he lived to a great age, some claiming more than a hundred years, but little about his life is certain. None of his many works on ethics, physics, mathematics, music and cosmology survives; his views are known through others, above all Aristotle, who treated him as a serious rival and praised the soundness of his reasoning.

With his teacher Leucippus, of whom little is known, he founded atomism, which is generally read as an answer to Parmenides’ argument that change is impossible. Of the ancient accounts of nature that did not rely on purpose or design, it was the most influential. Epicurus later took it over and reworked it. In antiquity Democritus was known as the “laughing philosopher” for the value he placed on cheerfulness.

Key ideas

Atoms and void
There are only atoms, indivisible, unchangeable and infinite in number, and the void in which they move. Everything we see is a cluster of atoms, and all change is atoms rearranging, so nothing needs to come to be from nothing.
Qualities by convention
Colours, tastes and temperatures belong to how things affect us, not to the atoms themselves, which have only shape, size and arrangement. Sweet and bitter exist “by convention”; in reality there are atoms and void.
The gap between senses and reality
Our knowledge of the world comes through the senses, yet the senses report qualities that atoms lack and never reach the atoms themselves. Democritus was aware of the sceptical worry this raises, though he did not pursue a consistently sceptical programme.
Cheerfulness
The good is an inner state of mind, which Democritus called cheerfulness (euthymia): freedom from fear, reached by moderation in pleasure and by caring for the soul as medicine cares for the body.
Tradition
Western
Region
Abdera, northern Greece
Schools
Atomism

Influences

Influenced by

Democritusc. 460 – after 400 BCE

Influenced

Influenced by

Democritusc. 460 – after 400 BCE

Influenced

Where these links come from
  • Democritus drew on and argued against Parmenides. Source: Sylvia Berryman, Democritus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Democritus argued against Protagoras. Source: Mauro Bonazzi, Protagoras, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Epicurus drew on Democritus. Source: David Konstan, Epicurus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Sources

  1. Sylvia Berryman, Democritus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. Sylvia Berryman, Ancient Atomism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  3. Patricia Curd, Presocratic Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  4. Diogenes Laertius, translated by R. D. Hicks, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, book 9, Wikisource
  5. Mauro Bonazzi, Protagoras, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy