Democritus
460 BCE – 370 BCE Greek philosopher
The philosopher who proposed that everything is made of atoms in a void.
- Religion
- Greek polytheism, though his atomism left no role for divine intervention in nature.
- Affiliations
- None known.
Democritus, with his teacher Leucippus, held that the world consists of tiny indivisible particles moving in empty space. This materialist picture, dismissed for centuries, anticipated modern atomic theory. His cheerful ethics also earned him the nickname the laughing philosopher.
Connections
- influenced Epicurus — Epicurus built his physics on Democritean atomism.