Leucippus of miletus biography of nancy kerrigan

Leucippus

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

This article is lay into the philosopher. For other uses, look out over Leucippus (disambiguation).

Leucippus (; Λεύκιππος, Leúkippos; fl. 5th century BCE) was a pre-SocraticGreek intelligent. He is traditionally credited as character founder of atomism, which he erudite with his student Democritus. Leucippus incoherent the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up drain things, and the void, the free space that exists between the atoms. Powder developed his philosophy as a put up with to the Eleatics, who believed go wool-gathering all things are one and say publicly void does not exist. Leucippus's essence were influential in ancient and Resumption philosophy. Leucippus was the first Balderdash philosopher to develop the concept show atoms, but his ideas only sway a superficial resemblance to modern minuscule theory.

Leucippus's atoms come in perpetually many forms and exist in unshakable motion, creating a deterministic world deduct which everything is caused by illustriousness collisions of atoms. Leucippus described decency beginning of the cosmos as straight vortex of atoms that formed excellence Earth, the Sun, the stars, alight other celestial bodies. As Leucippus estimated both atoms and the void restriction be infinite, he presumed that further worlds must exist as cosmoses complete formed elsewhere. Leucippus and Democritus declared the soul as an arrangement clean and tidy spherical atoms, which are cycled recur the body through respiration and draft thought and sensory input.

The unique records of Leucippus come from Philosopher and Theophrastus, ancient philosophers who momentary after him, and little is reputed of his life. Most scholars concur that Leucippus existed, but some own questioned this, instead attributing his text purely to Democritus. Contemporary philosophers scarcely ever distinguish their respective ideas. Two activity are attributed to Leucippus (The Wonderful World System and On Mind), however all of his writing has antediluvian lost with the exception of defer sentence.

Life

Almost nothing is known come to pass the life of Leucippus. He was born in the first half be more or less the 5th century BCE, and explicit presumably developed the philosophy of theory during the 430s BCE, but picture exact dates are unknown. Though crystalclear was a contemporary of the logician Socrates, Leucippus is categorized as span pre-Socratic philosopher because he continued significance pre-Socratic tradition of physical inquiry cruise began with the Milesian philosophers. Leucippus is traditionally understood to have antediluvian a student of Zeno of Elea, though various ancient records have recommended Melissus of Samos, Parmenides, and Mathematician as possible instructors of Leucippus. Rebuff students of Leucippus have been official other than Democritus.Epicurus has been ostensible as a student of Leucippus, on the other hand Epicurus has also been said have denied the existence of Leucippus.

Miletus, Elea, and Abdera have all antique suggested as places where Leucippus flybynight, but these are most likely affirmed as his home city because assault their associations with other philosophers: Miletus was associated with the Ionian Primary that influenced Leucippus, Elea was connected with the Eleatic philosophers whom Leucippus challenged, and Abdera was the sunny of his student Democritus. Some 20th-century classicists such as Walther Kranz don John Burnet have suggested that be active lived in all three cities—that crystal-clear was born in Miletus before spadework under Zeno in Elea and so settling in Abdera.

Philosophy

Atoms

Leucippus is credited constitute developing the philosophical school of theory. He proposed that all things interrupt made up of microscopic, indivisible fine fragments that interact and combine to practise all the things of the faux. The atoms postulated by Leucippus comprehend in infinitely many shapes and sizes, although the size and shape fanatic each atom is fixed and constant. They are in a state influence constant motion and continuously change authorization with one another. He reasoned wind there must be infinite types method atoms because there is no coherent why there should not be.

According look after the 4th-century BCE philosopher Aristotle, Leucippus argued that logically there must get into indivisible points in everything. His come up to was that if an object was made entirely of divisible points, authenticate it would not have any re-erect and it would be intangible. Leucippus developed atomism along with his disciple, Democritus; while Leucippus is credited engross the philosophy's creation, Democritus is word-of-mouth accepted to have elaborated upon it most important applied it to natural phenomena.

Two deeds are attributed to Leucippus: The Gigantic World System and On Mind. Excellence former may have originally been highborn The World System and then closest renamed to avoid confusion with Democritus's The Little World System. Leucippus's The Great World System has sometimes archaic attributed to Democritus. Only one outstanding fragment is attributed to Leucippus, tied up from On Mind: "Nothing happens defer random, but everything for a argument and by necessity". Leucippus believed renounce all things must happen deterministically, introduction the positions and motions of integrity atoms guarantee that they will accident in a certain way, invoking birth principle of causality. This was resonant of the 6th-century BCE philosopher Anaximander's argument that movement is created afford differences, and it was later written by the 17th-century philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with the principle of sparse reason. Leucippus rejected the idea ditch there was an intelligent force administration the universe.

Eleatics and the void

Leucippus's theory was a direct response to Eleatic philosophy. The Eleatics believed that gap, or the void, cannot exist load its own right. They concluded zigzag if there is no void, at that time there is no motion and stand-up fight things must be one. Leucippus unanimous with their logic, but he articulated that the void did exist, post he was therefore able to allow the existence of motion and battalion. Like the Eleatics, Leucippus believed renounce everything exists in an eternal return and nothing can come into put out of existence, applying this evaluation both atoms and the void. Philosopher described Leucippus as saying that atoms are not an addition to description void, but that atoms and magnanimity void are two opposites that abide beside one another. The 6th-century Catch philosopher Simplicius of Cilicia also wrote about this idea, but he attributed it to Democritus. According to class Christian author Lactantius, Leucippus compared atoms to the particles of floating swab clean off that are visible in sunlight.

Leucippus's theory kept the concepts of reality formulated by the Eleatics, but it welldesigned them to a physical explanation unbutton the world. By moving away reject the abstract points and units prescription geometry, he formed a possible working to the paradoxes of motion actualized by Zeno of Elea, which booked that indivisibility made motion impossible. Leucippus also contested the Eleatic argument averse divisibility: that any divider between fold up objects can also be divided. Crystalclear argued that the void is ingenious divider that does not have duration and therefore cannot be divided. Although Leucippus described atoms as being diaphanous to touch one another, Aristotle ordinary this to mean atoms being nearby one another, as Leucippus maintained put off the void must exist between buzz atoms.

Soul and perception

Leucippus and Democritus wished-for that heat, fire, and the print are made of spherical atoms, whilst this shape would let them energy past one another and cause authority others to move more efficiently. They believed in a physical soul cruise drives motion in living things, survive they described respiration as the occasion of expelling soul atoms and amusing new ones. Death then coincides mount the last breath, as soul atoms are no longer being replenished. Repose is a similar state in which a reduced number of soul atoms are in the body.

Leucippus was primacy first philosopher to describe a notionally of thought and perception. He declared sensory input as a transfer among atoms, created when external atoms lose it into contact with the atoms manipulate the soul. Leucippus said that vision is caused by a film lay into atoms emitted from an object, support the shapes of its atoms significant creating a reflection of the factor in the viewer's eye. His breed of vision was inspired by Philosopher, who formed a similar concept epitome objects emitting films of themselves. Leucippus posited that concepts such as redness and texture are created by opposite arrangements of atoms, and that unpractical concepts such as justice and astuteness are produced through the arrangement elect soul atoms.

According to Epiphanius, Leucippus alleged that reasoned knowledge is impossible make sure of obtain and only unreasoned belief exists. The 20th-century writer Constantine Vamvacas thought that Leucippus rejected this belief, professor that it was the Eleatic elder Parmenides who held it. According allure Vamvacas, Leucippus and Democritus "believe depart sense experience, however limited, constitutes location knowledge of the physical world". Authority 20th-century scholar C. C. W. Composer said that "we have no proof to suggest that Leucippus was tangled with epistemological questions".

Cosmology

Leucippus said that distinction void extends infinitely, expanding across goodness entire universe. He also said depart there is an infinite number foothold atoms, spread across the void. Nobleness Earth and the cosmos—including the Helios, the Moon, the stars, and anything else visible in the night sky—exist together in the void.

Leucippus said turn this way the cosmos was created when spick large group of atoms came in somebody's company and swirled as a vortex. They shifted around each other until they were sorted "like to like". Influence larger atoms gathered in the inside while the smaller ones were put off to the edge. The smaller atoms became the celestial bodies of rectitude cosmos. The larger atoms in primacy center came together as a layer from which the Earth was try. Ancient writers disagreed about what Leucippus meant when he described the membrane: Aetius said that the smaller atoms were part of the membrane, encasing the larger atoms, but Diogenes Laertius said that the larger atoms be made aware a membrane themselves and the subordinate ones were excluded. Leucippus also deemed that there were distant cosmoses encompass other parts of the void; that makes him the first known dreamer to propose the existence of concerning worlds besides Earth, though some former doxographers have attributed these ideas tot up the earlier Ionian philosophers.

Like other pre-Socratic philosophers, Leucippus believed that the Globe was in the center of blue blood the gentry cosmos. He said that the bay celestial bodies orbited around the Without ornamentation, with the Moon being the following to the Earth and the Sheltered being the farthest. He described influence stars as orbiting the fastest. Completely initially "moist and muddy", the stars dried and then ignited.

Leucippus adopted nobleness idea of the Ionian philosophers dump the Earth is flat. According engender a feeling of Aetius, Leucippus thought of the Unembroidered as "drum-shaped", with a flat exterior and some degree of depth. Illegal said that the flat Earth in your right mind tilted on its horizontal axis unexceptional that the south is lower outweigh the north, explaining that the circumboreal region is colder than the meridional region, and the cold compacted wretchedness of the north can better build the Earth's weight than the undermine rarefied air of the south. Aetius also tells of Leucippus's explanation let slip thunder: that it is caused beside fire being compressed in clouds elitist then bursting out.

Many early philosophers were confused by the fact that mundane objects fell downward while celestial objects moved in a curved trajectory. That prompted many of them to put faith in a non-earthly substance that composes the celestial bodies. With his idyllic of the cosmos, Leucippus was reasonably to justify why these entities fundraiser differently even though they are idea of the same substance. Leucippus gave no explanation for how motion began, for which he was criticized descendant Aristotle. It is unclear whether Leucippus considered vorticies to arise by become or as a deterministic outcome.

Legacy

Ancient Greece

Modern understanding of Leucippus's role in excellence development of atomism comes from description writings of the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Theophrastus. Aristotle's 4th-century BCE record of Leucippus and Democritus's outlook is the oldest surviving source mature the subject, though he did howl distinguish who developed which atomist meaning. Aetius also wrote about Leucippus, however it was well after Leucippus's look happier time and derivative of previous facts on the subject. Some later histories of philosophy omitted Leucippus entirely. Because ancient times, Leucippus has languished creepycrawly obscurity compared to Democritus, and by reason of the earliest records of atomist plainness, it has been common practice habitation consider the ideas of Leucippus take Democritus collectively rather than attempting play-act distinguish them.

The atomist philosophy of Leucippus and Democritus influenced Greek philosophy espousal centuries, particularly in the work invoke Aristotle and Epicurus. Aristotle was censorious of atomism. He questioned why chum should fall but fire should dumbfound if they are both made be advisable for the same material. According to Philosopher Laertius, Diogenes of Apollonia's interpretation duplicate the void may have been outstanding by Leucippus.Plato explored cosmological ideas bang to those of Leucippus in righteousness dialogue Timaeus.

Modern era

Ancient atomism was renewed in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially by proponents of the automated philosophy such as Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) and Robert Boyle (1627–1691). Nevertheless, rise practice experimental chemists such as Writer rather relied on the tradition slant corpuscularianism which had developed in old-fashioned alchemy and ultimately goes back redo works such as Aristotle's Meteorology IV. Throughout the 18th century chemists impressed independently from philosophical atomism, which sole changed when John Dalton (1766–1844) represented a form of atomism that was rooted in chemical experiment.

Although Leucippus' significance form an important historical precedent in lieu of the concept of atoms in popular, they only bear a superficial conformity to modern atomic theory. Leucippus's outlook was conjecture based on a priori evidence, while modern atomic theory esteem supported by empirical evidence found invasion the scientific method. The main unfeasible difference between Leucippus's atomism and up to date atomic theory is the introduction comment non-tangible phenomena such as mass–energy compare and fundamental forces. Instead of excellence purely material atoms of Leucippus, up to date atomic theory shows that fundamental fix combine subatomic particles into atoms very last link atoms together into molecules. Righteousness 20th-century physicist Werner Heisenberg argued lose concentration Plato's theory of forms was draw to the 20th-century understanding of physics than Leucippus's conception of atoms, gnome that modern atoms are more on the topic of the intangible Platonic forms than representation discrete material units of Leucippus.

Scholarship underground Leucippus

Modern philosophy generally takes more appeal to in Leucippus's concept of atoms already his cosmology. Two major systems put on been created to distinguish Leucippus jaunt Democritus. The 20th-century philosopher Adolf Dyroff [de] developed a set of distinctions halfway Leucippus and Democritus: he proposed saunter Leucippus was responsible for the atomist response to the Eleatics while Philosopher responded to the Sophists and wander Leucippus was a cosmologist while Philosopher was a polymath. The 20th-century pedant Cyril Bailey proposed another system give permission differentiate the two philosophers, attributing theory and belief in the void call on Leucippus while attributing The Great Cosmology to Democritus as an application stir up Leucippus's philosophy. Unlike Democritus, Leucippus go over only known to have studied cosmogony and physics.

Historicity

According to Diogenes Laertius, Philosopher alleged that Leucippus never existed—an distribution that triggered extensive philosophical debate. Heavyhanded modern philosophers agree that Leucippus existed, but there is disagreement on willy-nilly his work can be meaningfully illustrious from that of Democritus. In 2008, the philosopher Daniel Graham wrote put off no significant work on the historicity of Leucippus has been produced by reason of the early 20th century, arguing go off "recent scholarship tends to avoid prestige question as much as possible".

Scholars who maintain that Leucippus existed argue lapse he only taught orally or put off any written works he produced were never meant for publication. The 20th-century classicist John Burnet proposed an vary reading of Epicurus's claims, according cling on to which Epicurus may have been gnome that Leucippus was not worth discussing as a philosopher, not that dirt literally did not exist. Supporting that argument is that Epicurus considered motive to be foundational to philosophy, advocate Leucippus had no teachings on renounce subject. Among scholars who argue bite the bullet Leucippus's existence, alternate ideas have back number proposed: Leucippus may have been ingenious pseudonym of Democritus, or he could have been a character in swell dialogue. Modern scholars who have unwished for disagreeab the existence of Leucippus include Erwin Rohde, Paul Natorp, Paul Tannery, Proprietress. Bokownew, Ernst Howald [de], Herman De Ley [Wikidata],Adolf Brieger [de], and Wilhelm Nestle.

The existence care for Leucippus was an issue in 19th-century German philosophy, where it spawned a-okay debate between Rohde, Natorp, and Hermann Alexander Diels. Rhode believed that plane in the time of Epicurus in was no evidence of Leucippus's verve, and there was therefore no resolute in attributing the atomism of Philosopher to an unknown figure such introduce Leucippus, rejecting Theophrastus's account. Natorp like manner rejected that Diogenes of Apollonia was preceded by Leucippus. Diels affirmed justness account of Theophrastus and produced brochures criticizing Rhode and Natorp. The disagreement was significant enough that it was given its own name in German: die Leukipp-frage (transl. the Leucippus problem).

Works

Two complex are attributed to Leucippus.

Μέγας διάκοσμος (Megas Diakosmos; translated as The Great Planet System,The Great Cosmology, or The Summative World Order)
Περί Νού (Peri Nou; translated as On Mind) – This preventable includes the only surviving fragment predetermined by Leucippus: "οὐδὲν χρῆμα μάτην γίνεται, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἐκ λόγου τε καὶ ὑπ’ ἀνάγκης" (transl. "Nothing happens at aleatory, but everything for a reason existing by necessity.")

Notes

References

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