demiurge, a less radical distinction than that between divine hupostaseis upheld by
N A and Plo ̄tinos. Hence the demiurge remains the primary cause
of the universe, and yet his intellect is more distanced from the material world which
because of matter can taint and divide.
L. Brisson in M.O. Goulet-Gazé, R. Goulet, and D.J. O’Brien, Porphyry: La vie de Plotin 1 (1982) 78–79;
BNP 4 (2004) 269–270 (#2), M. Baltes and M.-L. Lakmann.
George Karamanolis
De ̄mokritos of Abde ̄ra (440 – 380 BCE)
Greek atomist and student of L, he was responsible for developing atomism
into a coherent philosophical system. Evidence about his life, travels, and teachings is sparse
and inconsistent, but he was most likely born about 460 BCE and died sometime after 380.
He is reported to have traveled widely, including to Egypt and Athens. We have the titles of
over 60 works, all of them lost. Apart from about 300 extant ethical sayings that have been
preserved, we must rely on testimonia in A and others to reconstruct his philo-
sophical system. De ̄mokritos greatly influenced E in the development of his own
atomic system.
Leukippos and De ̄mokritos developed atomism in response to the challenge posed by
the Eleatic philosopher P, who had argued that the apparent multiplicity of the
world around us is illusory, and that all that exists is Being, one and motionless. Motion,
plurality, and “not being” cannot and do not exist. Addressing this paradox, Leukippos and
De ̄mokritos divided the world into being and non-being, defining being as “the full” (i.e.,
without any empty space) and non-being as “the empty.” Being, or “the full,” was composed
of indestructible “atoms” (literally, “uncuttables”), and non-being, or “the empty,” was
described as empty space. “Being,” that is, each individual atom, was “one,” but could
move, thanks to the “existence” of non-being, or void. Leukippos and De ̄mokritos thus
explained how and in what sense being and non-being, and motion and plurality, could exist
while still meeting many of Parmenide ̄s’ objections.
Leukippos and De ̄mokritos taught that atoms were entities that were indivisible,
indestructible, and homogenous in substance. Atoms are infinite in number, and they come
in an infinite number of different shapes. Atoms thus possess the properties of size and
shape, but probably do not possess weight (which is apparently a quality that Epicurus later
ascribed to the atom). Atoms move through the void eternally in all directions, traveling in
one direction until they collide with another atom and rebound. As these atoms move and
collide eternally in the void, they at times fall into groupings called “vortexes.” Worlds or
kosmoi are formed as atoms in these vortexes are sorted out into various arrangements,
gradually forming elements and then compound bodies of various degrees of complexity.
An infinite number of worlds, including our own, are constantly coming into and out of
existence in the infinite void.
Within a world, all compound bodies, including inanimate objects, plants, animals, and
humans are made up of atoms jostling back and forth in the void. Both body and soul,
including the human soul, are made up of atoms. De ̄mokritos held that the human soul,
the source of human life, sensation, and thought, is made up, like fire, of tiny, smooth,
spherical atoms that move quickly at the slightest impulse. The soul is mortal, disintegrat-
ing along with the body at death. Sensation occurs when atoms from external objects
come in contact with our sense organs. Vision, for example, results from the impact on our
DE ̄MOKRITOS OF ABDE ̄RA