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    Ideas of The Ancient Greeks On Atom

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    Thalia Diosenne Arabes
    Leucippus and Democritus were early Greek philosophers who proposed the idea of the atom in the 5th century BCE. They believed that all matter was made up of indivisible atoms that came in different shapes and sizes, and that properties of substances were determined by the atoms that composed them. Democritus believed atoms were too small to see and existed in infinite varieties, floating in empty space. Plato rejected atomism because he felt the world's beauty and form could not be explained by atomic collisions. Aristotle also rejected atoms, believing matter was continuous and infinitely divisible. Epicurus and Lucretius later expanded on atomic ideas. Atomism was largely forgotten until renewed interest in the 17th century.

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    Ideas of The Ancient Greeks On Atom

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    Thalia Diosenne Arabes
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    Leucippus and Democritus were early Greek philosophers who proposed the idea of the atom in the 5th century BCE. They believed that all matter was made up of indivisible atoms that came in different shapes and sizes, and that properties of substances were determined by the atoms that composed them. Democritus believed atoms were too small to see and existed in infinite varieties, floating in empty space. Plato rejected atomism because he felt the world's beauty and form could not be explained by atomic collisions. Aristotle also rejected atoms, believing matter was continuous and infinitely divisible. Epicurus and Lucretius later expanded on atomic ideas. Atomism was largely forgotten until renewed interest in the 17th century.

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    Ideas of the Ancient Greeks on Atom

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    Leucippus and Democritus were early Greek philosophers who proposed the idea of the atom in the 5th century BCE. They believed that all matter was made up of indivisible atoms that came in different shapes and sizes, and that properties of substances were determined by the atoms that composed them. Democritus believed atoms were too small to see and existed in infinite varieties, floating in empty space. Plato rejected atomism because he felt the world's beauty and form could not be explained by atomic collisions. Aristotle also rejected atoms, believing matter was continuous and infinitely divisible. Epicurus and Lucretius later expanded on atomic ideas. Atomism was largely forgotten until renewed interest in the 17th century.

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    21 views2 pages

    Ideas of The Ancient Greeks On Atom

    Uploaded by

    Thalia Diosenne Arabes
    Leucippus and Democritus were early Greek philosophers who proposed the idea of the atom in the 5th century BCE. They believed that all matter was made up of indivisible atoms that came in different shapes and sizes, and that properties of substances were determined by the atoms that composed them. Democritus believed atoms were too small to see and existed in infinite varieties, floating in empty space. Plato rejected atomism because he felt the world's beauty and form could not be explained by atomic collisions. Aristotle also rejected atoms, believing matter was continuous and infinitely divisible. Epicurus and Lucretius later expanded on atomic ideas. Atomism was largely forgotten until renewed interest in the 17th century.

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    Leucippus is usually credited with inventing atomism in the Greek tradition and Democritus

    were the first to propose the idea of the atom in the 5th century BCE. According to them, the
    universe is made up of small, indivisible particles called "atomos," which means "uncuttable" in
    Greek. They believed that atoms were in constant motion and that the properties of different
    substances were due to the different shapes and sizes of their constituent atoms. These early
    atomists theorized that the two fundamental and oppositely characterized constituents of the
    natural world are indivisible bodies—atoms—and void. The atomists held that, the atoms are
    unchangeable and contain no internal differentiation of a sort that would allow for division.

    Democritus accepted most of Parmenides' arguments, except for the idea that change is an
    illusion. He believed change was real, and if it was not then at least the illusion had to be
    explained. The work of Democritus survives only in secondhand reports, some of which are
    unreliable or conflicting. Much of the best evidence of Democritus' theory of atomism is reported
    by Aristotle in his discussions of Democritus' and Plato's contrasting views on the types of
    indivisibles composing the natural world. Democritus believed that atoms are too small for
    human senses to detect, that they are infinitely many, that they come in infinitely many varieties,
    and that they have always existed. They float in a vacuum, which Democritus called the "void".

    Plato would have rejected Democritus' atomism because he believed that the world's beauty and
    form could not be explained by atoms colliding. According to Plato's Timaeus, the universe was
    created by a divine creator who followed an eternal pattern, even though it was not eternal.

    Plato believed that the four basic elements - fire, air, water, and earth - were part of the creation
    process, but he did not see them as the fundamental level of reality. He believed that the most
    basic level of reality was mathematical, and that the simple bodies were geometric solids
    composed of triangles. For instance, the cube's square faces were made up of four isosceles right-
    angled triangles, while the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron's triangular faces were each
    made up of six right-angled triangles.
    Plato's model provided a feasible explanation for changes in the basic substances because the
    simple bodies could be broken down into triangles, which could then be reassembled into atoms
    of different elements.

    Aristotle:
    Aristotle, on the other hand, rejected the idea of the atom. He believed that all matter was
    continuous and infinitely divisible, and that there was no such thing as an indivisible particle. His
    ideas were widely accepted for several centuries, and the concept of the atom was largely
    forgotten.

    Sometime before 330 BC Aristotle asserted that the elements of fire, air, earth, and water were
    not made of atoms, but were continuous. Aristotle considered the existence of a void, which was
    required by atomic theories, to violate physical principles. Change took place not by the
    rearrangement of atoms to make new structures, but by transformation of matter from what it
    was in potential to a new actuality. A piece of wet clay, when acted upon by a potter, takes on its
    potential to be an actual drinking mug. Aristotle has often been criticized for rejecting atomism,
    but in ancient Greece the atomic theories of Democritus remained "pure speculations, incapable
    of being put to any experimental test.

    Along with Nausiphanes, a Democritus pupil, Epicurus (341-270 BCE) investigated atomism.
    Epicurus was certain in the existence of atoms and the void, but he was unsure of our ability to
    fully explain certain natural occurrences, such as earthquakes, lightning, comets, or the phases of
    the Moon. Little of Epicurus' works have been preserved, but those that have show his interest in
    using Democritus' ideas to help individuals take responsibility for their own pleasure since,
    according to Epicurus, there are no gods present to do so. (Epicurus thought the gods as serving
    as moral role models.)

    Epicurus, a philosopher in the 4th century BC, expanded on the ideas of Leucippus and
    Democritus. He believed that atoms were constantly moving and interacting with one another,
    but that they were also capable of spontaneous movement. He also believed that atoms were the
    only things that could truly be said to exist, and that everything else was merely a combination of
    atoms.

    Lucretius was a Roman philosopher who lived in the 1st century BC. He was a follower of
    Epicurus and wrote a long poem called "De Rerum Natura," or "On the Nature of Things," which
    explored Epicurean philosophy. In the poem, he described atoms as being "eternal and
    indestructible," and argued that they were the basic building blocks of all matter.

    Through century people believed in Aristotle’s opinion on Atom until In the 17th century, a
    renewed interest arose in Epicurean atomism and corpuscularianism as a hybrid or an alternative
    to Aristotelian physics. The main figures in the rebirth of atomism were Isaac Beeckman, René
    Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, and Robert Boyle, as well as other notable figures.

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