II. THE MATERIALISTS

As Parmenides’ denial of motion and change was a reaction against the fluid and unstable metaphysics of Hercleitus, so his monism was a counterblast to the atomism of the later Pythagoreans. For these had developed the number theory of their founder into the doctrine that all things are composed of numbers in the sense of indivisible units.¹² When Philolaus of Thebes added that “all things take place by necessity and by harmony,”¹³ everything was ready for the Atomic school in Greek philosophy.

About 435 Leucippus of Miletus came to Elea, and studied under Zeno; there, perhaps, he heard of the number atomism of the Pythagoreans, for Zeno had aimed some of his subtlest paradoxes at this doctrine of plurality.¹⁴ Leucippus finally settled in Abdera, a flourishing Ionian colony in Thrace. Of his direct teaching only one fragment remains: “Nothing happens without a reason, but all things occur for a reason, and of necessity.”¹⁵ Presumably it was in answer to Zeno and Parmenides that Leucippus developed the notion of the void, or empty space; in this way he hoped to make motion theoretically possible as well as sensibly actual. The universe, said Leucippus, contains atoms and space and nothing else. Atoms tumbling about in a vortex fall by necessity into the first forms of all things, like attaching itself to like; in this way arose the planets and the stars.¹⁶All things, even the human soul, are composed of atoms.

Democritus was the pupil or associate of Leucippus in developing the atomistic philosophy into a rounded system of materialism. His father was a man of wealth and position in Abdera;¹⁷ from him, we are told, Democritus inherited a hundred talents ($600,000), most of which he spent in travel.¹⁸ Unconfirmed stories send him as far as Egypt and Ethiopia, Babylonia, Persia, and India.¹⁹ “Among my contemporaries,” he says, “I have traveled over the largest portion of the earth in search of things the most remote, and have seen the most climates and countries, and heard the largest number of thinkers.”*²⁰ At Boeotian Thebes he stopped long enough to imbibe the number atomism of Philolaus.²² Having spent his money he became a philosopher, lived simply, devoted himself to study and contemplation, and said, “I would rather discover a single demonstration” (in geometry) “than win the throne of Persia.”²³ There was some modesty in him, for he shunned dialectic and discussion, founded no school, and sojourned in Athens without making himself known to any of the philosophers there.²⁴ Diogenes Laertius gives a long list of his publications in mathematics, physics, astronomy, navigation, geography, anatomy, physiology, psychology, psychotherapy, medicine, philosophy, music, and art.²⁵ Thrasyllus called him pentathlos in philosophy, and some contemporaries gave him the very name of Wisdom (sophia).²⁶ His range was as wide as Aristotle’s, his style as highly praised as Plato’s.²⁷ Francis Bacon, in no perverse moment, called him the greatest of ancient philosophers²⁸

He begins, like Parmenides, with a critique of the senses. For practical purposes we may trust them; but the moment we begin to analyze their evidence we find ourselves taking away from the external world layer after layer of the color, temperature, flavor, savor, sweetness, bitterness, and sound that the senses lay upon it; these “secondary qualities” are in ourselves or in the total process of perception, not in the objective thing; in an earless world a falling forest would make no noise, and the ocean, however angry, would never roar. “By convention (nomos) sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.”²⁹ Hence the senses give us only obscure knowledge, or opinion; genuine knowledge comes only by investigation and thought. “Verily, we know nothing. Truth is buried deep. . . . We know nothing for certain, but only the changes produced in our body by the forces that impinge upon it.”³⁰ All sensations are due to atoms discharged by the object and falling upon our sense organs.³¹ All senses are forms of touch.³²

The atoms that constitute the world differ in figure, size, and weight; all have a tendency downward; in the resultant rotatory motion like atoms combine with like and produce the planets and the stars. No nows, or intelligence, guides the atoms, no Empedoclean “love” or “hate” assorts them, but necessity—the natural operation of inherent causes—rules over all.³³ There is no chance; chance is a fiction invented to disguise our ignorance.³⁴ The quantity of matter remains always the same; none is ever created, none ever destroyed;³⁵ only the atom combinations change. Forms, however, are innumerable; even of worlds there is probably an “infinite” number, coming into being and passing away in an interminable pageantry.³⁶ Organic beings arose originally from the moist earth.³⁷Everything in man is made of atoms; the soul is composed of tiny, smooth, round atoms, like those of fire. Mind, soul, vital heat, vital principle, are all one and the same thing; they are not confined to men or animals, but are diffused throughout the world; and in man and other animals the mental atoms whereby we think are distributed throughout the body.*³⁸

Nevertheless these fine atoms that constitute the soul are the noblest and most wonderful part of the body. The wise man will cultivate thought, will free himself from passion, superstition, and fear, and will seek in contemplation and understanding the modest happiness available to human life. Happiness does not come from external goods; a man “must become accustomed to finding within himself the sources of his enjoyment.”⁴² “Culture is better than riches. . . . No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.”⁴³ Happiness is fitful, and “sensual pleasure affords only a brief satisfaction”; one comes to a more lasting content by acquiring peace and serenity of soul (ataraxia), good cheer (euthumia), moderation (metriotes), and a certain order and symmetry of life (biou symmetria)).⁴⁴ We may learn much from the animals—“spinning from the spider, building from the swallow, singing from the nightingale and the swan”;⁴⁵ but “strength of body is nobility only in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in man.”⁴⁶ So, like the heretics of Victorian England, Democritus raises upon his scandalous metaphysics a most presentable ethic. “Good actions should be done not out of compulsion but from conviction; not from hope of reward, but for their own sake. . . . A man should feel more shame in doing evil before himself than before all the world.”⁴⁷

He illustrated his own precepts, and perhaps justified his counsels, by living to the age of a hundred and nine, or, as some say, to merely ninety, years.⁴⁸ Diogenes Laertius relates that when Democritus read in public his most important work, the megas diakosmos, or Great World, the city of Abdera presented him with a hundred talents ($600,000); but perhaps Abdera had depreciated its currency. When someone asked the secret of his longevity, he answered that he ate honey daily, and bathed his body with oil.⁴⁹ Finally, having lived long enough, he reduced his food each day, determined to starve himself by easy degrees.⁵⁰ “He was exceedingly old,” says Diogenes,⁵¹

and appeared to be at the point of death. His sister lamented that he would die during the festival of the Thesmophoria, which would prevent her from discharging her duties to the goddess. So he bade her be of good cheer, and to bring him hot loaves (or a little honey⁵²) every day. And by applying these to his nostrils he kept himself alive over the festival. But when the three days of the feast were passed he expired without any pain, as Hipparchus assures us, having lived one hundred and nine years.

His city gave him a public funeral, and Timon of Athens praised him.⁵³ He founded no school; but he formulated for science its most famous hypothesis, and gave to philosophy a system which, denounced by every other, has survived them all, and reappears in every generation.