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Democritus C Democritus c. 460 BC-c. 370 BC (Also known as Democritus of Abdera) Greek philosopher. home to the philosopher Protagoras. There are several indications, both external and internal to his writings, The following entry provides criticism of Democritus’s that Democritus may have held office in Abdera and life and works. For additional information about Democ- that he was a wealthy and respected citizen. It is also ritus, see CMLC, Volume 47. known that he traveled widely in the ancient world, visit- ing not only Athens but Egypt, Persia, the Red Sea, pos- sibly Ethiopia, and even India. Scholars also agree that he INTRODUCTION lived a very long life of between 90 and 109 years. Democritus of Abdera, a contemporary of Socrates, stands Democritus is said to have been a pupil of Leucippus, an out among early Greek philosophers because he offered important figure in the early history of philosophy about both a comprehensive physical account of the universe and whom little is known. Aristotle and others credit Leucippus anaturalisticaccountofhumanhistoryandculture. with devising the theory of atomism, and it is commonly Although none of his works has survived in its entirety, believed that Democritus expanded the theory under his descriptions of his views and many direct quotations from tutelage. However, some scholars have suggested that his writings were preserved by later sources, beginning Leucippus was not an actual person but merely a character with the works of Aristotle and extending to the fifth- in a dialogue written by Democritus that was subsequently century AD Florigelium (Anthology) of Joannes Stobaeus. lost. A similar strategy was employed by the philosopher While Plato ignored Democritus’s work, largely because he Parmenides, who used the character of a goddess to elu- disagreed with his teachings, Aristotle acknowledged De- cidate his views in his didactic poem, On Nature. mocritus as the most important physicist of his age, pri- marily for his exposition of the theory of atomism, which holds that everything in the universe, from objects to MAJOR WORKS human souls, is a result of the interactions and rearrange- ments of the atoms in the void. Democritus is also known Like his biography, the basic facts about Democritus’s for his ethical theory, based on the thesis that wisdom is the works are disputed. At one extreme, some scholars suggest greatest good for humans because it enables a stable and that he wrote as few as two works, Megas Diakosmos (The tranquil condition. His position was highly influential dur- Major Cosmic System) and Peri Physeôs kosmou (On the ing the Hellenistic period, when it was further developed by Nature of the World). At the other extreme, some research- Epicurus and his followers, who also built on Democritus’s ers have suggested that he authored dozens of works, physical theory and theory of knowledge. Although De- touching on nearly every subject in philosophy and mocritus’s philosophy fell into obscurity during the Middle science. In the latter camp is Diogenes Laertius, who, Ages because of its association with Epicurean hedonism writing in the second to third century AD, preserved a and atheism, it became the focus of renewed interest during list of Democritus’s writings compiled by the editor Thra- a revival of atomism in the Renaissance and early modern syllus of Mendes (c. 1 AD). Thrasyllus arranged Democri- period, and today scientists cite the philosopher as an tus’s works in tetralogies, under the headings “ethics” (two important early contributor to scientific thought. tetralogies, or eight works), “works on nature” (sixteen works), “mathematics” (twelve works, including cosmog- raphy and geography), “literary criticism and fine arts” (eight works), and “technical” works or textbooks (eight BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION works, including several works on medicine). There are Little is known about the life of Democritus. Basic bio- also nine additional “unclassified” works and nine collec- graphical information about the philosopher is disputed, tions of notes. Diogenes Laertius pointed out that some including the dates of his life, the identity of his teachers, works circulating under the name Democritus at the time the extent of his writings, and the facts about his death. were compilations and that others were spurious. Similarly, Because the available sources of information contradict one a collection of letters alleged to have been written by another, certainty about the details of his life is impossible. Democritus and the philosopher Hippocrates have been deemed inauthentic. Scholars continue to rely on the list It is known that Democritus was born in Abdera, a Greek preserved by Diogenes Laertius. Walter Leszl (2007; see city-state located in modern-day Thrace that was also Further Reading), for example, drew extensive inferences 257 DEMOCRITUS CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL LITERATURE CRITICISM, Vol. 136 about the contents of Democritus’s writings from the infor- and references by German philologists, including Diels, in mation contained in the list. the nineteenth century. The most important and sustained work on Democritus in the first three quarters of the twen- However much he may have written, all that survives of tieth century was conducted by Italian scholars, who drew Democritus’s works, apart from what are likely imitations important connections between Democritus and his con- by such philosophers as Plutarch and Seneca, is testimony temporaries and successors. These scholars offered an about his physics in the works of other writers, beginning estimation of the systematicity and importance of Democ- with Aristotle, and fragments of his ethics collected in ritus’s ethical fragments, and they also speculated about various sources, especially the famous Anthology of Sto- the relationship between Democritus’s ethics and his phys- baeus. The standard edition and enumeration of these ics. In addition, Italian scholars have led the way in defin- fragments is Hermann Diels’s Die fragmente der Vorso- ing the relationship between Democritus’s philosophy and kratiker (6th ed., 1951-52; The Fragments of the Preso- Epicureanism. cratic Philosophers). The edition and Russian commentary of Salomo Luria (1970) greatly expanded the number English-language scholarship focused on Democritus’s and context of fragments beyond Diels’s edition, which work has grown significantly during the twentieth and was explicitly intended as a provisional collection. Re- twenty-first centuries. Gregory Vlastos’s (1945-46) influ- cent translations of much of the extant evidence include ential two-part study examined Democritus’s physics and the works of C. C. W. Taylor (1999) and, in Italian, Leszl ethics, challenging the conventional wisdom that the two (2009). were only vaguely related by positing a number of pre- viously ignored connections. Donal McGibbon pursued a similar vein, arguing in his 1965 essay (see Further Read- CRITICAL RECEPTION ing) that Democritus’s religious views are connected to his Although Democritus had followers, they did not form a atomism through his emphasis on the human soul as a school as did the followers of Plato and Aristotle; conse- compilation of atoms. More recently, James Warren (2002; quently, the works of Democritus are not as well known as see Further Reading) offered an overview of the interme- the works of the latter philosophers. Famously, Plato never diaries between Democritus and Epicurus that yielded ’ mentioned Democritus in his own work, although scholars fresh insights into the relationship between Democritus s have established beyond doubt that he engaged Democri- ethics and physics. Integrated views of Democritean ethics tean ideas in several dialogues, most notably the Timaeus. and physics have been challenged, however, by several Aristotle, however, repeatedly referred to Democritus as scholars, some of whom have gone so far as to suggest that his most important predecessor in physics. It is also prob- Democritus did not author the ethical texts attributed to able that Aristotle drew on Democritus’s ethical thought in him. Debate regarding the relationship between the phi- ’ composing his own work, as he wrote at least two books losopher s atomism and his ethical perspective continues about the earlier philosopher and was therefore familiar to inspire critical commentary. with his ideas. Democritus’s ethical and religious thought has also gar- In the Hellenistic period, Epicurus adopted and adapted nered significant critical attention independent of his phys- Democritean physics and ethics in his own philosophy. He ics. Julia Annas’s 2002 essay, for example, offered an introduced crucial modifications throughout, especially in interpretation of Democritus’s ethics that emphasized its physics. Democritus’s reputation subsequently suffered relationship to the ethical theories of better-known philos- from his association with Epicurus. Although he still ophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Annas had admirers in addition to the Epicureans in the Helle- pointed out the importance of Democritus to the interpre- nistic period (for example, Plutarch and Seneca), the asso- tation of Socrates, who is traditionally credited with ciation of his philosophy with atheism and hedonism led to inventing philosophical ethics even though, unlike De- its rejection by the early church fathers, who wrote forceful mocritus, he wrote nothing. polemics condemning materialist philosophies, of which Democritus was supposed to be the principal proponent. Democritus’s
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