INTRODUCTION

A. Brancacci and P.-M. Morel

This volume gathers the papers presented at an International Collo- quium, ‘Démocrite. La philosophie, les savoirs, les techniques’, organ- ised by the editors under the auspices of the Università di Roma Tor Vergata and Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, which took place in Paris on 18–20 September, 2003. In the last twenty-five years Democritus has been the subject of at least two important international conferences, whose proceedings have won an important place in the history of scholarship on Dem- ocritean philosophy. One was held in Catania in 1979,whichpro- duced the volume Democrito e l’atomismo antico, containing some thirty contributions, and another was held in Xanthi in 1983, whose pro- ceedings contain thirty-seven more.1 When we decided to organize yet another meeting on Democritus we were all too conscious of these two precedents, which weighed heavily on our thoughts not least because of their range, but we took the decision not to follow their example. Instead, we chose to limit ourselves to Democritus himself, excluding the Democritean tradition of the fourth century (Metrodorus of Chios, Anaxarchus, Hecataeus of Abdera, Nausiphanes) and also, with more reason, the larger and more complex tradition of ancient atomism more generally. In doing so, we were simply following the example given by most of the interpretative and polemical traditions of antiquity: even after Epicurus, Democritus appears as a particular and distinctive char- acter in ancient atomism. That is very clearly the case in Plutarch, Sextus Empiricus, Galen, Diogenes Laërtius, and in the majority of the reports in the Aristotelian commentators. We therefore decided to concentrate our attention on relatively neglected areas of research on Democritus and on themes on which it is legitimate to expect new contributions and, finally, new interpretative suggestions. In addition,

1 Democrito e l’atomismo antico, Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Catania 18–21 aprile 1979), Siculorum Gymnasium N.S. xxxiii (1980), a cura di F. Romano; Proceedings of the Ist International Congress on Democritus (Xanthi, 6–9 oct. 1983),pref.byL.G.Benakis,2 vols., Xanthi 1984. 2a. brancacci and p.-m. morel it appeared necessary to grant special importance to the catalogue of works compiled by Diogenes Laërtius and, using that as a starting- point, to fundamental problems of the texts and sources involved in reconstructing Democritus’ thought. We have tried to represent the var- ious areas of his philosophy without, however, aiming for an exhaustive coverage which would, in any case, be difficult to realize. In this series of ideas, which opportunely privileges the theme of the arts and of vari- eties of knowledge, we find the axis on which depend some of the fun- damental motifs of his philosophy—the role of empirical observation, the value of reason, the method and principles of science, the overarch- ing interest in inquiry into causes—broadening out into a wide range of problems and areas of research. The variety and complexity of Dem- ocritus’ intellectual world represents, from a historical point of view, the final rich and mature phase of not only of Ionian philosophy but also of Greek natural philosophy more generally. Democritus is indeed an orig- inator, and a great one (something which has been recognised widely, and with reason, throughout the history of philosophy), but he is also a philosopher tied in many different and subtle ways to the culture and philosophy which preceded and surrounded him, and of which he is also a sharp critic. The range of his interests—scientific, philosophical, literary—has not always been recognised in the course of the history of scholarship, and is therefore a recent emphasis, fully acknowledged by the scholarship of the twentieth century. The present volume, among its other objectives, hopes to draw attention to the most recent advances in research, noting and engaging with recent publications. In fact, Democritean studies are currently enjoying a new momen- tum, comparable to that which they experienced at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. In the great nine- teenth century treatments of the history of philosophy, Democritus was initially considered exclusively for and, so to speak, in the light of his atomic theory. This is quite evident in Hegel’s Vorlesungen: Dem- ocritus is there combined with Leucippus, considered as ‘der Urhe- ber des berüchtigten atomistischen Systems, das, in neueren Zeiten wiedererweckt, als das Princip vernünftiger Naturforschung gegolten hat’ (G.W.F. Hegel, Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie,inSämtliche Werke,Bd.17, Stuttgart 1928, 381). Hegel in fact recognises many mer- its in Leucippus and Democritus, both philosophical and scientific, and stresses their denial of the Eleatic opposition between being and non- being. But the theoretical context in which his discussion of the two atomists appears is entirely ontological, and little else is mentioned.