“Going nuclear”
When it comes to insight, it is hard to beat Greek philosopher Democritus (460 BCE – 370 BCE) of Abdera (the modern municipality of Avdira). Democritus proposed that the solution to the Being vs. Becoming debate was that things were constantly changing like Heraclitus had suggested. But only because everything was made of unchanging material made up of Being, as Parmenides had thought, thus reconciling Heraclitus with Parmenides in this way.
Democritus called these unchanging materials “Atoms” after the Greek word atomon which means indivisible. Democritus believed these tiny things he called atoms made up everything else and they were indestructible and indivisible. He also proposed the concept of Void, or empty space, and believed that atoms moved around repelling each other and grouping together in the void. Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) of Athens later wrote that Democritus believed what people referred to as the Milky Way was the light of stars rather than the lights of the Gods.
Democritus described an eternal motion which was necessary. In the beginning Democritus imagined the atoms moving in all directions at once, a sort of vibrating. These vibrations led to collisions and atoms of a similar kind began to group together to form the physical substances we see in the universe. This was a purely mechanical view of the cosmos. According to Aristotle, Democritus even discussed the mass of atoms, stating “The more any indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is.”
Democritus was thinking things through logically and responding to paradoxes brought to light by Parmenides and his student Greek philosopher Zeno (490 BCE – 430 BCE) of Elea (near Novi Velia, Italy). Zeno argued against indivisible atoms: “But if it exists, each thing must have some size and thickness, and part of it must be apart from the rest. And the same reasoning holds concerning the part that is in front. For that too will have size and part of it will be in front. Now it is the same thing to say this once and to keep saying it forever. For no such part of it will be last, nor will there be one part not related to another. Therefore, if there are many things, they must be both small and large; so small as not to have size, but so large as to be unlimited.” (Simplicius(a) On Aristotle’s Physics, 141.2)
It is difficult not to draw parallels with what we know today about space, modern molecular science, the law of conservation of energy, Gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity. However, while early philosophers like Democritus were certainly protoscientists studying the natural world, they had no empirical evidence for their theories. His intuitions were certainly tremendous, but the strong correlations we see today are also a result of modern scientists choosing to use the ancient philosopher’s terms.
I'm so curious!~