Response To Atomist Philosophy

In this paper, I am going to give my response to the Atomist philosophy put forth by the pre-Socratic philosophers Leucippus and Democritus. Some main points of the atomists readings that I am going to write about in this paper include the different characteristics of the atom, the empty space these atoms move around in, and how we perceive these atoms. Overall, I feel like the atomist have a very good base of ideas for their time. However, there are a few ideas that can be considered dated. I will expand on that in in the first few paragraphs of this paper. After that, I will respond to what I believe are the strong points of the atomists ideas and are still very relevant today.
First, I am going to talk about one of the main concepts of the …show more content…
This can be proven false thanks to the modern invention of the nuclear bomb. The bomb itself is created through a process of nuclear fission which splits an atom into two and releases tons of energy. Another concept currently known as nuclear fusion also disproves an idea held by atomist that atoms can never touch. They claim that this is due to a repelling force that all atoms have. These two examples are where atomism shows its age. It would be very interesting to see what would change in the atomist philosophy if these facts were known at the …show more content…
That is whether or not there is a “void”. A void is said by the atomists to be a space of “what is not”, while the atoms are “what is”. I feel as though the idea of a void being necessary in order for motion to be possible is a good one because it makes logical sense. I also think that this theory of a void existing makes more sense than previous theories which roughly state that movement does not exist at all. The idea that a void exists between atoms also explains the different weights and densities of objects which is talked about in the reading. A brick and a piece of Styrofoam of the same size can have different weights because there is less void found between the atoms in the bricks. The atoms are packed a lot closer together in the brick than they are in the piece of Styrofoam. On the other hand, it seems pretty contradictory that the state of nothing can exist. This is touched upon in the secondary reading which states that “nothing” as atomists know it, exists as a something. Which makes sense in my opinion. That empty space in between atoms could be a property that allows atoms to move through it. It is interesting to think about but there is not really anyway of truly knowing what exactly the void or “the nothing”