The Alchemist: Democritus

The famous alchemist, Democritus, had several views on life and how it worked and was made. “Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.” (“Democritus Quotes”). Nothing in this world is planned out and if anything is necessary to happen it will happen. According to John J. Mark, Democritus made it seem like life happens on its own and takes all the human’s decisions for their own life, yet he actually believed humans could make their own decisions within the range of atomic determinism (“Democritus”). Democritus lived up to his own words by working hard to develop the atomic theory and his accomplishments in math to make these things happen. Democritus was an important figure in world history because of his atomic …show more content…
Democritus became inspired by his teacher, Leucippus, to take over Leucippus’ theories, ideas, and works. Leucippus and Democritus were considered the first atomists of Greek tradition. “Democritus, known in antiquity as the ‘laughing philosopher’ because of his emphasis on the value of ‘cheerfulness,’ was one of the two founders of ancient atomist theory.” (Democritus). Many ideas are given credit to Leucippus and Democritus, but the atomic theory is given to Democritus. Democritus and Leucippus researched more into the alchemist, Anaxagoras, who came up with the atomic theory closely related to Democritus’ (“Alchemy and the Alchemists”). Anaxagoras is said to be forty years older than Democritus. Democritus was the one who came up with atoms which is the foundation of chemistry which is alchemy. Leuccipus and Democritus developed different ideas that made change possible by showing that it does not need something to come from nothing. They proposed that the world is made up of invisible bodies known as atoms and void (Berryman, “Atomist Doctrine”). Democritus’ idea of void is that of the empty spaces between atoms rather than the idea of absolute space. In The Alchemist the alchemist tells Santiago he does not have to understand the desert but the …show more content…
Protagoras believed that the tangent did not touch a sphere at one point but over a distance, but Democritus treated a sphere to being made of all angles (“Democritus”). That meaning a sphere is bent all over making it all angles. “Democritus believed the circle was actually a polyhedron with small faces because a sphere involves atoms which cannot be broken down.” (“Democritus”). His thought that atoms have variety of shapes should mean he could make a sphere with indivisible magnitude and curved faces. He also worked with cones to see if he were to slice one in half horizontally would the two parts be equal or unequal. If the two parts were equal it would be considered a cylinder and if they were unequal they would be uneven (“Democritus”). Democritus concerned with the ratios of cylinders, pyramids, and prisms of the same base and