Greece & Rome · 5th c. BCE
Leucippus
Founder of atomism, about whom almost nothing is known
Proposed that the world consists of indivisible atoms moving in the void, and that “nothing happens at random, but everything for a reason and by necessity”. Epicurus is reported to have doubted that he existed at all.
Life and thought
Leucippus is the most shadowy figure in early Greek philosophy. Ancient writers say he came from Miletus, Elea or Abdera, studied with Zeno of Elea and taught Democritus; Epicurus apparently doubted that he existed at all. But Aristotle and Theophrastus treat him as the real founder of atomism, active in the 5th century BCE, and one sentence of his, from a work On Mind, survives.
His idea answered Parmenides directly. Accept that what is cannot come from nothing or vanish into nothing, but deny that there is no void. Then reality can be countless tiny, solid, indivisible bodies, atoms, moving through empty space, and every apparent birth, death and change is just atoms joining and separating. Even whole worlds form this way, in whirls of atoms. His surviving sentence states the programme: nothing happens at random, but everything for a reason and by necessity. It is the first thoroughly mechanical picture of nature.
Works
Shaped by
c. 515 – after 450 BCEParmenidesAristotle presents atomism as a reply to the Eleatics: keep unchanging being, but add the void.Students
c. 460–370 BCEDemocritusThe “laughing philosopher” of Abdera, who developed atomismMeanwhile, in other traditions
traditionally 6th c. BCELaoziLegendary sage credited with the Daodejing551–479 BCE (traditional)ConfuciusTeacher from Lu who sought to revive the Zhou wayc. 480–400 BCE (debated; an older dating is c. 563–483 BCE)The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)Founder of Buddhism, who taught a middle way out of sufferingc. 470–391 BCEMoziFounder of Mohism and critic of Confucian partialityOn the record
Leucippus founded atomism in the 5th century BCE; Epicurus is reported to have doubted he existed.
Nothing firm is known of his dates or birthplace; ancient reports make him a pupil of Zeno of Elea and the teacher of Democritus. Epicurus apparently denied there had been a philosopher Leucippus, and some 19th-century scholars agreed, but Aristotle and Theophrastus treat him as real. The one surviving sentence, from a work On Mind, says nothing happens in vain (or at random) but everything from reason and by necessity.