Démocrite d'Abdère
Nothing exists but atoms and the void.
Démocrite d'Abdère (Ve-IVe s. av. J.-C., Abdera, in Thrace (northern Greece)) : atomism. For Democritus there exist only atoms, grains of matter too small to see and impossible to cut, and the void in which they move. Everything else follows: the stars, living beings, even the soul, itself made of atoms. On AskPhilosophy: 3 reconstructed arguments, 4 quotes checked word for word against the original texts, and 5 common beliefs examined; every text carries an authenticity badge (written by the author, posthumous, student notes, reported, apocryphal).
What do we really read of him?
Democritus wrote a great deal: Diogenes Laertius (c. 230 AD) gives a catalogue of over sixty titles, those of a scholar working in physics, ethics, mathematics, music and medicine. All of it is lost. What remains are fragments, sentences quoted by much later authors. The fragments on knowledge (B 6 to B 11) come from Sextus Empiricus (c. 200 AD), a sceptic who quotes them for his own purposes. The moral sayings come mostly from Stobaeus, a 5th-century AD anthology, and from a collection called "Democrates" whose author is disputed. For physics we depend on Aristotle (4th c. BC), who often cites "Leucippus and Democritus" together without telling them apart, and on Diogenes Laertius. This page is therefore a portrait through witnesses, never a direct reading, and each excerpt says who reports it.
Why he matters
Democritus and his teacher or companion Leucippus offered the first theory in which everything is explained by matter in motion: atoms that combine, collide and separate, with no design and no god to guide them. Aristotle discusses it constantly in order to fight it. Epicurus, then Lucretius, take it up, and through them atomism reaches Gassendi and the scientists of the 17th century. But note that Democritus' atoms are not those of today's physics. They are solid, indivisible bodies that differ only in shape, arrangement and position. He ran no experiment to show it.
The moral sayings: a caution
Over two hundred moral sayings circulate under his name. Some (B 35 to B 115) come from a collection transmitted under the name "Democrates": some see another author there, others a corruption of Democritus' name. The rest come mostly from Stobaeus' anthology (5th c. AD), nearly nine centuries after him; most scholars accept them, but their attribution is never fully certain. In our corpus these sayings are available only in English (Bakewell's 1907 translation): we cannot show the Greek. When we quote one, the French translation is ours, and we prefer those that other witnesses (Diogenes Laertius, Seneca) confirm.
How to read him here
Each excerpt carries a badge. "Transmitted by others": a fragment of Democritus or a summary of his doctrine, reported by Sextus, Diogenes Laertius or Seneca. "Text by another author": what Aristotle, Cicero or Voltaire say about him. The Greek of the fragments is that of the author who quotes them, cut at the sentence given by the reference edition (Diels-Kranz, number DK 68). The Sextus texts have copying errors that we keep as they are. The radar axes are filled only where a witness says something; the others are left empty, with the reason.
His positions
click a row to see the evidenceThe testimonies point in opposite directions. Cicero (through the Stoic Balbus) says that Democritus, like Epicurus, "in some sort" denies the gods by his doctrine of images. A saying in English (B 175) nevertheless says that the gods give men all good things: but its origin is disputed and we do not have the Greek. We do not score this axis.
According to Sextus, Democritus separates two kinds of knowledge: the "obscure" (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) and the "genuine", which goes further with a finer organ of thought. Truth therefore comes from thought, not from the senses. But Aristotle also credits him with the idea that the true is what appears: the witnesses contradict one another, hence "disputed".
He writes: "in truth we know nothing; truth is at the bottom of a well" (B 117), and that we grasp nothing infallibly, only what changes with the state of our body (B 9). But he believes in a "genuine" knowledge (B 11) and in a complete theory of nature: it is scepticism about the senses, not about everything. Aristotle sums up: "either nothing is true, or it is hidden from us".
The soul is made of smooth, spherical atoms, the most mobile, like fire; it is the same thing as intelligence (Diogenes Laertius and Aristotle both say so). There is no separate soul or immaterial mind. Aristotle attacks him precisely on this.
Diogenes Laertius writes that "all things happen by necessity": the vortex of atoms causes everything, and Democritus calls it necessity. But the moral sayings ask people to choose and to correct themselves ("not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins", B 41, in English): he does not discuss the conflict between the two. Scholars place him rather among the determinists.
For Democritus it is sensory qualities (sweet, bitter, colour) that exist "by convention". In our texts he does not say that good and evil are a convention too, and his sayings speak of the good as something to seek. The witnesses do not decide: we do not score this axis.
Diogenes Laertius notes that the serene soul is disturbed by neither fear nor superstition. This criticises superstition; it is not a text on the relation between faith and reason. We do not score this axis.
Diogenes Laertius says the aim of life is euthymia, which gives a direction to choose. But nothing says whether this aim is inscribed in nature (there is no design and no god guiding the atoms) or is decided. We do not score this axis.
The sayings say "fools learn wisdom through misfortune" (B 54) and that evil comes from blindness (B 175), with no theory of human nature. We do not score this axis.
One saying (B 252, in English) says the interests of the state must come before everything and one must not seek a power contrary to the common good. Others advise keeping away from business to stay serene. The two are hard to hold together, and B 252 is confirmed by no other witness: caution.
The sayings speak of character more than of rules or results: the good is not only not doing wrong, but not desiring to do it (B 62); a man is known by his desires as much as by his deeds (B 68). But these sayings are in English and of disputed origin. The classification remains an interpretation.