Portrait: AI-generated imagined likeness
Philosopher · Mathematician
Ancient Greek philosopher. He believed that all things were made up of indivisible atoms and void, and tried to explain nature using theories rather than myths. He is a person who thinks about Greek natural philosophy.
View in catalogAbdera
Birth
Atomism
Theory
Development of Greek natural philosophy
450 BC–360 BC
Movement · Participant
Map: Natural Earth (PD)
He is said to have been born in Abdera in the Thrace region. In ancient Greece, a philosophy developed that sought to explain natural phenomena from fundamental principles rather than stories about gods.
He is known as the person who systematized atomic theory following the flow of Leucippus. The idea of assuming the invisible movement of atoms behind the sensed world was a major shift in our understanding of nature.
Democritus is also known as the ``Laughing Philosopher'' and is described as a person who views human society from a distance. From the fragmentary words that have been passed down, we can see that he was also interested in ethics and awareness.
If you study Democritus, you will see that ancient Greek thought was already trying to think about matter, motion, and space theoretically. Although it is not the same as modern science, it is part of a tradition of rational explanations of nature.
