Fall.2008.MMA.Gels.Timeline

=__**The History of the Atom**__= =Peter Gels=

__**Leucippus:**__ By the end of the fifth century B.C. theories of matter ran from a single substance (water, air, or fire) to an infinite number of infinitesimal seeds. This was the time for synthesis, which was provided by another Milesian, Leucippus (active 430 B.C.) Leucippus devised no system but saw his role as a reconciler of ideas. The result was the basic principles of atomism later elaborated by Democritus. The single, primary substance posited was atoms divided into an infinite number of particles. These atoms, so small as to be invisible, were compact and eternal; between them was void. Only matter was real, for only matter could be touched. Diversity in matter occurs through differences in the shapes of the atoms: smooth atoms for sweetness, jagged atoms for bitterness. Soul atoms were said to be distributed throughout the body, giving it life and sensation. Certainly there is no suggestion of passivity. Nor was there "matter over mind" for mind (or soul) had the same capacity to act on matter as the body had on the mind. Both were composed of the same ultimate matter: atoms. McDonald, Lynn. //Early Origins of the Social Sciences.// Montreal, PQ, CAN: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. p 25-6. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mmac/10141444&ppg=37
 * Copyright © 1993. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. **

__**Democritus**__: Democritus (c. 493-403 B.C.) 21 is most known as the formulator of the mature version of atomic theory, but he is as important for our purposes for his sociology and political theory. He studied at some time with Leucippus and travelled widely, to Egypt, Ethiopia, Persia, Babylon, and possibly even to India. Some 300 fragments of his writings survive, enough to suggest a superb mind and broad knowledge. One of the most quoted of these fragments shows his commitment to science: "[I would] rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia." 22 And Democritus knew whereof he spoke. He is one of the first thinkers to have developed a notion of social institutions as conventions arrived at by consensus. His accomplishments are impressive also in natural science, and he evidently had no difficulty going back and forth between the two spheres. He is the source also of practical political advice on how to make democratic institutions work. Democritus, in short, is one of the key figures in the early history of methodology. Democritus' version of atomic theory began, from Leucippus, with atoms and the void. The creation of the world was a wholly natural process, even inevitable. Compounds were created through the collision of an infinite number of atoms in infinite space. Some atoms would bounce off the atoms they struck, but others, depending on their shape, would hook together. He was probably not responsible for the idea that atoms fell only in straight lines. (He had them vibrating, like particles of dust in a sunbeam, or swirling in a great, cosmic whirlpool.) Thus, Epicurus' "correction" of Democritus, of which Marx made so much in his doctoral dissertation, seems to have been based on a misunderstanding. 23 McDonald, Lynn. //Early Origins of the Social Sciences.// Montreal, PQ, CAN: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. p 26. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mmac/ 10141444&ppg=37
 * Copyright © 1993. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. **