These exercises in ancient Greek philosophy and in Roman.

Practice:

Philosophy as a system includes various elements - components: the doctrine of being (about substance, essential properties) - ontology. The doctrine of knowledge - about the truth - gnosiology. The doctrine of thinking (forms and laws of thinking) - logic. Aesthetics- the doctrine of the beautiful and the ugly. Philosophical doctrine of man-philosophical anthropology. Philosophical doctrine of values ​​- axiology.

The question of the relationship between matter and consciousness is called the BASIC QUESTION of PHILOSOPHY.

This question has 2 sides:

1. PARTY OVF.

The question is what is primary and what is secondary - matter or consciousness? Depending on the answer, there are 2 schools of philosophy: materialism and idealism.

2 types of idealism:

1. Objective idealism (as a primary spiritual, existing independently of a person, objective idealism is the teaching of Plato)

2. Subjective (the spiritual ideal principle depends on the person - the will - that is, the initial principle depends on the subject).

2. PARTY OF OVF.

The question is how our knowledge of the world relates to the world: whether they correspond to this world or not. In essence, this is a question about the cognizability of the world: if knowledge corresponds to the surrounding world, then it is true and the world is cognizable by man. If knowledge does not correspond to the state of affairs, then the world is unknowable by man. For the most part, philosophical teachings (both materialistic and idealistic) recognize the cognizability of the world, although the process of cognition itself is interpreted in different ways. However, in philosophy there are teachings that affirm the fundamental unknowability of the world. Such a philosophical movement is agnosticism.

Biography

They say that Democritus spent a lot of money on these travels, inherited from him. However, the embezzlement of the inheritance in Abderah was prosecuted. At the trial, instead of his defense, Democritus read out excerpts from his work, "The Great World Construction", and was acquitted: fellow citizens decided that his father's money was well spent.

The lifestyle of Democritus, however, seemed incomprehensible to the Abderites: he constantly left the city, hiding in cemeteries, where, far from the bustle of the city, he indulged in reflections; sometimes Democritus without apparent reason burst out laughing, human affairs seemed so ridiculous to him against the backdrop of the great world order (hence his nickname "The Laughing Philosopher"). Fellow citizens considered Democritus insane, and even invited the famous doctor Hippocrates to examine him. He really met with the philosopher, but decided that Democritus was absolutely healthy both physically and mentally, and in addition, he affirmed that Democritus was one of the smartest people with whom he had to communicate. Among the students of Democritus, Bion from Abdera is known.

Philosophy of Democritus

In his philosophical views, he spoke with an opposition point of view to the Eleatics regarding the conceivability of a multitude and the conceivability of movement, however, he completely agreed with them that a truly existing being can neither arise nor disappear. The materialism of Democritus, which is characteristic of almost all scientists of that time, is contemplative and metaphysical.

Atomistic materialism

The main achievement of the philosophy of Democritus is considered to be the development of the teachings of Leucippus about the "atom" - an indivisible particle of matter that has true being, that does not collapse and does not arise ( atomistic materialism). He described the world as a system of atoms in a void, rejecting the infinite divisibility of matter, postulating not only the infinity of the number of atoms in the Universe, but also the infinity of their forms ( ideas, είδος - "look, appearance", a materialistic category, as opposed to idealistic ideas Socrates). Atoms, according to this theory, move randomly in empty space (the Great Void, as Democritus said), collide and, due to the correspondence of shapes, sizes, positions and orders, either stick or fly apart. The resulting compounds hold together and thus produce complex bodies. Movement itself is a property naturally inherent in atoms. Bodies are combinations of atoms. The diversity of bodies is due both to the difference in the atoms that compose them, and to the difference in the order of assembly, just as different words are made up of the same letters. Atoms cannot touch, since everything that does not have emptiness inside it is indivisible, that is, a single atom. Therefore, there are always at least small gaps of emptiness between two atoms, so that even in ordinary bodies there is emptiness. It also follows from this that when atoms approach at very small distances, repulsive forces begin to act between them. At the same time, mutual attraction between atoms is also possible according to the principle “like attracts like”.

The various qualities of bodies are completely determined by the properties of atoms and their combinations and the interaction of atoms with our senses. According to Galen,

"[Only] in general opinion there is color, in opinion - sweet, in opinion - bitter, in reality [there are only] atoms and emptiness." So says Democritus, believing that all perceptible qualities arise from the combination of atoms [existing only] for us who perceive them, but by nature there is nothing white, black, yellow, red, bitter, or sweet. The fact is that “in the general opinion” [with him] means the same as “according to the generally accepted opinion” and “for us”, [but] not by the nature of things themselves; the nature of the things themselves, he, in turn, designates [by the expression] "in reality", composing the term from the word "real", which means "true". The whole point of [this] teaching itself should be this. [Only] among people is something white, black, sweet, bitter, and everything else of that kind recognized, but truly everything is "what" and "nothing." And these are again his own expressions, namely, he called the atoms “what”, and the void - “nothing”.

Principle of isonomy

The main methodological principle of the atomists was the principle of isonomy (literal translation from Greek: equality of all before the law), which is formulated as follows: if a particular phenomenon is possible and does not contradict the laws of nature, then it must be assumed that in unlimited time and in unlimited space it either has already taken place, or someday will come: in infinity there is no boundary between possibility and existence. This principle is also called the principle of lack of sufficient reason: there is no reason for any body or phenomenon to exist in this rather than in any other form. It follows, in particular, that if a phenomenon can in principle occur in various forms, then all these types exist in reality. Democritus made several important conclusions from the isonomy principle: 1) there are atoms of any shape and size (including the size of the whole world); 2) all directions and all points in the Great Void are equal; 3) atoms move in the Great Void in any direction with any speed. The last provision is very important for the theory of Democritus. In essence, it follows from it that the movement itself does not need to be explained, the reason needs to be sought only for changing the movement. Describing the views of the atomists, their opponent Aristotle writes:

... no one [of those who recognize the existence of emptiness, that is, atomists] will be able to say why [a body], set in motion, will stop somewhere, because why will it stop here rather than there? Therefore, it must either be at rest or move indefinitely, unless something stronger interferes.

In essence, this is a clear statement of the principle of inertia - the basis of all modern physics. Galileo, who is often credited with the discovery of inertia, was quite clearly aware that the roots of this principle go back to ancient atomism.

Cosmology

The Great Void is spatially infinite. In the initial chaos of atomic movements in the Great Void, a whirlwind spontaneously forms. The symmetry of the Great Void is broken inside the whirlwind, where the center and periphery appear. Heavy bodies formed in a vortex tend to accumulate near the center of the vortex. The difference between light and heavy is not qualitative, but quantitative, and this is already a significant progress. Democritus explains the separation of matter inside the vortex as follows: in their striving for the center of the vortex, heavier bodies displace lighter ones, and they remain closer to the periphery of the vortex. In the center of the world, the Earth is formed, consisting of the heaviest atoms. Something like a protective film is formed on the outer surface of the world, separating the cosmos from the surrounding Great Void. Since the structure of the world is determined by the aspiration of atoms to the center of the vortex, the world of Democritus has a spherically symmetrical structure.

Democritus is a supporter of the concept of a plurality of worlds. As Hippolytus describes the views of the atomists,

The worlds are infinite in number and differ from each other in size. In some of them there is neither sun nor moon, in others the sun and moon are larger than ours, in the third there are not one, but several of them. The distance between the worlds is not the same; besides, in one place there are more worlds, in another - less. Some worlds are growing, others have reached full bloom, others are already shrinking. In one place the worlds arise, in another they decline. They are destroyed by colliding with each other. Some of the worlds are devoid of animals, plants, and any kind of moisture.

The multiplicity of worlds follows from the principle of isonomy: if a process of some kind can occur, then in infinite space somewhere, sometime, it is bound to occur; what is happening in a given place at a given time must also be happening in other places at one time or another. Thus, if a vortex-like movement of atoms arose in a given place in space, which led to the formation of our world, then a similar process should occur in other places, leading to the formation of other worlds. The resulting worlds are not necessarily the same: there is no reason why there should not be worlds without a sun and a moon at all, or with three suns and ten moons; only the earth is a necessary element of each world (probably simply by the definition of this concept: if there is no central earth, it is no longer a world, but just a clot of matter). Moreover, there are no grounds for the fact that somewhere in the boundless space exactly the same world as ours would not be formed. All worlds move in different directions, because all directions and all states of motion are equal. In this case, the worlds can collide, collapsing. Similarly, all moments of time are equal: if the formation of the world is taking place now, then somewhere it must take place both in the past and in the future; currently different worlds are at different stages of development. In the course of its movement, the world, the formation of which has not ended, may accidentally penetrate the boundaries of the fully formed world and be captured by it (this is how Democritus explained the origin of the heavenly bodies in our world).

Since the Earth is in the center of the world, then all directions from the center are equal, and it has no reason to move in any direction (Anaximander held the same opinion about the reason for the immobility of the Earth). But there is also evidence that, according to Democritus, the Earth initially moved in space, and only subsequently stopped.

However, he was not a supporter of the theory of a spherical Earth. Democritus cited the following argument: if the Earth were a ball, then the sun, setting and rising, would be crossed by the horizon along an arc of a circle, and not in a straight line, as it really is. Of course, this argument is untenable from a mathematical point of view: the angular diameters of the Sun and the horizon are very different, and this effect could be noticed only if they were almost the same (for this, obviously, one would have to move a very large distance from the earth).

According to Democritus, the order of the luminaries is as follows: the Moon, Venus, the Sun, other planets, stars (as the distance from the Earth increases). Moreover, the farther away from us the luminary, the slower (in relation to the stars) it moves. Following Empedocles and Anaxagoras, Democritus believed that the fall celestial bodies centrifugal force opposes the earth. Democritus came up with the brilliant idea that the Milky Way is a multitude of stars located at such a small distance from each other that their images merge into a single faint glow.

Ethics

Democritus develops a common Hellenic concept measures, noting that the measure is the correspondence of a person's behavior to his natural capabilities and abilities. Through the prism of such measures pleasure appears already as an objective good, and not only as a subjective sensory perception.

He considered the basic principle of human existence to be in a state of benevolent, serene disposition of the spirit (euthymia), devoid of passions and extremes. This is not just a simple sensual pleasure, but a state of "peace, serenity and harmony."

However, elsewhere the same Sextus writes:

Democritus says that “certain idols (images) approach people, and some of them are beneficial, others are harmful. Therefore, he prayed that he would come across happy images. They are of enormous size, monstrous [in appearance] and distinguished by their extreme strength, but they are not immortal. They foretell the future for people with their appearance and the sounds they make. Based on these phenomena, the ancients came to the assumption that there is a god, while [in fact], apart from them, there is no other god who would have an immortal nature.

Rozhansky I. D. ANTIQUE SCIENCE (M.: Nauka, 1980)

Being the son of his time, Democritus did not deny the existence of the gods. The gods, like all other things, consist of atoms and therefore are not immortal, but they are very stable compounds of atoms, inaccessible to our senses. However, if desired, the gods make themselves felt in images that are most often perceived by us in a dream. These images can bring us harm or benefit, sometimes they talk to us and predict the future.

Contribution to other sciences

Democritus compiled one of the first ancient Greek calendars.

Democritus was the first to establish that the volume of a pyramid and a cone is equal, respectively, to one third of the volume of a prism and a cylinder under the same height and with the same base area.

Writings and doxography

About 70 different works of Democritus are mentioned in the writings of ancient authors, none of which has survived to this day. Studies of the philosophy of Democritus rely on quotations and criticisms of his ideas in the writings of later philosophers such as Aristotle, Sextus, Cicero, Plato, Epicurus, and others.

The most significant work of Democritus should be considered the "Great World Construction", a cosmological work that covered almost all areas of knowledge available at that time. In addition, based on the lists of Diogenes Laertius, Democritus is credited with the authorship of such works as “On the Spiritual Disposition of the Sage”, “On Virtue”, “On the Planets”, “On Feelings”, “On the Difference of Forms”, “On Tastes”, “On colors", "On the mind", "On logic", "Causes of celestial phenomena", "Causes of air phenomena", "Causes of terrestrial phenomena", "Causes of fire and fiery phenomena", "Causes of sounds", "Causes of seeds, plants and fruits", "Causes of living beings", "On the contact of the circle and the ball", "On geometry", "On irrational lines and bodies", "Numbers", "Projections", "Big Year", "Description of the sky", "Description earth”, “Description of the poles”, “Description of rays”, “On rhythms and harmony”, “On poetry”, “On the beauty of poetry”, “On singing”, “Medical science”, “On diet”, “On painting” , "Agriculture", "On the military system", etc.

There is a legend that Plato ordered to buy up and destroy all the works of Democritus, his philosophical antagonist. The reliability of this legend is not too high. In addition, it is known that in the I century. n. e. Thrasyllus published the works of Democritus and Plato, dividing them into tetralogy.

Iconography

Literature

Texts and translations

• Makovelsky A. O. Ancient Greek atomists. - Baku, 1946.
• Lurie S. Ya. Democritus: Texts, translation, research. - L.: Nauka, 1970. 664 pages.

Sources

• Diogenes Laertes. About the life, teachings and sayings of famous philosophers

Research

• Asmus V. F. Ancient Philosophy
• Asmus V. F. Democritus. - M.: MGU, 1960.
• Verlinsky A. L. Date of birth of Democritus by Apollodorus and Thrasillus (Notes on the methods of ancient chronography) // MOUSEION: To Professor Alexander Iosifovich Zaitsev on his seventieth birthday. Sat. articles. - St. Petersburg, 1997. - S. 100-127.
• Vitz B. B. Democritus. - M.: Thought, 1979.
• Verlinsky A. L. Necessity, chance, freedom: Democritus and his heirs // Linguistica et philologica: Sat. articles for the 75th anniversary of Yu. V. Otkupshchikov. St. Petersburg, publishing house of St. Petersburg State University, 1999. - S. 211-238.
• Zubov V.P. On the question of the mathematical atomism of Democritus // Bulletin ancient history. - 1951. - No. 4. - S. 204-208.
• Zubov V.P. The development of atomistic ideas until the beginning of the 19th century. - M.: Nauka, 1965.
• Lurie S. Ya. On the chronology of the sophist Antiphon and Democritus // Izvestia of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - 1918. - S. 2285-2306.
• Lurie S. Ya. Mechanics of Democritus. Archive of the history of science and technology, ser. 1, no. 7. - 1935. - S. 129-180.
• Lurie S. Ya. The theory of infinitesimals among ancient atomists. - M.-L.: Ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1935.
• Lurie S. Ya. Essays on the history of ancient science. - M.-L., 1947.
• Lurie S. Ya. Democritus and inductive logic // Bulletin of ancient history. - 1961. - No. 4. - S. 58-67.
• Lysenko V.G. Atomism of Vaisheshikas and atomism of Democritus (Experience of Comparative Analysis) // ancient india. Historical and cultural ties. - M., 1982. - S. 187-201.
• Maistrov L. E. On the principle of isonomy in Democritus // Historical and mathematical research, vol. 20. - 1975. - S. 299-302.
• Shchetnikov A.I. The question of the nature of the tangency of a straight line and a circle as a problematic point in the development of ancient Greek geometry at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 4th century BC. e. Historical and mathematical research, 11(46). - 2006. - S. 174-196.

Fiction

• Lurie S. Ya., Botvinnik M. N. The Journey of Democritus. - M.: Children's literature, 1964.

see also

Notes

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Philosophers / Ancient Philosophers / Pre-Socratics
Pre-philosophical tradition
Milesian school
Pythagoreans
Eleatics
Atomists

DEMOCRITES (??????????) from Abdera(c. 460/457 - c. 360 BC), Greek philosopher, founder of the atomistic doctrine. Life and writings. Born in the city of Abdera in Thrace. The date of birth of the philosopher was already a controversial issue in Antiquity: according to Apollodorus of Athens - 460/457 (80th ol.), according to Thrasilla, the publisher of the works of D. and the author of "Introduction to the reading of the books of Democritus", - 470 (3rd year of the 77th ol.). Both datings, of which the first one is considered more preferable, have come down in the transmission of Diogenes Laertius (D. L. IX, 41 = ??. ? Lurie). According to the legend transmitted by Diogenes, he studied with “some magicians and Chaldeans” presented by the Persian king Xerxes to Father D. for treating the Persian army passing through Thrace with lunch (fr. XI Lurie). After the death of his father, he spent his part of the rich inheritance on travel, visiting Persia and Babylon, India and Egypt. For some time he lived in Athens (at this time his acquaintance with the teachings of Socrates is assumed). Perhaps D. met in Lampsak with his older contemporary Anaxagoras(the phrase from his “Small World-Building” is known that he “was young when Anaxagoras was old”). D. died at home, having lived for about a hundred years (fr. XLVIII-XLIX L.) and becoming, so arr., one of the most famous long-lived philosophers of Antiquity. It is traditionally believed that the atomist had the greatest influence on D. Leekipp, however, the emergence of atomism as a universal philosophical doctrine, including physics and cosmology, epistemology and ethics, is associated with the name of D.; doctrine that arose as a synthesis of the problems of the three most ancient philosophical schools Greece: Milesian (natural philosophy), Eleatic (ontology) and Pythagorean (universal quantitativism). D. attributed the authorship of more than 70 works; their names are given by Diogenes Laertius according to the edition of the Platonist Thrasilla in the order of tetralogy: on ethics, physics (a series of treatises “on causes” is mentioned separately), on mathematics, language and literature, various applied sciences, including medicine (fr. CXV = D. L. IX 46-49); he was also credited with "On Sacred Inscriptions in Babylon" and "The Book of Chaldea" - in line with the stable "Chaldean" myth associated with his education and travels. The publication of Thrasilla began with the book "Pythagoras" (ethical section) - among the philosophers who influenced D., this name is one of the most important. The most frequently mentioned works are "The Big World System" (????? ?????????) and the “Small Worldbuilding”, probably dedicated, respectively, to the arrangement of the cosmos and man; the first of these was also attributed to Leucippus. In addition to the texts of D. himself, subsequent doxography relied mainly on the historical and philosophical writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus; a lot of information about D. was preserved by skeptics who considered him one of the forerunners of Pyrrhonian skepticism. In Antiquity, D. was known not only for the depth of his teaching, but also for the beauty of the style of his works - this is said by Cicero (“clear” Democritus, in contrast to the “dark” Heraclitus), Timon from Fliunt (Democritus - “shepherd of words”), as well as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, of all the Greek philosophers who noted D., Plato and Aristotle as the most eloquent (fr. 827). The signs of his style were: brevity, rhythmic organization of the phrase, alliterations, assonances, neologisms, wide use rhetorical antitheses: atoms and emptiness, macrocosm-universe and microcosm-man, what is and what is not, “established by law” (= by agreement, ????) and existing "actually" (????). Physics. Teaching about the beginnings. Atoms and emptiness - universal principles and main antithesis of pluralistic ontology D. Atom (? ?????? ?????, "indivisible essence") is the smallest body, indivisible for the same reason that the "being" of Parmenides is indivisible: division implies the presence of emptiness, but inside the atom, by definition, there is no emptiness. Like being in Parmenides, the atoms of D. are eternal and unchanging. The introduction of the atom is traditionally understood as a reaction to the problem of fission ad infinitum discussed Zeno of Elea; if there were no atoms, the process of fission of any body would be endless, and we would get one finite thing, consisting of an infinite number of parts, which is absurd. Emptiness (?????) In the system, dynamism acts as the principle of discreteness, multitude, and motion of atoms, and also as their "receptacle." Calling the void "non-existence", D. clearly abandoned the Eleatic postulate of the non-existence of non-existence, however, the concepts of being and non-being are included in his more general concept of "what is really" (????), thanks to which reality was also recognized behind emptiness (non-being). The atom is conceived in the series: being, something (???, neologism D., translated by Lurie "ul", fr. 197), body, fullness. The explication of the semantic series "atom", thus, is as follows: to be means to be something, to be something means to be a body, to be a body means to be complete (solid). Emptiness is correlated with the concepts: non-existence, nothing (?????, "zero"), infinity. Atoms and the void exist on an equal footing, "no more "something" than "nothing"", ?? ?????? ?? ??? ? ?? ????? (??. 7; 78) - this principle of "isonomy" (equality) is universal in the D system. All atoms, the number of which is infinite, are forever moving, and even inside solids they make oscillatory movements ("shaking in all directions") . The primary cause of this movement is the collision of atoms, which began in vortex cosmogenesis - the cosmos of D. is completely mechanistically determined. Equally dense atoms differ from each other in three properties: "figure" (??????), "size" and "rotation" (position in space). If we slightly change the Aristotelian example with letters (see Met. I 4), then B differs from in size, B from? - figure, and P from b - turn; the fourth distinguishing characteristic, "order," refers to the way in which atoms are connected to each other (BPP as opposed to PBP, etc.), as a result of which bodies composed of atoms have various qualities. The figures (forms) of atoms are infinitely diverse, because, according to the principle of "isonomy", there is no reason to prefer one form to another and thus limit the number of forms of atoms ("no more" such "than" such "", ????? ?????? ???????? ? ????????, ??. 147). At the same time, all reasoning about the forms of atoms is completely speculative, because the atom as such is not accessible to sensory perception. (??????) and D. himself called his atoms ????? (“kinds”, “forms”), having introduced this term even before Plato to denote the essence, seen only by thought (fr. 198). In accordance with the law of the conservation of being (“nothing comes from nothing”), the emergence and destruction of complex bodies occurs through the connection and separation of atoms. The four elements of the physical world - fire, air, water and earth - are also made up of atoms. Only to the atoms of fire D. attributed a certain shape - spherical (for the ball is the most mobile of all figures), it is known about the other three elements that they have the same shape, but the magnitude is different: the largest atoms of the earth, the smallest of the air. These three elements are a mixture of atoms of all forms, for this reason they can interconvert: by isolating larger atoms, water can turn into air, or earth into water (criticism of this view with the remark that how then the reverse process is possible, see Aristotle, "On Heaven" III4). There are discrepancies in the evidence about whether atoms have weight: according to Aristotle and Theophrastus, the weight of D. atoms is proportional to their size (fr. 368; 369), Aetius and Cicero deny that atoms have weight (fr. 365). Cosmogony, cosmology and astronomy. Atoms infinite in number move continuously in an infinite void; colliding with each other and interlocking due to the irregularities of their forms, they “intertwine” and form countless worlds (spaces). Our cosmos was formed thanks to some spontaneous "Whirlwind" (????, cf. the same with Anaximander and Anaximenes), caused by a huge confluence of atoms that broke through into the "great void" (fr. 288-291). As a result of this vortex motion, which was the result of an inhomogeneous distribution of atoms in the void, their primary sorting took place - similar atoms to similar ones, with the larger ones in the center, and the Earth originated from them (fr. 370). A "wet and mud-like" shell initially rotated around it, which gradually dried up, the wet matter went down, and the dry matter ignited from friction, and stars formed from it. The earth is in the center of the cosmos according to the principle of "isonomy" - "there is no reason why it would rush to one side rather than the other" (fr. 379; 403), it remains motionless (in the sense that it does not move, but " only shakes"), and the firmament, i.e. air, revolves around the Earth and does not allow it to fall, although it itself is heavier than air (fr. 378). Its shape is round in diameter, but convex towards the middle (fr. 404-405), and the length is one and a half times the width (fr. 407). Closest to the Earth is the Moon, farthest away - the Sun, all the other planets - between them, at the extreme periphery are the stars (fr. 389). During their rotation, the Sun and stars squander their matter, but also absorb from the outside, which was called by the doxographers "nourishment from evaporation" (Fr. 397). The cosmos exists as long as it is able to attach matter to itself from the outside, otherwise its disintegration begins (fr. 391, 393). According to D., the Sun and the Moon arose separately from our cosmos during incomplete cosmogonic processes (fr. 395), and then entered our cosmos, where they heated up and acquired the current fiery state. The moon shines by reflected light (“powered by the sun”), but also has its own glow of the color of hot coal, which is visible during lunar eclipses(??. 399). D. paid special attention to explaining the appearance of comets, the brightness of the Milky Way, and so on. )”, “Description of celestial bodies”, “Description of the rotating firmament”. Information about the calculation of D. solar calendar taking into account leap years, everyday meteorological observations (ephemeris) and long-term weather predictions on the days of the summer and winter solstices (fr. 421-424). Biology, anthropology, history of culture. Animals originally originated directly from the earth. From the heat, the surface of the semi-liquid earth swelled, and putrefactive bubbles formed, similar to swamps. Inside these bubbles, life originated. At night, the embryos fed on the frost that fell from the surrounding air; during the day, the bubbles hardened from the heat. When these fruit-bearing mounds increased sufficiently in size, they were born different kinds animals. Those who had more heat flew up and became flying; in whom the earth prevailed, they became reptiles and other land animals, and in whom water prevailed, they became waterfowl. In time, the heat of the sun dried up the life-giving bubbles, and other animals were subsequently formed by procreation from each other. D. had the following opinion about the emergence of the sexes: if an individual had time to fully mature (“bake”) in an earthen bubble, then a male was obtained, more fiery and active by nature, and if not, a female was obtained. D.'s view of the origin and evolution of life is restored according to the text of the "History" of Diodorus Siculus (whose source on these issues was Hekatey Abdersky, a student of D.). The ideas of D. were accepted and developed by the Epicureans, and in the fifth book of the poem Lucrezia"On the Nature of Things" is set forth in its essence from Democritus' material. The evidence of Aristotle (in the "History of Animals" and "On the Origin of Animals") show that D. systematically engaged in observations of wildlife in its various forms. He was looking for the cause of all phenomena: where does the spider web come from and why deer and bulls grow horns, why mules are barren and how deformities arise. D. paid special attention to the study of various stages of the process of generation, from conception and intrauterine development of the fetus to the characteristics of childbirth, depending on climatic conditions terrain. Traditionally, like all pre-Socratics, D. considered anthropology as part of cosmology and natural philosophy. D expressed the idea of ​​the evolution of humanity that arose along with other living beings from primitive forms of community life, explained by the instinct of self-preservation due to danger and fear of wild animals, to higher forms associated with the achievements of culture. According to D., people created a culture (including agriculture, various crafts, musical art), imitating the nature and skills of various animals, over time learned from their own experience to choose and preserve what is useful for life. Probably, interest in the history of culture prompted D. to undertake his own calculation of the so-called. Trojan era - the year of the capture of Troy by the Greeks. The events described in Homer's epic were considered the earliest in history, and an indirect conclusion was drawn from them about the time of the existence of mankind itself. D.'s calculations showed approx. 1150 BC e. The doctrine of the soul and knowledge. Paying serious attention to the study of various aspects of human life and humanity, D. did not feel the need in the spirit of his contemporary philosophy to define what a person is. Doxographers retained the logically unsophisticated: "Man is what everyone knows" (fr. 165). Meanwhile, D. was the first to develop in detail the theory of sensory cognition and was one of the first to point out the dependence of the properties and qualities of things on the way they are perceived, during which, if not the cognized object itself, then, in any case, its image changes. According to D., all the concepts that make up the language of our description of the external world do not correspond to anything "truly", because all our knowledge is, in essence, conventional. (????? agreement, custom). “According to custom, sweetness, according to custom, bitterness, according to custom, cold, color, warmth, in fact (????) - atoms and the void” (fr. 90; 55). In the same sense, the word ????? ("custom") before D. was used by Empedocles, speaking of the conditionality of such familiar words as "birth" and "death", while the primary elements are actually eternal (cf.: DK31 B 9). According to D., since atoms do not have qualities (color, smell, taste, etc.), then things do not have these qualities either, because “nothing comes from nothing.” In this case, its logic is comparable to the logic of reasoning Anaxagora, only with directly opposite conclusions: according to Anaxagoras, if there is a qualitative variety in the sensory world, then the same variety must be attributed to pachatm homeomerism. D. explained sensory perception with the help of “outflows” from bodies: a certain material film flies off the surface of bodies in different directions, preserving the shape of the perceived body (???????, “Vidik”), it enters the eye, then into the soul, in which it is imprinted - this is how our ideas arise (cf. Empedocles' doctrine of material outflows). All sensory qualities, according to D., are the result of the impact of atoms on the organ of perception, while the impression is formed, on the one hand, due to the formal and quantitative differences of atoms, their combinations and the nature of pores - voids that separate atoms inside bodies, and on the other hand, due to the structure of the perceived organ. D.'s explanation of visual and gustatory perceptions can be reconstructed from Theophrastus' work "On Sensation and the Sensible." D. recognized four simple colors: white, black, red and greenish. Particles that give the impression of white are smooth, pores in white objects are straight, and black particles are rough, uneven and uneven in shape. The red color is associated with round ones, like warmth, but large in size. The greenish color is made up of solid and empty, its shades vary depending on the "position" and "order" of the atoms. The remaining colors are formed by mixing from the four primary colors, penetrating and mutually filling the pores of the coloring matter in different proportions. Explaining taste sensations, D. also attributed to each taste (salty, sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, caustic) its particles, but at the same time noted that none of the forms occurs in its pure form, but is mixed with others, and only according to the predominance of some form is given names to one or another quality. Theophrastus noted that D. did not speak about smells with the same certainty, considering this his omission (fr. 500-502). Differences in the perception of different faces (what seems sweet to the majority, may seem bitter to someone) were explained both by the variability of the object (the same atom, “turning”, can be perceived as both sour and sweet), and by the variability of the subject and the difference in the structure of the pores of the perceiving organ, which allowed more atoms of one form to penetrate from the outside than atoms of another, thus forming the final perception as sweet or bitter. Skepticism in the theory of knowledge stemmed from the relativity of sensory knowledge: according to Aristotle, D. believed that the truth or not, or it is unknown to us (Fr. 52), Sextus Empiricus brought D. closer to the skeptical tradition. A number of his statements support this view: “A person is removed from true reality” (fr. 48), “We don’t really know anything, but everyone has their own changeable opinion (?????????? ?????)» (??. 49), "Knowing what things really are is very difficult" (Fr. 50), cf. also fr. 51: "the truth is in the depths." Questions about the nature of the soul, knowledge and cognitive abilities were discussed by D. in the context set by his predecessors and contemporaries: Empedocles, Protagoras, Anaxagoras. Without deviating from atomism or from the principle “like is known by like,” D. believed that the soul consists of the smallest atoms of a spherical shape (of the same type as fire), therefore it imparts heat and movement to the body - that is, life ; at the same time, the atoms of the soul and body are physically “mixed”, but the value primacy in the soul-body pair is given to the soul (cf. fr. 784). According to Aristotle, D. identified the soul and mind (fr. 67-68), but the commentator John Philopon notes that D. himself does not say this anywhere, but Aristotle deduced this syllogistically. In the pre-Socratic tradition, there was still no doctrine of the hierarchical structure of the soul, first developed by Plato. To convey the idea of ​​the center of consciousness and understanding in man, D. also uses the term "soul" (????), and the terms "knowledge" (?????), "intelligence" (????), "thinking" (?? ???????), "thinking" (?????). As the soul is different from the body, although it also consists of atoms, so D. distinguished the mind from the soul, in the sense of the difference between thinking and sensory perception, while he explained both processes through “printing images”. On the one hand, there are two kinds of knowledge: "genuine" (????? ??????) and "dark" (????? ??????), ??. 83 (= Sext. Adv. math. VII 139, which immediately translates D.'s terminology into his contemporary language: ?????? ??? ??? ???????? / ??? ??? ?????????). “Dark” refers to perception with the help of the five senses, and “genuine” refers to the perception of the invisible because of its smallness, i.e. atoms. On the other hand, D. argued that feelings are the criterion for reliability, and reason (????), if it departs from sensory experience, it is unreliable (fr. 79-80). As a scientist, D. was interested in the differences between sleep and wakefulness, life and death (the last topic, perhaps, was devoted to the op. "That in Hades", in which D. collected evidence of people who were considered dead, but then returned to life, French 585 = Procl. In Remp.?, 113). Within the framework of his theory of outflows of “idol” forms, he proposed an explanation of dreams as atomic images of past events that hover in space and enter the soul during sleep; at the same time, at the time of autumn leaf fall, when the air is swayed by falling leaves, the shells reach us distorted, so that autumn dreams cannot be trusted; or rather, dreams at a time when the shells fly through the air without hindrance (fr. 476). After the death of the body, the atoms of the soul dissipate in the surrounding air, but since this process does not occur instantly, even dead bodies, according to D., have some kind of sensation ability (fr. 586). D. studied the state of lethargic sleep and cases of the so-called. “resurrection of the dead”, which he explained by the fact that in the allegedly dead “all life has not gone out”, and even doctors cannot establish the exact signs of the end of life (fr. 585-586). He made observations in cemeteries (fr. 587), studied the post-mortem changes that occur with corpses, and for better preservation advised keeping corpses in honey (fr. 588). main reason the death of a living being, as well as the cause of the death of the cosmos, D. considered the cessation of the influx of particles from the outside, capable of nourishing the soul, so that the internal vital heat gives way to cold and death (cf. Arist. De resp. 472alO-l 1: “in inhalation and exhalation are life and death." The doctrine of the gods and attitude to religion. D. recognized the existence of gods, believing them to be intelligent beings consisting of atoms, very large and very long-lived, but not eternal. From them, as well as from everything bodily, films-“idols” (??????) also come out, and some are “good”, and others are “evil”; they foreshadow the future "by their appearance and uttered sounds" (fr. 578; 472a), most often these images fly into us in a dream through the pores of the body. The main result of D.'s reasoning about the gods is that one should not be afraid of them, but asking for a beneficial effect is very prudent. Such an explanation of the existence of the gods, according to Cicero, borders on the denial of their existence (fr. 472a), and in Antiquity D. had a stable reputation as an atheist, especially since he associated fortune-telling, traditional belief in gods and posthumous retribution with superstitions and fear of death (fr. 581; 583). D. connected the emergence of traditional religion and belief in the existence of gods mainly with ignorance of the true causes of natural phenomena, and primarily those that attracted special attention to celestial phenomena, such as thunder, lightning, comets, conjunctions of luminaries, eclipses of the Moon and the Sun (Sext. Adv Math. IX 24). Ethics. Ethical fragments D. make up the most significant collection of the period before Plato. Diogenes Laertius indicates the following works according to the edition of Thrasilla: "Pythagoras", "On the State of the Spirit of the Wise Man" (???? ??? ??? ????? ?????????), “About what is in Hades”, “Tritogeny”, “On valor, or On virtue” (???? ??????????? ? ???? ??????), "The Horn of Amalthea", "On Euthymia", "Ethical Notes". In addition, it is recognized that the collection of moral instructions in the "Anthology" of John Stobeus (more than 100 sayings, in the collection of Lurie, most of them are included in the group of fr. 595-800), placed under the names "Democritus" and "Democrat", contains in including authentic material, but in its present form these texts are the result of a long process of compiling excerpts and paraphrases, so it is very difficult to judge how closely each statement conveys the words of D. himself. D.'s ethics is a continuation of his atomistic physics: just as an atom is a complete and self-sufficient being, so a person is a self-sufficient being, the happier the more closed in himself. To express his understanding of happiness, D. came up with several terms: "complacency" (???????, eutumia), "welfare" (??????), "fearlessness" (???????), ataraxia, also used the traditional terms "harmony" and "regularity" (fr. 742). The central concept of his ethics is euthymia, which was the subject of a separate book. The doctrine of complacency-euthymia is in connection with D.'s criticism of traditional religion and beliefs in fate (tyukhe). Neologisms ??????? And ?????? emphasized his rejection of the traditional understanding of happiness as bestowed by the gods (evdaimonia, ??????????) or a good case (eutychia, ???????): as a result, the very principle of happiness acquired not an external, but an internal conditionality. The meaning of the term is primarily associated with the concept of measure, self-restraint in relation to bodily pleasures: “Eutyumia arises due to moderation in pleasures and measured life” (fr. 657). Possessing complacency (? ???????, in essence, a sage) knows how to rejoice in what he has, without envying someone else's wealth and glory, he strives for fair and lawful deeds, which is why “both in a dream and in reality” he is joyful, balanced and truly healthy; he works to the best of his ability (“every kind of work is more pleasant than rest”), but he is wary of being “too active in private and public affairs” (fr. 737). Euthymia is not identical with pleasure, it is such a state in which the soul is “calm and unshakable, not tormented by any fears, superstitions or other experiences” (fr. 735). Pleasure and suffering D. considered the criteria for distinguishing between good and evil (fr. 734 = Sext. Adv. math. VII 140), but he avoids the hedonistic design of his teachings by appealing to an internal evaluation criterion, called or "deity" (??????) in us, or “shame before oneself” (fr. 604), which turns out to be the basis of moral behavior and the true “nature” of the soul, in contrast to external institutions. The ability to be ashamed to the greatest extent is a virtue; reliable education is based on it (fr. 692). D., unlike the sophists, emphasizes not the difference, but the closeness of upbringing (training, ??????) and nature: training forms (??????????) man and through this develops his nature (?????????), ??. 682. The ideas of D. about education as a second nature became a fruitful alternative to the dominant philosophy in the 5th century. rigid opposition "nature - law" and influenced the ethical and social theories of the classical period. Influence. It is traditionally believed (thanks to Epicurean historiography) that D. was a teacher Protagora(D. L. IX 42) and, accordingly, influenced the formation of the relativistic teachings of the sophists. It is also considered one of the sources of the formation of the skeptical tradition - the influence on Pyrrho through Metrodorus of Chios And Anaxarchus. But most significant is the comparison of the teachings of D. and epicurus, the second largest supporter of the atomistic theory. As an authoritative opponent, D. is invisibly present on the pages of Plato's works, although Plato himself never mentions his name. Plato's silence is probably explained by the unwillingness to once again give the floor to an influential and popular philosophical theory built on principles directly opposite to his own (including those relating to the emergence of the cosmos, nature, soul, religion, state). To a certain extent, the answer of Plato D. can be considered as a whole his dialogue "Timaeus", in which, among other things, an alternative to the Democritus doctrine of matter and its elementary indivisible particles is presented (in this sense, Plato's physics can typologically be attributed to atomistic teachings, see below). Atomism). Fragm. and trans.: DK II, 81-224; Alfieri V. ?. GH Atomisti: frammenti e testimoni-anze. Bari, 1936; Democrit. Texte zu seiner Philosophie, ausgew., ?bers., komm. u. interpr. v. R. Lbl. Amst, 1989; Fragmente zur Ethik, ?bers, und komm. v. G. Ibscher. Stuttg., 1996; Taylor S. S. W. The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus. Fragments, A Text and Translation with Commentary. Tornt, 1999. Lurie S. Ya. Democritus: Texts. Translation. Research. L., 1970; Makovelsky A. O. Ancient Greek atomists. Baku, 1946; Democritus in his fragments and testimonies of antiquity. Edited by G. K. Bammel. M., 1935. Lit.: general works: GUTHRIE, HistGrPhilos II, p. 386-507; Kirk G. S., Raven J. ?., Schofield M. The Presocratic Philosophers. Camb., 19572; Furley D.J. The Greek Cosmologists: The Formation of the Atomic Theory and Its Earliest Critics. Vol. 1. Camb., 1987; Taylor C.C.W. The atomists, Long A. A. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Camb., 1999, p. 181-204; Lurie S. Ya. Essays on the history of ancient science. M.; L., 1947. Herzel R. Democrits Schrift tgerX????????, -Hermes 14, 1879: 35?-407; Langerback?. ????? ?????????. Studien zu Demokrits Ethik und Erkenntnislehre. V., 1935 (Fr./M., 1967); Alfieri V.E. Atomos Idea: l´origine del concetto dell´atomo nel pensiero greco. Fir., 1953; Vlastos G. Ethics and Physics in Democritus, - PhR 54.6, 1945, p. 578-592; 55. 1, 1946, p. 53-64 (repr.: Furley D. J., Allen R. E. (edd.). Studies in Presocratic Philosophy. Vol. 2. Eleatics and Pluralists. L., 1975, p. 381^408); Democrito e PAtomismo antico. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di F. Romano. Catania, 1980; O'Brien D. Theories of Weight in the Ancient Word. A Study in the Development of Ideas. Vol. 1. Democritus: Weight and Size: An Exercise in the Reconstruction of Early Greek Philosophy. Leiden, 1981; Proceedings of the First International Congress on Democritus. Ed. L. Benakis. Vol. 1-2. Xanthi, 1984; Kahn Ch. Democritus and the Origins of Moral Psychology, -AJP 106, 1985, p. 1-31; Cole? Democritus and the Sources of Greek Anthropology. Atlanta, 19902; Hirsch U. War Demokrits Weltbild mechanistisch und anti-teleologisch? - Phronesis 35, 1990, p. 225-244; Salem J. D?mocrite: Grains de poussiere dans un rayon de soleil. P., 1996; Annas J. Democritus and Eudaimonism, - Caston V, Graham D. (edd.). Presocratic Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Alexander Mourelatos. L., 2002, p. 169-182; Berryman S. Democritus and the explanatory power of the void, - Ibid., p. 183-191; Mourelatos A.P.D. Intrinsic and Relational Properties of Atoms in the Democritean Ontology, Salles R. (ed.). Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics: Themes from the work of Richard Sorabji. Oxf., 2005; Lurie S. Ya. Democritus. Introduction by A. Tatarov. M., 1937 [ZhZL]; Zubov V.P. To the question of the mathematical atomism of Democritus, - VDI, 1951, 4, p. 204-208; Asmus V.F. Democritus. M., 1960; Goran V.P. Necessity and chance in the philosophy of Democritus. Novosibirsk, 1984; Berlinsky A. L. Date of birth of Democritus by Apollodorus and Thrasillus, - ?0????0?. To the 70th anniversary of prof. A. I. Zaitseva. SPb., 1997, p. 100-127; He lee. Necessity, chance, freedom: Democritus and his heirs, - Linguistica et Philologica. By the age of 75. prof. Yu. V. Otkupshchikova. SPb., 1999, p. 211-238. M. A. SOLOPOVA

Atomism (Atomic Theory)

Leucippus is considered the founder of atomism, but almost nothing is known about him. Therefore, under ancient Greek atomism, first of all, we mean the teachings of Democritus.

Democritus (Democritus)

Biographical information. Approximate life time - approx. 460–370 AD BC. Democritus was born in the city of Abdera (Hellas). He traveled a lot, was in Egypt, Babylon, possibly India and Ethiopia. For a long time he lived in Athens. Since Democritus constantly laughed at the imperfection of man, he bore the nickname Laughing.

Main works. It is known that Democritus wrote about 70 works on various fields of knowledge, but none of them have come down to us. The problems of atomism were set forth in the works "Big Domostroy", "Small Domostroy" and others.

Philosophical views. Initial. The first principles of being are the atoms and the void in which the atoms are located and move. Atoms (lit. / "indivisible") are the smallest, indivisible particles of matter. Each atom is eternal and unchanging; atoms do not come into being and do not disappear. The number of atoms is infinite. They differ in size, shape (spherical, pyramidal, hook-shaped, etc.) and position in space. Atoms are mobile, hovering and "dancing" in the void, like dust particles visible in a sunbeam.

All things in the world are made up of atoms and emptiness. The emergence and destruction of things is the result of the adhesion and separation of atoms. All things eventually perish, but the atoms that compose them continue to exist. Democritus considered the four traditional elements to be the "middle steps" from which everything else is composed. Air, water, and earth are made up of atoms of various shapes, while fire is made up of only spherical shapes.

The doctrine of primary and secondary qualities. By themselves, atoms are devoid of such qualities as color, smell, warmth, and so on. All these qualities are the result of the perception of atoms by our senses. After all, says Democritus, what one person perceives as sweet, another may perceive as bitter. Hence it is necessary to distinguish between primary, i.e. objectively existing properties of atoms (shape, size, position in space) and secondary - our subjective perception these primary properties.

Cosmology and cosmogony. The world as a whole is an infinite void, in which there is an infinite number of worlds consisting of atoms. Where there are many atoms in the void, they often collide with each other, which creates a cosmic vortex. Heavier atoms are concentrated in its center, lighter ones are forced out to the edges. This is how earth and sky come into existence. The worlds are spherical, closed and surrounded by a shell ("skin"). The center of our world is the Earth; The sun, moon, stars refer to the sky. The number of worlds is infinite; some of them are just emerging, others have flourished, others are dying; our world is in a state of flux. Some worlds are similar to each other, others are different.

Determinism. Democritus was the founder of the mechanistic determinism. Nothing that happens in the world arises for no reason, everything appears due to necessity (after all, everything that happens in the world is the result of movement, collision, adhesion, etc. of atoms). Randomness was invented by people to justify their own ignorance.

Origin of life and man. The living arises from the inanimate without the intervention of the gods and without any purpose. From the earth and moisture, first amphibious animals were born, and then - land animals. Non-viable creatures (blind and deaf, legless and armless) perished, only viable ones survived; they gave offspring; among these last beings there were also people.

The source of movement for people and animals is the soul; it, like everything else, consists of atoms (spherical, as having the greatest mobility). With the death of the body, the soul disintegrates and perishes.

Epistemology. There is a difference between sensual ("dark") and rational knowledge (through logical reasoning). When comprehending the world, our senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) act first. Images are constantly separated from things (expiring) - they are, as it were, shells consisting of rarefied atoms. When these images enter the human senses, he perceives them. At the same time, similar is perceived as similar.

But sensory knowledge is suitable only up to a certain limit, since the senses are not capable of comprehending too subtle and small entities (such as atoms). Then the mind begins to act, giving us true knowledge.

The origin of religion and atheism. The source of faith in the gods is the fear of the forces of nature, which man cannot explain. Everything that happens in the world is the result of the movement of atoms.

The fate of atomism. The teachings of Democritus had a significant impact on Epicurus (although Epicurus himself denied this), and through him on the Roman philosopher Lucretius Cara. However, in general, atomism was not very popular in antiquity (for example, Stoicism took over Epicureanism in the first centuries AD).

In the Middle Ages, he was practically unknown in the Christian world, but some of his ideas received a peculiar use in Muslim philosophy (kalam and Sufism).

In modern times, atomism turned out to be philosophical basis classical physics, deism and materialism of subsequent eras - up to the beginning of the 20th century.

• Determinism is philosophy which states the causality of any phenomena. The opposite doctrine, which admits the existence of random, unconditioned phenomena, is called indeterminism.

DEMOCRITES from Abdera in Thrace (c. 470/60 - 360 BC) - Greek philosopher, founder of the atomistic doctrine. He was from a wealthy family and in his youth he studied with "some magicians and Chaldeans", presented by the Persian king Xerxes to the father of Democritus for feeding the Persian army passing through Thrace with dinner. After the death of his father, he spent his part of the rich inheritance on travel, visiting Persia and Babylon, India and Egypt. Lived for some time in Athens, where at that time he could listen to Socrates and Anaxagoras. After returning home, fellow citizens sued the philosopher for embezzlement of his father's inheritance, but Democritus read to them his two main books: Big Mirostroy And Small Mirostroy and was fully justified. In total, Democritus was credited with the authorship of more than 70 works, today known from fragments.

The atomism of Democritus became the summarizing teaching of pre-Socratic philosophy, which reflected the problems posed in Ionian natural philosophy, Eleatic ontology, and Pythagorean numerical metaphysics.

The philosophy of Democritus is based on the doctrine of atoms and emptiness as two principles that give rise to the diversity of the cosmos. An atom is the smallest "indivisible" body, not subject to any changes. The indivisibility of the atom is analogous to the indivisibility of Parmenides' "being": division presupposes the presence of emptiness, but inside the atom, by definition, there is no emptiness. Emptiness in the system of Democritus acts as a principle of discreteness, set and movement of atoms, as well as their infinite "receptacle". Calling emptiness "non-existence", Democritus clearly abandoned the Eleatic postulate of the non-existence of non-existence, however, the concepts of being and non-being are included in his more general concept of "what is in fact", thanks to which reality was also recognized for emptiness (equal to non-being) .

All atoms have the property of continuous movement, and even inside macrobodies, which are formed due to the adhesion of atoms to each other, they make oscillatory movements. The primary cause of this movement is the collisions of atoms that began during the spontaneous “Vortex”, due to which our cosmos arose: in the cosmogonic Vortex, the primary sorting of atoms (similar to similar) took place, larger atoms ended up in the center, and the Earth originated from them. A “wet and mud-like” shell initially rotated around it, which gradually dried up and the wet matter went down, and the dry matter ignited from friction and stars formed from it.

From each other, atoms, the number of which is infinite, differ in three properties: "figure", "size" and "rotation" (position in space). For example, "B" differs from "b" in size, "B" from "P" - by a figure, and "P" from "b" - by rotation; the fourth distinguishing characteristic, “order,” refers to the way in which atoms are connected to each other (BRR as opposed to PVR, etc.), as a result of which macrobodies composed of atoms have various qualities.

Democritus was one of the first to point out the dependence of the qualities of things on the way they are known. All the concepts that make up the language of our description of the external world do not “truly” correspond to anything, therefore all our knowledge, in essence, has the character of an agreement: “according to custom, sweetness, according to custom, bitterness, according to custom, cold, color, warmth, but in fact - atoms and emptiness. According to Democritus, since atoms do not have qualities (color, smell, taste, etc.), then things do not have these qualities either, because “nothing comes from nothing”. All qualities are reducible to the formal-quantitative differences of atoms: a body consisting of "round and moderately large" atoms seems sweet, and from "rounded, smooth, oblique and small in size" - bitter, etc. Qualities are formed in the course of the act of perception, the reason for their occurrence is the interaction of the atoms of the soul and the atoms of the object that have unfolded in one way or another.

The soul, like fire, consists of the smallest atoms of a spherical shape, therefore it gives the body heat and movement (the ball is the most mobile of all figures). Democritus did not introduce special distinctions between the soul and the mind, and explained the process of thinking also through the "imprinting of images." Democritus explained sensory perception with the help of “outflows” from bodies: a certain thin material film flies off the surface of bodies, having the shape of a perceived body, it penetrates through the eye into the soul, in which it is imprinted - this is how our ideas arise.

The ethics of Democritus is a kind of continuation of his atomistic physics: just as an atom is a complete and self-sufficient being, so a person is a self-sufficient being, the happier the more self-contained. To express his understanding of happiness, Democritus coined several terms: "complacency", "well-being", "fearlessness", "ataraxia" (equanimity). The central concept of his ethics is complacency (euthymia), which "arises due to moderation in pleasures and measured life." The sage who possesses complacency knows how to rejoice in what he has; not envying someone else's wealth and glory, he strives for just and lawful deeds; he works to the best of his ability, but is wary of being "too active in private and public affairs."

It is traditionally believed that Democritus was the teacher of Protagoras and, accordingly, influenced the formation of the relativistic teachings of the sophists. It is also considered one of the sources of the formation of the skeptical tradition. But most significant is the comparison of the atomism of Democritus with the teachings of Epicurus.

Maria Solopova