Leucippus

Leukippus (ideal portrait)

Leucippus ( Greek Λεύκιππος Leucippus * in .. 5th century BC in Elea , Miletus or Abdera in Thrace ) was an ancient Greek philosopher . He is counted among the pre-Socratics .

Life and teaching

Leukippus is regarded as a student of Parmenides and as the founder of both the Abdera school and - together with his student Democritus - atomism .

According to the atomistic view and in deviation from the Parmenidic teachings, the world consists of empty space and matter . This is necessary because matter could never move without empty space. By rearranging the smallest particles, the atoms (Greek “atomoi”, literally “indivisible”), change occurs. Everything material is thus composed of an infinite number of components, the atoms, through whose rearrangements becoming and decaying can be explained.

The causal law of Leukippus reads: “No thing arises without a plan, but out of meaning and necessity.” This teaching was carried on by Democritus and developed into materialism . However, today it is no longer possible to understand which part of the teaching Democritus took over from his teacher, since only text fragments have survived.

Leukipp is considered to be the author of The Great World System and About the Spirit . Some researchers claim that Leukippus never existed, but that Democritus used this name as a pseudonym. However, this does not correspond to the current state of research.

Text editions and translations

Laura Gemelli Marciano (Ed.): The pre-Socratics . Volume 3, Artemis & Winkler, Mannheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-538-03502-7 , pp. 300-583 (Greek source texts with German translation, explanations and an introduction to life and work).
Fritz Jürß , Reimar Müller , Ernst Günther Schmidt (eds.): Greek atomists. Texts and comments on the materialistic thinking of antiquity . Reclam, Leipzig 1973.

literature

Georg Rechenauer : Leukippus and Democritus . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy . The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 2, Schwabe, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7965-2598-8 , p. 833-946.

Web links

Footnotes

↑ Sous Anna-Maria Nikolaou: The atomic theory of Democritus and Plato's Timaeus. A comparative study (= contributions to antiquity . Vol. 112), Stuttgart et al. 1998, p. 42.
↑ Hermann Diels , Walther Kranz (ed.): The fragments of the pre-Socratics , fragment DK 67 B 2.

personal data
SURNAME	Leucippus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Co-founder of atomism
DATE OF BIRTH	5th century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH	Miletus or Abdera
DATE OF DEATH	5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.

[1] Sous Anna-Maria Nikolaou: The atomic theory of Democritus and Plato's Timaeus. A comparative study (= contributions to antiquity . Vol. 112), Stuttgart et al. 1998, p. 42.

[2] Hermann Diels , Walther Kranz (ed.): The fragments of the pre-Socratics , fragment DK 67 B 2.