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K6310: Sociology of Knowledge

Indv Assignment 1

Done by:

Eva Koh (G1300655)

The Laughing Philosopher

Democritus

"Father of modern science"

Who is this person?

Democritus was a man of vision who, in the 5th Century BC, developed an atomic theory that anticipated modern principles of matter and energy, who recognised the Milky Way as light from other stars, and who didn't believe in the gods but thought man was responsible for his own future.

However, Democritus remained a relatively obscure Greek philosopher for many centuries, achieving a minor renaissance only in modern times. Despite his sweeping and often prophetic theories elaborated in over 60 titles, we know him today primarily through the few surviving fragments of his books on ethics, through the writings of a handful of proponents, and the works of his numerous detractors.

About Me

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Lives In

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A3936026

c. 460 - 370 BC Abdera, Thrace

Abdera was a prosperous member of the Delian League in the 5th century but was crippled early in the 4th century bc by Thracian incursions and declined sharply in importance.

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/836/Abdera

Friends

Leucippus

Aristotle

Plato

What kind of knowledge society did he live in?

Democritus' hometown was in Abdera, Thrace, though some sources say Melitus. Born into considerable wealth around 460BC, he was able to use his enormous inheritance to travel the known world seeking wisdom. In addition to other Greek cities, he visited Egypt, Ethiopia, Persia, and India; eventually boasting that:

"Of all my contemporaries I have covered the most ground in my travels, making the most exhaustive inquiries the while; I have seen the most climates and countries and listened to the greatest number of learned men."

After several years of travel and discovery, Democritus exhausted his patrimony and returned to Abdera where his brother Damosis took him in. Hoping to avoid the disgrace of self-inflicted poverty. Democritus gave public lectures. He also performed experiments with herbs , plants and stones, and eventually acquired a reputation for a deep knowledge of natural phenomena. Though his lifestyle was reclusive, his talents and intelligence helped him became a man of authority and honor in Abdera.

The original Atomist

The competitor

Anaxagoras

Xerxes

Hippocrates

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A3936026

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What was he most well known for?

Education

The atomic theory

He was a pupil of some of the Magi and Chaldaeans, whom Xerxes had left with his father as teachers, when he had been hospitably received by him, as Herodotus informs us; and from these men he, while still a boy, learned the principles of astronomy and theology. Afterwards, his father entrusted him to Leucippus, and to Anaxagoras, as some authors assert, who was forty years older than he.

Democritus and his teacher Leucippus replaced theological and supernatural explanations of phenomena with natural materialist explanations. They assumed the world was completely made of matter, which they postulated to consist of just a few types of invisible particles that could be combined to make all of the visible objects, their properties, and their behaviors.

http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/democritus/

http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dldemocritus.htm

Work Experience

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The origin of his nickname, the 'Laughing Philosopher', is subject to debate. Some sources suggest that it derives from his theory that man's highest ethical goal is 'cheerfulness'.

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Philosopher in Pre-Socratic era

See detailed resume in "Diogenes Laërtius"

Now these are his ethical works. The Pythagoras; a treatise on the Disposition of the Wise Man; an essay on those in the Shades Below; the Tritogeneia (this is so called because from Minerva three things are derived which hold together all human affairs); a treatise on Manly Courage or Valour: the Horn of Amalthea; an essay on Cheerfulness; a volume of Ethical Commentaries. A treatise entitled, For Cheerfulness, (euestô) is not found.

These are his writings on natural philosophy. The Great World (which Theophrastus asserts to be the work of Leucippus); the Little World; the Cosmography; a treatise on the Planets; the first book on Nature; two books on the Nature of Man, or on Flesh; an essay on the Mind; one on the Senses (some people join these two together in one volume, which they entitle, on the Soul); a treatise on Juices; one on Colours; one on the Different Figures; one on the Changes of Figures; the Cratynteria (that is to say, an essay, approving of what has been said in preceding ones); a treatise on Phaenomenon, or on Providence; three books on Pestilences, or Pestilential Evils; a book of Difficulties. These are his books on natural philosophy.

His miscellaneous works are these. Heavenly Causes; Aërial Causes; Causes affecting Plane Surfaces; Causes referring to Fire, and to what is in Fire; Causes affecting Voices; Causes affecting Seeds, and Plants, and Fruits; three books of Causes affecting Animals; Miscellaneous Causes; a treatise on the Magnet. These are his miscellaneous works.

His mathematical writings are the following. A treatise on the Difference of Opinion, or on the Contact of the Circle and the Sphere; one on Geometry; one on Numbers; one on Incommensurable Lines, and Solids, in two books; a volume called Explanations; the Great Year, or the Astronomical Calendar; a discussion on the Clepsydra; the Map of the Heavens; Geography; Polography; Artmography, or a discussion on Rays of Light. These are his mathematical works.

His works on music are the following. A treatise on Rhythm and Harmony; one on Poetry; one on the beauty of Epic Poems; one on Euphonious and Discordant Letters; one on Homer, or on Propriety of Diction3 and Dialects; one on Song, one on Words; the Onomasticon. These are his musical works.

The following are his works on art. Prognostics; a treatise on the Way of Living, called also Diaetetics, or the Opinions of a Physician; Causes relating to Unfavourable and Favourable Opportunities; a treatise on Agriculture, called also the Georgic; one on Painting; Tactics, and Fighting in heavy Armour. These are his works on such subjects.

Some authors also give a list of some separate treatises which they collect from his Commentaries. A treatise on the Sacred Letters seen at Babylon; another on the Sacred Letters seen at Meroe; the Voyage round the Ocean; a treatise on History; a Chaldaic Discourse; a Phrygian Discourse; a treatise on Fever; an essay on those who are attacked with Cough after illness; the Principles of Laws; Things made by Hand, or Problems.

As to the other books which some writers ascribed to him, some are merely extracts from his other writings, and some are confessedly the work of others. And this is a sufficient account of his writings.

When people opposed his teachings, what were they against?

Moral responsibility was very important to Democritus. It was a large part of his reason for eliminating the gods and the idea of fate. Unfortunately, eliminating the gods was impolitic and Democritus' work was shunned by many philosophers, starting with Plato.

Aristoxenus (364 - 304BC), a pupil of Aristotle, wrote that Plato wanted to burn all the works of Democritus but was unable to do so because the books were so popular and widely distributed. Other sources suggest that the loss of most of Democritus' writings is evidence that Plato succeeded. In either event, Plato managed to avoid any mention of Democritus in his own writings.

Aristotle (384 - 322BC) regarded him as an important rival and had respect for his sound approach to natural philosophy. Aristotle and many of his students discuss Democritus's ideas at great length in their own works, but primarily in order to dispute them. Because of Aristotle's enormous popularity and influence, his lengthy disputations of Democritus's theories are to a large extent paradoxically responsible both for helping these ideas survive the loss of the original works and dooming them to rejection and obscurity through much of ancient and medieval times.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A3936026

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A less flattering explanation, expressed by the Roman philosopher Seneca (4BC - 65AD), is that Democritus was prone to displaying his contempt of human absurdity by laughing at his fellow-citizens, who in turn, called him 'the mocker'.

http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dldemocritus.htm

Extras

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An Interesting Anecdote...

It was said that Democritus himself looked at the sun and became blind, because seeing with his eyes hinders him to see that what can be seen better with the spirit. Tertulian expresses some doubts and says that Democritus did this because being old he did not want to see more any beautiful women (for obvious reasons). In contrast to this Eratosthenes was said became blind in old age and that he committed suicide by starvation.

A strange story about his death exists: He said that often a long life is nothing than a elongated death and he decided almost 100 years old to die. He refused to eat. His sister also almost 100 years old complained that she could not go to the Thesmophorien festival because she had to be at his home until his death. Democritus asked her to put a hot bread on his face. So he survived the next three days by just breathing the smell of the bread and his sister could go to the festival. When his sister confirmed that the festival is over he died. This story is described by Hermippus and Hipparchus says that he was 109 years when he died.

Maid to woman

Athenodorus tells us, in the eighth book of his Conversations, that once, when Hippocrates came to see him, he ordered some milk to be brought; and that, when Democritus saw the milk, he said that it was the milk of a black goat, with her first kid; on which Hippocrates marvelled at his accurate knowledge. Also, as a young girl came with Hippocrates, on the first day, he saluted her thus, "Good morning, my maid; but on the next day, "Good morning, woman;" for, indeed, she had ceased to be a maid during the night.

http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/democritus/

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/DemocritLife.htm

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What was his contribution to mankind and the world of knowledge?

In his time, Democritus was both popular and controversial - some of the greatest minds of the era built on his theories while others rejected his godless, mechanical vision of the universe. Some of his detractors may even have worked to suppress his writings. The Greek philosopher Epicurus (341 - 271 BC) constructed his own materialistic and hedonistic theory of ethics around the atomic theory of Democritus. Attributions to Democritus' ideas in Epicurus's surviving writings provide important insights into the lost works of the earlier philosopher.

While never achieving the level of recognition attained by his rivals Plato or Aristotle, in modern times Democritus has managed something of a resurgence: Democritus University of Thrace is a thriving institution of higher learning, a number of private laboratories bear his name and there is a Greek coin with his image. College courses discuss Democritus's theories and even school students are required to be familiar with his ideas. To some extent, the world has come to appreciate that Democritus was an insightful genius who through observation and Einsteinian 'thought experiments' divined an almost modern theory of physics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A3936026

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