Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews October 3, 2023 September 26, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Like Anaxagoras and Empedocles, the atomists wanted to answer the basic post- Eleatic question: if change cannot occur in the real, then how does it occur in the observable world? Also like the previous two philosophers, they answered this question by postulating the existence of certain elements of the cosmos that are real in the Parmenidean sense and by claiming further that through analyzing the arrangement and rearrangement of these basic elements, we can arrive at an account of the visible world without having to admit that there is any change on the level of the real. But whereas the two previous pluralists rejected the Eleatic notion that what exists is one in kind, the atomists retained this contraint. The atomists posit just one kind of real thing — tiny, indivisible atoms, swimming around in a void. This account of reality is by far most sophisticated of all those ventured by the Presocratics, and it even comes alarmingly close to anticipating the modern scientific view of ultimate reality.
The only two known Presocratic atomists were Leucippus and his student Democritus. Unfortunately, we know very little about Leucippus, the founder of atomic theory. Even his place of birth is in dispute, given variously as Miletus, Abdera, and Elea. What we do know with moderate certainty is that Leucippus studied with members of the school of Elea at some point in his life. He was clearly influenced by Zeno as is evidenced by his strong interest in the problems and paradoxes of space. The only other fact we know about this great thinker is that he wrote two books, no parts of which survive. The first of these was called On Mind and the second The Great World System.
Democritus was the student of Leucippus, and he is the figure through whom atomism has been transmitted to later generations. It is not known how much of his theory is simply a repetition of Leucippus's teaching and how much of it is original to him, but it was he who brought atomism to public attention and who made it a matter of philosophical controversy. He born around 460 B.C. in Abdera, Thrace in Northern Greece, and he traveled throughout the ancient world. We are aware of the titles of at least seventy books that he supposedly authored, and these works cover a wide variety of subjects. He wrote in nearly all philosophical areas, including mathematics, natural philosophy, literature, and grammar, and also wrote more popular works, such as accounts of his travels. In addition, he seems to have written on farming, medicine, military science, and even painting. Interestingly, not only did he have something of worth to say on all of these topics, but he even applied atomic theory to most of them. He apparently believed that atomism could be usefully extended to all aspects of the world, including even ethics and politics.
Like Anaxagoras and Empedocles, The Atomists claimed that there was a level of reality that satisfied the Eleatic demands. This level of reality was populated by atoms and the void. Atoms are, literally, indivisible particles, which are so small that they can be split no further. The atoms qualify as Parmenidean Reals in two ways. First, like the four elements and the homeomeric substances, atoms cannot be generated, destroyed, or qualitatively changed. In addition, they have an added level of compliance with the Parmenidean demands: the atoms themselves are one in kind. All atoms are made out of the same material. Reality, then, really is one and continuous in at least a qualitative sense.
Though the atoms are materially homogenous (as well as being uniformly impenetrable and indivisible), they do have some variable properties. They differ from one another in shape, arrangement, position, size, and motion. It is by the arrangement and rearrangement of atoms of different shapes, sizes, and motions that the observable world comes into being.
The boldest aspect of the atomist theory, is that, in addition to positing the atoms as Parmenidean Reals, it also posits a void, which is identified explicitly with non-being. There is an extremely good reason for this move: the Eleatics argued that (1) being cannot admit of a vacuum (i.e. empty space) and (2) without a vacuum there can be no movement. Leucippus was impressed by both of these arguments and was persuaded of their truth. However, he was equally certain of the truth of the claim that movement does in fact exist, since he saw movement all around him. Reasoning with these three premises (i.e. the two Eleatic conclusions, and his own observation that motion must exist) he concluded that there must actually be a vacuum and that this vacuum must be identified with not-being. Though the vacuum is non-being, it is nonetheless real. The atoms exist in this vacuum or void and move about in it, giving rise to the observable world.
Please wait while we process your payment