![]() ![]() Specifically, he was in violation of a law permitting the impeachment of anyone who didn’t practice religion and taught theories about the heavenly bodies. It seems his teachings on the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon might have gotten him into a bit of trouble (apparently Galileo wasn’t the first to suffer this fate). 429 BC) who became his student) and spent thirty years there but eventually left. He was the first to bring philosophy to Athens (most likely convinced to come by Pericles (c. 428 BC) was born in the town of Clazomenae in Ionia, located in present-day Turkey. A contemporary of Empedocles and fellow early atomic theorist was Anaxagoras. Nonetheless, he abandoned Parmenides’ monistic view in favor of a pluralistic one governed by his four elements (roots), two forces, and the ensuing comingling thereof. To be sure, this was a deliberate attempt to reconcile the opposing doctrines of Heraclitus and Parmenides, and he was not the only one to do so. While he didn’t believe in a changeless universe, as Parmenides’ monistic dogma had demanded, he did attribute changelessness to his fundamental elements. Perhaps less clear is that Empedocles also embraced a bit of the doctrine of Parmenides. In Empedocles’ theory, we clearly see the concept of a changing universe similar to that described by Heraclitus, although where Heraclitus only believed in Strife, Empedocles softened his theory with the addition of Love as its cosmic counterpart. The cosmic battle between Love and Strife represented the natural cycle of change in the universe Love built things up and Strife tore them back down, and they struggled against each other, each one trying to gain dominance over the other. Love was responsible for bringing the elements together in the process of creation, whereas the opposing force of Strife was responsible for the separation of the elements, ultimately leading to the process of decay. Empedocles believed in two eternal metaphysical forces: Love and Strife. Indeed, Empedocles envisioned the four elements as changeless, eternal, and indestructible. And while the elements mixed together to form other things, they still maintained their own individual characteristics. These fundamental elements, which he called “roots,” combined in varying amounts to form all other matter: plants, animals, humans, rocks – everything. His main contribution to the physical sciences was his four-element theory. 432 BC) was an interesting character, who has been described as a philosopher, prophet, healer, democratic politician, mystic, charlatan, fraud, and scientist. Later, Aristotle adopted Empedocles’ four elements, and so it remained until about the seventeenth century.īorn in Acragas, in present-day Sicily, Empedocles (c. 528 BC) thought it was air, and Empedocles finally unified these, declaring there to be four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. 546 BC) said it was water, Anaximenes (c. Heraclitus said it was fire, Thales of Miletus (c. The early atomic theories focused on a primary element responsible for creating all other matter. Although there was some revival during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, they never gained any real momentum until the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, these “theories” of matter were rather short-lived. And while they attempted to touch on the nature of matter and its composition, their real goal was to address something of profound concern to the ancient Greeks: the nature of permanency and change. Their thoughts were speculative and philosophical, rather than scientific in nature. Several of the ancient philosophers pondered and developed a theory of matter, with one even imagining the existence of a fundamental building block that made up not only all living and nonliving things, but the supernatural as well. ![]() The ancient Greek philosophers played a significant role in shaping the initial thoughts about atoms and early atomic theories. Thoughts of Existence Pave the Way for Atoms
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