J.R. Ritman Library - Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in veiled terms. democritus of abdera (5th century BCE), the 'laughingphilosopher', is one of them. The alchemical treatise connected http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/hermgnos-09.html
Extractions: Go to previous page Go to next page 9. Democritus (pseudo-). De arte magna. (Translated by Dominico Pizimentio). Padua, Simone Galignani, 1573 A great number of classic philosophers and poets was alleged to have practised alchemy and to have passed on the secret knowledge in veiled terms. Democritus of Abdera (5th century BCE), the 'laughing philosopher', is one of them. The alchemical treatise connected with his name, Fysika kai mystika , was, however, written by a younger alchemist, Bolos of Mendes (ca. 250 BCE). The text contains interpolations of an even more recent date (1st century CE). Democritus presents himself as a Hellenistic prophet, sent to teach man how to rise above confused matter. The text - mainly containing recipes - is alternated with an alchemical formula which is often quoted and which refers to the sympathetical and antipathetical principles setting the dynamic fysika in motion: Natura natura gaudet: et natura naturam vincit: et naturam retinet. (One nature rejoices in another one, and one nature defeats another one, and one nature dominates in another one.)
Democritus Of Abdera (fl democritus of abdera (fl. 430 BCE) On sense perception Sight takesplace by means of a physical impression which does not occur http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~kdickson/democritus.html
Extractions: Democritus of Abdera (fl. 430 BCE On sense perception: Sight takes place by means of a physical impression...which does not occur spontaneously in the pupil of the eye. Instead, the air in between the eye and the object is compressed and stamped by both the object and the viewer, since [atoms] are always flowing from everything. (Theophrastus, 370-288 BCE) They associated vision with certain images, identical in shape with the object, that constantly streamed from the object and impressed themselves on the eye. (Alexander of Aphrodisias, 3rd century CE) On tastes: He defines "sweet" as something [made of atoms that are] round and moderately large; "sour," as what is large, round, polygonal, and linear; whatever is "sharp tasting," as the name implies, sharp edges, and is angular, crooked, and linear; whatever is "pungent" is round, small, angular, and crooked; "salty" is angular, moderately large and crooked, with sides of equal length; whatever is "bitter" is round, small, crooked, and smooth; and "oily" is fine, round, and smooth. (Theophrastus, 370-288 BCE) On knowledge: There are two kinds of knowledge: one authentic, one illegitimate. The following belong to illegitimate knowledge: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The other [sc. rationality] is genuine and distinct from this kind... We must acknowledge that, for this reason, we are separated from reality... In fact, we know nothing about anything... (Sextus Empiricus, 2nd century CE)
Dorlands Medical Dictionary Hippocraticlike diet, exercise, and steam baths. See also Alcmaeonof Crotona and democritus of abdera. Eratyrus (Er·a·ty·rus) (er http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands.jspzQzpgzEzzSzppdocszSzuszS
Atoms The first atomic theorists we have any record of were two fifthcentury BC Greeks,Leucippus of Miletus (a town now in Turkey) and democritus of abdera. http://www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/252/atoms.html
Extractions: Link to Previous Lecture The first "atomic theorists" we have any record of were two fifth-century BC Greeks, Leucippus of Miletus (a town now in Turkey) and Democritus of Abdera. Their theories were naturally more philosophical than experimental in origin. The basic idea was that if you could look at matter on smaller and smaller scales (which they of course couldn't) ultimately you would see individual atoms - objects that could not be divided further (that was the definition of atom). Everything was made up of these atoms, which moved around in a void (a vacuum). The different physical properties color, taste, and so on of materials came about because atoms in them had different shapes and/or arrangements and orientations with respect to each other. look closely, whenever rays are let in and pour the sun's light through the dark places in houses you will see many particles there stirred by unseen blows change their course and turn back, driven backwards on their path, now this way, now that, in every direction everywhere. You may know that this shifting movement comes to them all from the atoms*. For first the atoms of things move of themselves; then those bodies which are formed of a tiny union, and are, as it were, nearest to the powers of the atoms, are smitten and stirred by their unseen blows, and they, in their turn, rouse up bodies a little larger. And so the movement passes upwards from the atoms, and little by little comes forth to our senses, so that those bodies move too, which we can descry in the sun's light; yet it is not clearly seen by what blows they do it.
Democritus Internet Resources democritus of abdera. Biography Resource Center(Need username and password for trial). Last updated 09 April 2002. http://www.punahou.edu/libraries/cooke/democritus.html
One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos essential nature of matter? From the atoms of Democritus ExternalLink A biography of democritus of abdera. to the atomic nuclei http://www.nap.edu/oneuniverse/linked_frontiers_178-179.html
Extractions: Multiple Universes? One of the most intriguing questions in cosmology is: What came before the Big Bang? One hypothesis, illustrated here, is that our universe may be just one of many that materialized out of the inherent instability of the cosmic vacuum. These vacuum fluctuations may be similar to an era of fluctuating foam known as Planck Time, 10 second after the Big Bang, before which our current models and theories do not apply. Some researchers speculate that the writhing foam would have produced tiny bubbles that appeared and disappearedor suddenly expanded into entire universes. For another cosmic mystery, it's not necessary to peer billions of light-years into space or back to the beginning of time. This mystery is right at your fingertips: What is the essential nature of matter? From the atoms of Democritus to the atomic nuclei of Ernest Rutherford to the quarks of Murray Gell-Mann , our models of matter have shrunk to ever-smaller scales. It's natural to wonder whether this progression will continue, surprising us with even tinier nesting Russian dolls of matter. The answer is more than just a curiosity, because quantum mechanics tells us that energy and matter fluctuate on these tiniest scales. In the earliest moments of the Big Bang, continual
One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos and his student Democritus External Link A biography of democritus of abdera. andDemocritus External Link A biography of democritus of abdera. http://www.nap.edu/oneuniverse/linked_matter_68-69.html
Extractions: back to unlinked version electrical grid of the United States, but only for a trillionth of a second or so. These beams eradicate small targets placed in their paths. The temperatures and pressures within the tiny blasts approach those inside our Sun or planets like Jupiter . One of the goals of this research is to harness the energy of thermonuclear fusion that powers the Sun. That would be a much cleaner source of energy than nuclear power from the fission of uranium . However, it may take decades to learn how to sustain the fierce fusion reactions in a controlled and profitable way. In the meantime, the experiments have shown us that hydrogenthe main component of Jupiter Saturn Uranus , and Neptune takes on distinctly ungaslike properties as pressures and temperatures rise within those planets. For example, lasers have compressed and heated hydrogen into a form that appears to conduct electricity as efficiently as a metal. This odd transformation may in fact occur near Jupiter 's core, helping to produce a powerful magnetic field around the planet.
Physiker Bei Multimedia- Physik Translate this page 1650) Porträt Rene Descartes Democritus (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)The Atomists Leucippus of Miletus and democritus of abdera Democritus The http://didaktik.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~pkrahmer/home/namen.html
The Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Resources democritus of abdera (c.460370 BC) The Atomism of Democritus (Jan Garrett) Democritusentry (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Democritus entry (MacTutor http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/pre-socratic.html
Extractions: The Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Resources "Pre-Socratic" is the expression commonly used to describe those Greek thinkers who lived and wrote between 600 and 400 B.C. It was the Pre-Socratics who attempted to find universal principles which would explain the natural world from its origins to man's place in it. Although Socrates died in 399 B.C., the term "Pre-Socratic" indicates not so much a chronological limit, but rather an outlook or range of interests, an outlook attacked by both Protagoras (a Sophist) and Socrates, because natural philosophy was worthless when compared with the search for the "good life." To give the Pre-Socratic thinkers their full due would require an article of encyclopedic scope. Given that, I have decided to list a number of sites on individual Pre-Socratic thinkers. The University of Evansville has produced a phenomenal site called Exploring Plato's Dialogues (subtitled "A Virtual learning Environment on the World-Wide Web"). The site contains the full text of the 3rd edition (1920) of John Burnet's classic Early Greek Philosophy Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500-428 B.C.)
Who's Who In The Phaedrus democritus of abdera (c. 460/490?c.360 BCE). His name is closely associatedwith the philosopher Leuicippus, the two of them known http://www.anotherscene.com/phaedrus/whos.html
Extractions: tomrip5@aol.com Who's Who in the Phaedrus Flourished c. 650 BCE Anacreon important court poet. Serving both the court at Samos and the Athenian court under Hipparchus . For more background in Ancreon and other Greek Lyric Poets, see the Web site for Professor John Porter's course on The Greek Lyric Poets . And for examples of their work, see Professor Porter's selected translations If you need a change of pace from actual Platonic dialogues, you may want to read one of the more-than-likely-fake Platonic dialogues, such as the one to which Hipparchus leant his already dubious name. And see my Electronic Plato Map for the lowdown on the counterfeits and where to find them. Collect them and trade with your friends Resident Alien (metus), father of the orator Lysias. The Republic one of Plato's longest and most celebrated dialogues, takes place in the home of Cephalus in the Piraeus. Socrates is in the vicinity on the day of a newly inaugurated festival is to take place. As he attempts to return to Athens, Lysias' s brother, Polemarchus and friends "kidnap" him and bring him to the home of Cephalus. Lysias is also in attendance there. Cephalus welcomes Socrates, and their conversation takes up a good part of the first book, and is one of the engaging in all the dialogues.
Science History Timeline, Before 1900 460 BC democritus of abdera, suggested that the world is made up of only vacuumand atoms - an infinite number of tiny, hard, indestructible particles which http://www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/bhistory.htm
Extractions: 15,000 - 10,000 BC - The world warms out of the latest Ice Age 8,000 BC Pottery invented. 3,500 BC Invention of the wheel 3,000 BC Pyramid of Giza and Stonehenge built. 1,800 BC Babylonian multiplication tables 1,200 BC Iron working developed 625 BC Thales of Miletus , Greek philosopher who proposed that the Earth is a disc which floats on water. 605 to 562 BC - Nebuchadnezzar creates the Hanging Gardens of Babylon 580 BC Pythagoras , in addition to discovering the famous property of right triangles, he proposed that the Earth is a sphere and that planets move in circles. 460 BC Democritus of Abdera , suggested that the world is made up of only vacuum and atoms - an infinite number of tiny, hard, indestructible particles which combine in different ways to produce the variety of everything in the world, both living and non-living. 427 BC Plato , Greek philosopher who proposed that all objects in the Universe moved in perfect circles around the Earth. 388 BC Heraklides of Pontus , Greek philosopher and astronomer who taught that the Earth turns on its axis once every 24 hours.
GO 521 Historical Listing History of Geology James S. Aber. Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance. Pythagores(about 530 BC). democritus of abdera (about 490 BC). Aristotle (384322 BC). http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/histgeol/list.htm
Great Theosophists--Alchemy And The Alchemists (14 Of 29) His atomic theory was elaborated by Leucippus and his pupil democritus of abdera,who taught that the atoms in space are actuated by ceaseless motion which in http://www.wisdomworld.org/setting/alchemy.html
Extractions: (Number 14 of a 29-part series) GREAT THEOSOPHISTS A LCHEMY AND THE A LCHEMISTS THE word Alchemy is a combination of Al and Chemi Al, like the Hebrew El, meaning the Mighty Sun, Chemi meaning Fire. As Khem was the name of ancient Egypt, it is commonly supposed that the science of Alchemy originated in the land of the Pharaohs. But actually it was born on the old continent of Atlantis. Egypt was merely the land of its rebirth. Alchemy is said to have been introduced into Egypt by Hermes Trismegistus. Who was the "Thrice-Great"? The name Hermes, like so many other famous names of history, was a generic one common to a long line of Initiates. Thoth- Hermes was one of the King-Instructors, the "Sons of the Fire" who incarnated in the Third Race to instruct infant humanity in the arts and sciences. The Egyptians always regarded Thoth-Hermes as a symbol of the Third Race. But in whichever of his characters Hermes appears, he is always credited as the first to teach the science of magic to the Egyptians. Since "Hermes" implies a Fraternity of Initiates rather than a single individual, the
History Of Philosophy 5 democritus of abdera was born about the year 460 BC It is said though it isby no means certain that he received instruction from the Magi and other http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/hop05.htm
Extractions: THE ATOMISTS The Atomists represent the last phase of Ionian speculation concerning nature. They accept the dualistic ideas which characterize the Later Ionian philosophy, but by their substitution of necessity for intelligent force they abandon all that dualistic philosophy had to bequeath to them, and fall lower than the level which the early hylozoists had reached. It was at Miletus that the Ionian philosophy first appeared, and it was Miletus that produced Leucippus, the founder of Atomism, who virtually brings the first period of Greek philosophy to a close. So little is known of Leucippus that his very existence has been questioned. His opinions, too, have been so imperfectly transmitted to us that it is usual to speak of the tenets of the Atomists without distinguishing how much we owe to Leucippus, who by Aristotle and Theophrastus is regarded as the founder of the system, and how much we owe to Democritus, who was the ablest and best-known expounder of atomistic philosophy. DEMOCRITUS Life . Democritus of Abdera was born about the year 460 B.C. It is said though it is by no means certain that he received instruction from the Magi and other Oriental teachers. It is undoubtedly true that, at a later time, he was regarded as a sorcerer and magician, a fact which may account for the legend of his early training. He was probably a disciple of Leucippus. There is no historical foundation for the widespread belief that he laughed at everything.
·sºô¶2 ? DemocritusFragments. ?democritus of abderaTXT / PDF. 0038W00101. ?democritus of abdera TXT / PDF. 0039W0009. http://www.superlogos.com.tw/edit/apage1.htm
4A_Terms Thales of Miletus. Anaximander. democritus of abdera. Pythagoras. Aeschylus. Sophocles. Thalesof Miletus. Anaximander. democritus of abdera. Pythagoras. Aeschylus. http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~masutton/4A_terms.htm
Extractions: History 4A Winter 2003 Week One Terms This quarter we will focus on many cultures and civilizations over several thousands of years. The guiding framework for this study is the question, "what did these cultures or civilizations contribute to what we call "Western Civilization?" Therefore, we will look at the following: Ancient Near East: a) How to organize/rule a large territory; b) Developments in religious thought, especially ethical monotheism. Greece: What is the relationship between the individual and the group? What rights does and individual have, and what obligations? Rome: a) How to rule/organize a large territory and naturalized citizenship; b) Developments in religious thought, in particular Christianity; c) When did Rome fall? What caused Rome to fall? Terms: Neolithic Revolution Rosetta Stone Cuneiform schola (Greek, leisure) Theocracy polytheism Ancient Near East: Egypt Mesopotamia (Greek, "between rivers") Tigris-Euphrates River Valley Sumer (Sumerians), Akkadians, Babylonians (Babylon) Code of Hammurabi Mesopotamian ziggurat Egypt Nile Herodotus pharaoh ma'at Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BC) pyramid Osiris, Isis, Horus
Atomism prominent. Leucippus of Miletus (ca. 435 BCE) and democritus of abdera(ca. 410 BCE) developed the atomic hypothesis. According http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/atomism.html
Extractions: The notion that matter is made up of small, indivisible particles goes back to the ancient Greeks. In the sixth century BCE, thinkers began asking questions about what is the basic underlying reality of the world. In view of the constant change we see in the world around us, is there some substratum ( physis , hence our word physics ) that is constant? If so, is it material or immaterial, accessible through the senses or only through the mind, is it one or many? Over the next several centuries, these questions were answered in several different ways. Some believed that all was change, others that change was illusory. The Pythagoreans thought that the physis Democritus gave some examples of how the atomic hypothesis could account for qualities such as color and taste (sharp tastes are caused by sharp atoms), but on the whole atomism, like other contemporary global theories, remained a general theory. It was criticized by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) for some of its logical inconsistencies and for its inability to explain qualities (color, taste, odor, etc.) that we call (after Galileo) secondary qualities. Aristotle's matter theory was fundamentally qualitative: qualities were built into the fundamental building blocks that made up substances. And against the atomists' idea of a nature without design or purpose, Aristotle constructed a natural philosophy that made nature a purposeful agent.
Extractions: (ALL DATES B.C. UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED) A. PRE-SOCRATICS 1. MILESIANS a. Thales of Miletus: ?c.624 - 548/5 (flourished 585, predicted eclipse of 585; held that all things are water). No Fragments Maybe one fragment of maybe 9 words c. Anaximenes of Miletus: (fl. 528/5, younger companion of Anaximander; held that all things are air, and earth rest on air.) d. Xenophanes of Colophon: c.570 - c.475 (fl. 540/537, attacks anthropomorphic theology, suggests humans can't have knowledge of the truth, having access only to 'seeming') f. Heraclitus of Ephesus: (fl. 504/501, held that "Everything changes, nothing remains""You can't step into the same river twice"though all things take place in accordance with a logos , which however most humans do not understand, living, as it were, in a dream. There is a kind of world-order in the midst of change, an order Heraclitus calls
Early Ideas About Matter We begin with democritus of abdera, who was born in Thrace in ancientGreece, and who lived from about 470BC to 380BC. Democritus http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/partphys/chapter1/EarlyHistory.html
Extractions: Early Ideas about Matter Aristotle Democritus Ancient Greek philosophers were among the first to speculate about the nature of matter and many of them formed schools where fundamental questions of nature and morality were debated. We begin with Democritus of Abdera, who was born in Thrace in ancient Greece, and who lived from about 470BC to 380BC. Democritus held that all matter consisted of tiny particles that were so small that they could not be broken down into any smaller pieces. He coined the word `atamos' which literally means invisible. In Democritus's view, these `atoms' were physically different from each other so that "atoms of water" were smooth because water flowed and had no discernible shape. `Atoms of fire' were `thorny' which is why the fire gave you painful burns. 'Atoms of earth` were rough and jagged so that they stuck together to form hard materials. Another influential idea was that of Empedocles (430-390BC). He combined the ideas of Thales (640-540BC) who thought that the basic element of matter was water, Anaximenes (611-546BC) who thought it was air, and Heraclitus (540-475BC) who thought it was fire. To this Empedocles added one of his own: Earth. Thus was born the notion of all matter being made out of differing amounts of fire, air, earth and water Aristotle (384-322BC) who founded the famous school of philosophy in Athens called Lyceum, perpetuated Empedocles' view of matter right through to medieval times. Aristotle's lectures on nature were collected into many volumes in which he entirely rejected Democritus's idea of the atom. The Aristotelian world view dominated until the scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries where Democritus's ideas of the atom were brought back.
