Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays Collected Works, Volume Two · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
DEMOCRITUS
The greatest possible simplification of the hypotheses. 1. There is motion, therefore vacuum, therefore a "Non-Existent." Thinking is motion. 2. If there is a "Non-Existent" it must be indivisible, _i.e.,_ absolutely filled. Division is only explicable in case of empty spaces and pores. The "Non-Existent" alone is an absolutely porous thing. 3. The secondary qualities of matter, νόμῳ, not of Matter-In-Itself. 4. Establishment of the primary qualities of the ἄτομα. Wherein homogeneous, wherein heterogeneous? 5. The aggregate-states of Empedocles (four elements) presuppose only the homogeneous atoms, they themselves cannot therefore be ὄντα. 6. Motion is connected indissolubly with the atoms, effect of gravity. Epicur. Critique: what does gravity signify in an infinite vacuum? 7. Thinking is the motion of the fire-atoms. Soul, life, perceptions of the senses. . . . . . . . . Value of materialism and its embarrassment. Plato and Democritus. The hermit-like homeless noble searcher for truth. Democritus and the Pythagoreans together find the basis of natural sciences. . . . . . . . . What are the causes which have interrupted a flourishing science of experimental physics in antiquity after Democritus?
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