Tradition
Atomism
Overview
natural philosophy
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Atomism is discussed.
The philosophy of the Atomists is the doctrine in which the Absolute is formulated as Being-for-self, as One, and many ones. And it is the repulsion, which shows itself in the notion of the One, which is assumed as the fundamental force in these atoms.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
One must, however, go still further, and also declare war, relentless war to the knife, against the "atomistic requirements" which still lead a dangerous after-life in places where no one suspects them, like the more celebrated "metaphysical requirements": one must also above all give the finishing stroke to that other and more portentous atomism which Christianity has taught best and longest, the SOUL-ATOMISM.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
(1) The belief in indestructible "things" very early took the form of atomism. The underlying motive in atomism was not, I think, any empirical success in interpreting phenomena, but rather an instinctive belief that beneath all the changes of the sensible world there must be something permanent and unchanging. This belief was, no doubt, fostered and nourished by its practical successes, culminating in the…
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
names the idea; opens on it
When the natural philosopher talks of atoms--when he describes them as simple beings, he indicates nothing more than that they are homogeneous, pure, without mixture: but then he allows that they have extent, consequently parts, are separable by thought, although no other natural agent with which he is acquainted is capable of dividing them: that the simple beings of this genus are susceptible of motion--can impart…
Paul Henri Thiry Holbach, The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 1
A philosophical tenet is an atom, set somewhere in a vacuum, utterly out of relation to everything else. But it is impossible to see how, on this theory, any system of thought should possess any significance for anybody, or how there should be any progress even, or retardation.
John Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory
names the idea; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Atomism
- Epicurus
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Hui Shi
- Anaximander
- Heraclitus
- Zeno of Elea
- The Clouds
- Leucippus
- William of Conches
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty
- Pierre Gassendi
- Diogenes of Apollonia
- Parmenides
- Ralph Cudworth
- Philodemus
- Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
- Lucretius
- Jerry Fodor
- Robert Boyle
- Strato of Lampsacus
- Abu Bakr al-Razi
- Democritus
- Empedocles
- Isaac Beeckman
Related ideas
- Epicurus
- Aristotelian physics
- Udayana
- Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
- Elementary particle
- Francis Bacon
- Analysis
- Galen
- Ājīvika
- Dignāga
- Giordano Bruno
- Hindus
- Humphry Davy
- India
- Isaac Newton
- Al-Ghazali
- Samadhi
- Vedas
- Jainism
- Hylomorphism
- Islamic philosophy
- Mu'tazilism
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Mind–body dualism
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