The Doctrines of Democritus

Democritus’ Doctrines

¹² Atoms and the vacuum were the beginning of the universe.

Everything else existed only in opinion.

The worlds were infinite, created, and perishable.

Nothing was created out of nothing, and that nothing was destroyed so as to become nothing.

The atoms are:

• infinite both in magnitude and number
• revolved endlessly

Thus, atoms produced all the combinations that exist; fire, water, air, and earth.

All these things are only combinations of atoms.

These combinations:

• cannot be affected by external circumstances
• are unchangeable by reason of their solidity

The sun and the moon are formed by such revolutions and round bodies.

The soul is produced in the same way.

The soul and the mind are identical.

We see by the falling of visions across our sight.

Motion causes the production of everything.

• He calls motion as necessity.

Everything that happens, happens of necessity.

Cheerfulness is the chief good.

• This is not the same as pleasure

Some people, who have misunderstood him, have fancied that he meant cheerfulness as pleasure.

But cheerfulness to him is a condition where the soul lives calmly and steadily, being disturbed by no fear, or superstition, or other passion.

He calls this state εὐθυμία, and εὐεστὼ, and several other names.

Everything existing is based on opinion. But atoms and the vacuum he believes exist by nature.

¹³ Thrasylus has given a regular catalog of his works.

His ethical works are:

• The Pythagoras
• a treatise on the Disposition of the Wise Man; an essay on those in the Shades Below; the Tritogeneia (this is so called because from Minerva three things are derived which hold together all human affairs); a treatise on Manly Courage or Valour; the Horn of Amalthea; an essay on Cheerfulness; a volume of Ethical Commentaries. A treatise entitled, For Cheerfulness, (εὐεστὼ) is not found.

His writings on natural philosophy are:

• The Great World (which Theophrastus asserts to be the work of Leucippus); the Little World
• the Cosmography
• a treatise on the Planets
• the first book on Nature; two books on the Nature of Man, or on Flesh
• an essay on the Mind; one on the Senses (some people join these two together in one volume, which they entitle, on the Soul)
• a treatise on Juices; one on Colours
• one on the Different Figures
• 1 on the Changes of Figures
• the Cratynteria (an essay, approving of what was written in preceding ones)
• a treatise on Phænomenon, or on Providence
• 3 books on Pestilences, or Pestilential Evils
• 1 book of Difficulties.

His miscellaneous works are:

• Heavenly Causes
• Aërial Causes
• Causes affecting Plane Surfaces
• Causes referring to Fire
• What is in Fire
• Causes affecting Voices
• Causes affecting Seeds, and Plants, and Fruits
• 3 books of Causes affecting Animals
• Miscellaneous Causes
• A treatise on the Magnet

His mathematical writings are:

• a treatise on the Difference of Opinion, or on the Contact of the Circle and the Sphere;
• one on Geometry; one on Numbers
• one on Incommensurable Lines, and Solids, in two books; a volume called Explanations; the Great Year, or the Astronomical Calendar
• a discussion on the Clepsydra
• the Map of the Heavens
• Geography
• Polography
• Actinography, or a discussion on Rays of Light

His works on music are:

• A treatise on Rhythm and Harmony
• on Poetry
• on the beauty of Epic Poems
• on Euphonious and Discordant Letters
• on Homer, or on Propriety of Diction and Dialects
• on Song
• on Words
• the Onomasticon.

The following are his works on art.

• Prognostics
• a treatise on the Way of Living, called also Diætetics, or the Opinions of a Physician
• Causes relating to Unfavourable and Favourable Opportunities
• a treatise on Agriculture, called also the Georgic
• 1 on Painting;
• Tactics, and Fighting in heavy Armour.

Some authors also give a list of some separate treatises which they collect from his Commentaries:

• A treatise on the Sacred Letters seen at Babylon
• A treatise on the Sacred Letters seen at Meroe
• the Voyage round the Ocean
• a treatise on History
• a Chaldaic Discourse
• a Phrygian Discourse
• a treatise on Fever
• an essay on those who are attacked with Cough after illness
• the Principles of Laws
• Things made by Hand, or Problems.

¹⁴ There were 5 other people named Democritus.

1. A musician of Chios who lived about the same time
2. A sculptor mentioned by Antigonus
3. Author of a treatise on the Temple at Ephesus, and on the city of Samothrace
4. An epigrammatic poet, of great perspicuity and elegance
5. A citizen of Pergamus, who wrote a treatise on Oratory