Leucippus (; el, Λεύκιππος, ''Leúkippos''; fl. 5th century BCE) is a

pre-Socratic Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...

Greek philosopher who has been credited as the first philosopher to develop a theory of

atomism Atomism (from Greek , ''atomon'', i.e. "uncuttable, indivisible") is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms. References to the concept of atomism and its atoms ...

. Leucippus' reputation, even in antiquity, was obscured by the reputation of his much more famous pupil,

Democritus Democritus (; el, Δημόκριτος, ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. No ...

, who is also credited with the first development of

atomic theory Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter a ...

. Few details about Leucippus' life are known, and even his historical existence has on occasion been questioned.

Biography

Leucippus's dates are not recorded and he is often mentioned in conjunction with his more well-known pupil

Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

lists possible birthplaces as

Miletus Miletus (; gr, Μῑ́λητος, Mī́lētos; Hittite transcription ''Millawanda'' or ''Milawata'' (exonyms); la, Mīlētus; tr, Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in a ...

, Abdera and Elea. Some sources claim that around 440 or 430 BCE Leucippus founded a school at Abdera, with which his pupil, Democritus, was closely associated. There is mention that a Leucippus founded the city of

Metapontum Metapontum or Metapontium ( grc, Μεταπόντιον, Metapontion) was an important city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf of Tarentum, between the river Bradanus and the Casuentus (modern Basento). It was distant about 20 km from ...

, which honored this Leucippus with a coin.

Philosophical views

Leucippus is typically associated with

—the idea that the only two things are

atoms Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, an ...

, which are imperishable, indivisible elements that compose everything, and

void Void may refer to: Science, engineering, and technology * Void (astronomy), the spaces between galaxy filaments that contain no galaxies * Void (composites), a pore that remains unoccupied in a composite material * Void, synonym for vacuum, a ...

, which is the space that atoms do occupy or can occupy. It is difficult to determine which contributions to atomism come from Democritus and which come from Leucippus.

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

and his student

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge ...

explicitly credit Leucippus with the invention of atomism. In Aristotelian terms, Leucippus agreed with the Eleatic argument that "true being does not admit of vacuum" and there can be no movement in the absence of

vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...

. Leucippus contended that since movement exists, there must be empty space. However, he concludes that vacuum is identified with nonbeing, since "nothing" cannot really be. According to Aristotle, Leucippus differed from the

Eleatics The Eleatics were a group of pre-Socratic philosophers in the 5th century BC centered around the ancient Italian Greek colony of Elea ( grc, Ἐλέα), located in present-day Campania in southern Italy. The primary philosophers who are assoc ...

in not being encumbered by the "conceptual intermingling" of being and non-being, and

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

made the necessary distinction between "grades of being and types of negation".

Writings

According to

, Leucippus was the author of a work called ''The Great World System'' that was otherwise typically attributed to Democritus, which has not survived. A single quotation survives from another work attributed to him called ''On Mind''.

Legacy

A brief notice in

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ...

’s life of

Epicurus Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...

says that on the testimony of Epicurus, Leucippus never existed. As the philosophical heir of Democritus, Epicurus's word has some weight, and indeed a controversy over this matter raged in German scholarship for many years at the close of the 19th century. Furthermore, in his ''Corpus Democriteum'', Thrasyllus of Alexandria, an astrologer and writer living under the emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

(14–37 CE), compiled a list of writings on atomism that he attributed to Democritus to the exclusion of Leucippus. The present consensus among the world's historians of philosophy is that this Leucippus is historical. Moreover, it is not clear how to interpret Epicurus' comment in the first place. Epicurus said that there was no philosopher Leucippus, which might mean that Leucippus never existed, but it also might mean that Leucippus existed but was not a philosopher.DK 67A2. As far as ancient evidence of his existence is concerned, it must be mentioned that Aristotle, who lived closer in time to Leucippus than Epicurus, attributes to Leucippus the framework of atomism as a philosophical system, lending more credibility to the thesis that Leucippus existed. Fragments and doxographical reports about Leucippus were collected by

Hermann Diels Hermann Alexander Diels (; 18 May 1848 – 4 June 1922) was a German classical scholar, who was influential in the area of early Greek philosophy and is known for his standard work ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker''. Diels helped to import the ...

(1848–1922), firstly in ''Doxographi Graeci'' (Berlin, 1879, reprint Berlin: de Gruyter, 1929) and then in ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker'', Berlin, 1903, 6th ed., rev. by

Walther Kranz Walther Kranz (; 23 November 1884 in Georgsmarienhütte – 18 September 1960 in Bonn) was a German classical philologist (the study of classical antiquity) and historian of philosophy. Biography Kranz studied classical philology at the Universi ...

(Berlin: Weidmann, 1952; the editions after the 6th are mainly reprints with little or no change.) Diels was the leading proponent for a historical Leucippus.

Notes

Bibliography

Surviving Fragments and Testimonia

In the Diels-Kranz numbering system for fragments of the pre-Socratic philosophers, Leucippus is number 67. The following works contain Diels-Kranz fragments. * - A1 * - A2 * Simplicius, ''Commentary on Aristotle's Physics'' - A3, A8, A13-14,20 *

Clement of Alexandria Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria ( grc , Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; – ), was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and ...

, ''Stromata'' - A4, A37 *Pseudo-

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...

, History of philosophy - A5 *

, ''Metaphysics'' - A6, A18 *

, ''On Generation and Corruption'' -A7, A9 *

, ''On The Heavens'' - A19 *

, ''On the Soul'' - A28 * Hippolytus, ''Refutation of all Heresies'' A10 *

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

, ''Academica'' - A11 *

Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; grc-gre, Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος; fl. 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containin ...

, ''Anthologium'' - A12, A15, A16, A21, A22, A23, A24 , A25, A26, A29, A30, A31, A32, A34, A35, A36, B2 * Epiphanius - A33 *

Achilles Tatius Achilles Tatius (Greek: Ἀχιλλεὺς Τάτιος, ''Achilleus Tatios'') of Alexandria was a Roman-era Greek writer of the 2nd century AD whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel, or ''romance'', '' The Adve ...

- B1 These fragments are collected together in: *

References

* * * * * *

External links

{{Authority control 5th-century BC Greek people 5th-century BC philosophers Abderites Ancient Greek atomist philosophers Ancient Greek metaphysicians Ancient Greek physicists Ancient Thracian Greeks Ontologists Presocratic philosophers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown