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Concept
Leucippus
Summary
Leucippus (luːˈsɪpəs; Λεύκιππος, Leúkippos; fl. 5th century BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who has been credited as the first philosopher to develop a theory of atomism.
Leucippus' reputation, even in antiquity, was obscured by the reputation of his much more famous pupil, Democritus, who is also credited with the first development of atomic theory. Few details about Leucippus' life are known, and even his historical existence has on occasion been questioned.
Leucippus's dates are not recorded and he is often mentioned in conjunction with his more well-known pupil Democritus. Diogenes Laertius lists possible birthplaces as Miletus, 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, which honored this Leucippus with a coin.
"Nothing happens at random, but everything from reason and by necessity."
Leucippus is typically associated with atomism—the idea that the only two things are atoms, which are imperishable, indivisible elements that compose everything, and void, 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 and his student Theophrastus 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. 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 in not being encumbered by the "conceptual intermingling" of being and non-being, and Plato made the necessary distinction between "grades of being and types of negation".
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