Biography democritus

1. Life and Works

According to ancient reports, Democritus was born about 460 BCE (thus, he was a younger contemporary of Socrates) and was a citizen of Abdera, although some reports mention Miletus.

As well as his associate or teacher Leucippus, Democritus is said to have known Anaxagoras, and to have been forty years younger than the latter (DK 68A1).

Biography democritus discovery

A number of anecdotes concern his life, but their authenticity is uncertain.

The work of Democritus has survived only in secondhand reports, sometimes unreliable or conflicting: the reasoning behind the positions taken often needs to be reconstructed.

Much of the best evidence is that reported by Aristotle, who regarded him as an important rival in natural philosophy. Aristotle wrote a monograph on Democritus, of which only a few passages quoted in other sources have survived.

Democritus seems to have taken over and systematized the views of Leucippus, of whom little is known. Although it is possible to distinguish so