THE OTHER TWIN OF THE ATOMIC COUPLE

(Who was Leucippus, and what do we really know about him? Here I have called him “the other twin” before I have introduced the “first and foremost twin,” thus defying the rules of logic and common sense. The rules yes, but on hearing me out, it becomes obvious that the laws remain unmolested, and that my decision does make better sense than had I followed the rules.)

Does being the teacher make one greater than the student? Leucippus has been known to originate the ideas which would later make Democritus famous. Does this make him greater than Democritus? Not necessarily at all. The question must be asked why is it so that we do not have any of Leucippus’ works extant, whereas we have the works of Democritus in relative abundance? Granted that Leucippus must have been a man of genius, the fact that he has been overshadowed by his pupil so completely cannot be attributed to some sort of conspiracy, but it clearly shows us the greatness of Democritus, who not only must have developed his teacher’s ideas well beyond the level where Leucippus had taken them to, but he also organized them, and made them available to future generations, which his teacher had certainly failed to do by himself. Having said that, we must take it for granted that both Leucippus and Democritus were truly great men, who have deserved our respect and admiration in virtually equal measure.

The philosophical phenomenon sometimes seen as the ultimate development of the pluralistic tendency in Greek thought has received the name of Atomism. Four major philosophers have been associated with this development, two earlier thinkers, Leucippus and Democritus, and two later ones, Epicurus and Lucretius. For obvious reasons, only the first two are of interest to us in this section. We shall deal with the other two in our Significant Others section, later on.

The Greek tradition regarded Leucippus as the founder of atomism in physics, but we know so little about him that Epicurus, who was a much later follower of the illustrious Democritus, even denied his existence. Of Leucippus’ works nothing has come down to us, except for one sentence, quoted by Aristotle, who also has a few allusions to him. The sentence actually reads: Nothing happens for nothing, but everything from a ground and of necessity. We shall discuss this sentence and other features of the atomistic philosophy in the next cluster of entries, focusing on Democritus, where Leucippus will be essentially reduced to the status of the other twin of the atomic couple, as the works of Democritus are well known, while Leucippus’ views are practically impossible to distinguish from those of Democritus.

Leucippus came from Miletus, flourished around 440 BC, and was thus a contemporary of Anaxagoras. He is believed to have been influenced by Parmenides and Zeno of Elea. Some call him a student of Zeno, and suggest that he developed his atomistic philosophy to circumvent the problems raised by the Parmenidean challenge.

The above by no means exhausts our references to Leucippus, but, as I said before in this entry, all matters of substance concerning him will be discussed in the next cluster of entries, which begins with the portrait of his much better known “twin,” also called “the laughing philosopher.”