450+B.C.+Democritus

I am researching Democritus, who was probably the greatest Greek philosopher in the ancient world. He lived in ancient Thrace in his early life, (460 B.C.) but eventually traveled Far East into foreign lands in search for more information. He was a great philosopher, but in some land he was thought to be a lunatic. It was even said that he was supposed to be “cured” by Hippocrates. Although he had no stable place to work upon his research like most great philosophers he found it interesting to take his work in travel. His contribution to the atomic theory is that although he did not make everything he contributed he still claimed that an atom is a very small, very powerful thing. Like many he believed that it cannot be destroyed nor created and two come together to make a new substance. He found most of his information from his travels yet took up some of his work by a man named Leucippus, another great philosopher. Democritus wrote many books. Little Cosmology//,// a veritable encyclopedia, has perished because its contents displeased those, such as the philosopher Plato, whose decisions determined which works should be preserved. In most of the places he traveled he was praised for his wisdom but, again, in others he was thought to be crazy. Although he was never given a trophy he was praised for his teachings.

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