2016 - Bibliopolis
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Conflicts of Atomisms : some Major Differences between Democritus and Colotes
P. 147-180
- The paper compares the thought of Democritus and that of Colotes. It is argued that the two thinkers diverge at least in three noteworthy respects: 1) they disagree about the nature of knowledge, for Democritus identifies it with a process which goes from raw (and untrustworthy) sensation to intellectual understanding, whereas Colotes affirms the truth of every sensation and its fundamental role in the use of reason; 2) they have contrary opinions on the practice of “pleasing”, since the former totally rejects this as a damaging form of obsequiousness, while the latter allows a form of pleasing which is good, i.e. which can lead to pleasure and security; 3) they describe death differently, for Democritus affirms that it consists in the loss of most of the soul atoms (which also allows, to a certain degree, the phenomenon of the “return to life”),
- whereas Colotes may have followed Epicurus in depicting death as the complete loss of soul particles. Such an investigation suggests, on both historical and philosophical grounds, that Democritus and Colotes did not embrace the same kind of atomism, but two atomisms, which start from different premises and pursue different goals. [Publisher's Text]
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Information
DOI: 10.1400/249858
ISSN: 2037-7177
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In this issue
- Empedocles on the Identity of the Elements
- Le vers 4 du fragment 115 d'Empédocle (FVS 31 D.-K.) : proposition d'une correction
- Anthropos peripatei : los argumentos del tercer hombre megáricos
- The Tragic Condition of Philosophy : Plato's Apology as Tragedy
- Happiness and Death in Aristotle's Ethics
- Conflicts of Atomisms : some Major Differences between Democritus and Colotes
- Platonic and Stoic Dialectic in Philo
- Aristotle's Way away from Parmenides' Way : a Case of Scientific Controversy and Ancient Humour
- Unterwelt und Purgatorium
- Recensioni bibliografiche