Folia Theologica 19. (2008)
Perendy László: Judging Philosophers - Theophilus of Antioch on Hellenic inconsistency
JUDGING PHILOSOPHERS 191 works are attributed to him: On Mind and Great World-System, but nearly nothing is known of what they contained. It is impossible to distinguish his doctrines from those of Democritus, whose more extensive writings form the basis of what is known of the system he shared with Leucippus."10 Democritus of Abdera (c. 460-c. 370 BC) was also an atomist. He is not mentioned by name, either. "He was known as very widely travelled, and was called the laughing philosopher. (...) The atomism proposed by Democritus and Leucippus was a response to the Eleatic arguments against motion. The Eleatics argued that what is real is both single and motionless, since motion is impossible without empty space (...) and plurality is impossible without empty space to separate the different unities. By allowing empty space, the atomists could avoid the Eleatic conclusion, but the individual atoms retain the characteristics that Parmenides attributed to the whole of unchanging reality. They are indivisible, homogeneous, solid, and unchanging, but they may differ from each other in shape and size. They are infinite in number, exist in empty space (the void), and are in eternal motion. When enough atoms exist in a region of space they form a vortex, with a mass of heavier atoms at the centre attracting others; the speed of the motion ignites such masses and causes the celestial bodies. The arrangements and conglomerations of atoms produce the world we experience; this world is, however, only one of the infinite number of worlds that different arrangements of atoms produce. The soul is made of particularly fine atoms, but is a composite and hence as perishable as the body. Perception is the result of eidola or thin films of atoms being shed from the surfaces of objects and interacting with the atoms of the soul. The magnificent vision of the universe that Democritus conjures up, with its mechanism and its total absence of purpose and design, was too much for Plato and Aristotle, and only wholeheartedly embraced by Epicurus..."11 Atomists are criticized, because at least according to Theophilus they said that even gods are composed of atoms, and cease to exist when atoms are separated from each other. So atomists are inconsis10 Blackburn, 216. 11 Blackburn, 98.
