atomism summary

Pierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, who revived Epicureanism as a substitute for Aristotelianism, attempting in the process to reconcile mechanistic atomism with the Christian belief in an infinite God. Born into a family of commoners, Gassendi received his early

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher, author of an ethical philosophy of simple pleasure, friendship, and retirement. He founded schools of philosophy that survived directly from the 4th century bc until the 4th century ad. Epicurus was born on the island of Samos of Athenian parents who had gone there

Democritus was an ancient Greek philosopher, a central figure in the development of philosophical atomism and of the atomic theory of the universe. Knowledge of Democritus’s life is largely limited to untrustworthy tradition. It seems that he was a wealthy citizen of Abdera, in Thrace; that he