Atomist theory is fundamentally quantitative, and in order to ensure these things can come together and come apart we need to add the void.
Hyle was just ‘timber,’ in translation we are all literally talking about timber. The (proto-)deductive vocabulary was not carried on by the next generation.
If the void is oud | en (no | thing), then one has to define something - en. Doesn’t make sense, presumably.
Everything is a combination of quantitative atoms which cling together and will dissipate again. Much like the roots/seeds of Anaxagoras and Empedocles, except now it’s quantitative.
The atoms can be differentiated by Shape (“Rhythm”), Order (“Touching”), and Position (“Turning”). Respectively, A ≠ N, AN ≠ NA, Z ≠ N [look at the orientation/shapes of the letters]
The spherical is the most mobile of shapes, and is attributed to mind and fire.
Thought imbues your body, mind-body problem; there must be a material process to transport decisions from your mind to your body; this will be done by pushing spherical atoms towards the muscles of your body.
shape is the main difference and the only distinction that matters. Order/Touching - if you change the order of atoms they will reveal themselves as a different thing. So is the case for turning.
Didn’t have a theory of matter, just a constitutive view of bodies. As a bulk of things they are all identical. ← they only differ in shape.
Unlike atoms, where there is a qualitative nature that changes, (in the modern understanding of chemistry), the atoms here only care about shape and that is not a qualitative difference.
Difference in shape is not a qualitative difference; quality emerges from the combination of atoms.
Democritus can be fit into modern science, but this is anachronistic.
The coming together and dissipating of atoms is arbitrary motion that is there from the start of the universe, it is always going to be there, but there is some order installed. If you leave those atoms to themselves you automatically get a world where like links with like.
There is no viable or legitimate cause of motion in this atomic theory.
“What time is it? | [11:59] | One more minute and I change into a pumpkin”
Democritus is the first to say that there must be a multiplicity of worlds. That is to say, we’re not special. The amount of empty space and atoms is infinite, so why limit stuff to what we discover around us? There may be other universes wherever.
We can’t explain sense-perception by anything other than what is effectively touching. Atoms leave a person and reach another’s sense-perception organs, then somehow mingle in there and cause sense-perception.
What Democritus does explain is that by this process, sensing is a kind of interpretation. What one sees are the images another emits, and they mingle/mix up with the atomic structures in one’s own sensory organs. There is space for interpretation when perceiving things.
Pythagoras
The Pythagoreans got a lot of political pull and influence in Italy. They were expelled from Italy because they had too much power and had to go back to Greece.
We know almost nothing of Pythagoras. There are issues where texts written later down the line (say, 2 AD), will be back-dated and people will claim Pythagoras was “right all along.”
Neo-Pythagoreanism mixes up what they knew from Pythagoras with what they learn from Plato. But this is 2 AD and not 6th century BCE, as Pythagoras actually lived.
There was an inner and outer circle: acousmatic vs. mathematic tendency. The former is the inner circle, the latter is the outer circle.
The acousmata were mostly about religious ideals. ← led to very strange theories. (f.e. you can’t eat beans)
Pythagoreanism becomes successful again because his theoretical, scientific explanations were actually viable, unlike the weird religious stuff.
Your dying breath is your psyche (soul) leaving your body. It loses its distinct existence once that happens. ← Pythagoras changes this to imply that (A) the soul is immortal, and (B) it keeps your characteristics and remains “you” kinda.
However the soul does keep changing and it, though bearing personality, can take different shapes and bodily corporeal existences. Transmigration of souls (i.e. you can become a bean).
Philolaus is the guy who deduces a scientific theory from Pythagoreans’ intuitions.