Democritus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Abdera who formulated an atomic theory of the universe. He believed that everything is composed of invisible, indivisible atoms moving through empty space, and that the qualitative differences between objects result from differences in the shape, size, and arrangement of their constituent atoms. Democritus traveled widely to learn from various cultures and developed the view that sense perceptions are unreliable but true knowledge can be attained through reason and analysis of empirical observations. He proposed that there are two types of knowledge - legitimate knowledge gained through reason and illegitimate knowledge based on subjective sense perceptions. Democritus made contributions to mathematics and proposed theories about the shape of the earth, the structure of the cosmos, and

1. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL “PEDRO RUIZ GALLO”
Escuela de Post Grado .Facultad de Ciencias Histórico
Sociales y Educación.
Maestría en Educación Mención: Didácticas del Idioma
Ingles .Curso: Filosofía y Epistemología.
Maestrista: Lupe Rivera Gonzáles.
Docente: Dr.Wilson Lozano Díaz
DEMOCRITUS
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
1. Which the theory of Democritus was?
He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and
pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for
the cosmos. Democritus is recognized as the earliest
proponent of the concept of atomism.
2. What motivated Democritus to realize their trips and that places
knew?
Democritus expense the inheritance that his father had left knowing different
countries was motivated by his thirst of the knowledge. After returning to his
native land he occupied himself with natural philosophy.
He traveled to Asia, and the India and Ethiopia
He traveled along Greece to acquire knowledge of its culture
3. How the atomists explained the philosophy and the science?
Democritus followed in the tradition of Leucippus. They were both strict
determinists and materialists; they believed that everything was been of natural
laws.
The history of modern science has shown that mechanistic questions lead to
scientific knowledge, especially in physics, while the teleological question can
be useful in biology, in adaptationist reasoning at providing proximate
explanations, though the deeper evolutionary explanations are thoroughly
mechanistic. The atomists looked for mechanistic questions, and gave
mechanistic answers. Their successors until the Renaissance became occupied
with the teleological question, which arguably hindered progress.
4. What did Democritus propose about the Atoms?
The theory of Democritus and Leucippus held that everything is composed of
"atoms", which are physically, but not geometrically, indivisible; that between
atoms were in the space; that atoms are indestructible; have always been, and

2. always will be, in motion; that there are an infinite number of atoms, and kinds
of atoms, which differ in shape, and size. Of the mass of atoms,
5. Who was the first philosopher in developing the theory of the
atomism?
Leucippus was widely the first philosopher that develop the theory of atomism,
6. In what Democritus based the Void hypothesis?
These atoms always exist in the hole, subjected to a movement that is they
consubstantial. Therefore, all that exists is the atoms and the hole. The
introduction of the existence of the hole is a novelty with regard to Empedocles
and Anaxagoras and that it collides frontally with the negation of the hole (not to
be) that Parmenides demanded. Now then, without the existence of the hole it is
impossible to explain the movement, for what necessarily has to exist. The
atoms move in that hole on-line straight line in a principle, but, for strictly
mechanical causes, some of them leave their trajectory and they collide against
other, to those that deviate, colliding the group against other atoms, causing the
aggregation in groups of atoms every bigger time, and that they will give place
to the constitution of the objects just as us we know them.
7. What did Democritus think about the knowledge?
The knowledge of truth according to Democritus is difficult, since the perception
through the senses is subjective. As from the same senses derive different
impressions for each individual, and then through the sense-impressions we
cannot judge the truth.
8. Why did he refer to the knowledge like genuine?
The second kind of knowledge is the “legitimate”, can be achieved through the
intellect, in other words, all the sense-data from the “illegitimate” must be
elaborated through reasoning. In this way one can get away from the false
perception of the “illegitimate” knowledge and grasp the truth through the
inductive reasoning.
9. How many types of Knowledge did Democritus mention?
There are two kinds of knowing, the one he calls “legitimate” (gnesie: genuine)
and the other “bastard or illegitimate” (skotie: obscure)
10. What thought had Democritus about the equality?
The ethics and politics of Democritus come to us mostly in the form of maxims.
He says that "Equality is everywhere noble," but he is not encompassing
enough to include women or slaves in this sentiment.

3. 11. What Democritus thought about the Goodness?
He believed in the Goodness came more from practice and discipline than from
innate human nature. He believed that one should distance oneself from the
wicked, stating that such association increases disposition to vice. The anger,
while difficult to control, must be mastered in order for one to be rational.
12. What idea had Democritus about the poverty?
The poverty in a democracy is better than prosperity under tyrants, for the same
reason one is to prefer liberty over slavery. Those in power should "take it upon
themselves to lend to the poor and to aid them and to favor them, then is there
pity and no isolation but companionship and mutual defense and concord
among the citizens and other good things ."
13. What observations made about of the mathematics?
.Democritus was among the first to observe that a cone or pyramid has one-
third the volume of a cylinder or prism respectively with the same base and
height. Also, a cone divided in a plane parallel to its base produces two
surfaces.
14. What thought had Democritus about the first humans?
Democritus thought that the first humans lived an anarchic and animal sort of
life, going out to forage individually and living off the most palatable herbs and
the fruit which grew wild on the trees. They were driven together into societies
for fear of wild animals, he said. He believed that these early people had no
language, but that they gradually began to articulate their expressions,
establishing symbols for every sort of object, and in this manner came to
understand with each other.
15. Which the theory was of the Earth and the cosmos?
Democritus held that the Earth was round, and stated that originally the
universe was composed of nothing but tiny atoms churning in chaos, until they
collided together to form larger units—including the earth and everything on it.
He surmised that there are many worlds, some growing, some decaying; some
with no sun or moon, some with several. He held that every world has a
beginning and an end, and that a world could be destroyed by collision with
another world.
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