ISSUE: What is the true nature of Reality, and how (if at all) can we know it?
DEMOCRITUS: As I am the oldest, I will begin. I am not the first to wonder what reality consists of, and I have learned from observation and reason that the world is not precisely as we perceive it. My friend Leucippus actually developed the idea of the atomic theory, but I worked out the details and supported it with the development of an epistemology. It would be better for all of you had my writings survived, for I kept copious notes and showed clearly how I developed the atomic theory to the state at which I left it, but I notice that you, Aristotle, gave a good account of it to posterity, and I thank you. Reality consists of only two things--atoms, and the void. Everything we see, touch, and experience consists of different arrangements of atoms in that void, filling the void with the sensible objects we perceive around us. "Atom" means "indivisible," and the atom is thus the smallest piece of being that is possible. It is uncreated, indestructible, eternal, indivisible, and solid in the sense of containing no holes. They were set in motion through empty space, the cause of which need not concern us here.
ARISTOTLE: But it should, and that is one of the real objections I have to your theory--you do not explain the origin of movement or say what kind of movement is natural to atoms.
DEMOCRITUS: That may be, but we are here discussing the nature of reality, what it is, and you seem to want to know why it is. In any case, the paths the atoms take are determined by rigid natural laws so that only certain arrangements are possible and no others. This is counter to Parmenides, who did not se that both empty space and motion were real. The atoms are infinite in number and dispersed through an infinite void. They are also of various shapes. When they collide and cohere to different shapes, they form over time the concrete bodies we can ...