Epicurus’ Argument for Atomism

Abstract

Abstract The cornerstone of Epicurus’ physics is atomism: Epicurus follows Democritus1 in maintaining that our world is ultimately composed of atoms and the void. It is, then, somewhat surprising that the demonstration of the atomist thesis is apparently confined to three sentences in the Letter to Herodotus, our main source on Epicurus’ physics. These are the three sentences that I shall focus on in this paper. First, I shall argue that the standard interpretation, which takes the argument to be based on the impossibility of sizeless parts, is not the correct one. Then, I shall examine the alternative reconstruction of the atomist argument that focuses on the body– void distinction. Finally, I shall try to show that Epicurus’ defence of atomism is based on the unalterability of the atoms.

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