The Atom from the ancient
Philosophers point view of
the Atomic Theory
By: Tyler, Emily, Tanis
Democritus
He was born in 460 BC in Abdera, Greece
Died in 370BC
Came from a wealthy and noble family
Commonly known as “The laughing Philosopher”
Fellow citizens called him “the mocker”
Was also very well educated
Democritus
Aristotle
Born 384 BC in Stagira, Greece
Died 322 BC in Chalcis, Greece
Went to the Platonic Academy (367 BC- 347 BC)
Had two children (Nicomachus, Pythias)
Was a student of Plato (wrote 200 treatises but only
31 survive and was in a lecture format)
Was also very well educated
Compare and contrast
Democritus
Comparisons- Both were well educated
Their education were from famous philosophers
Contributed a lot to different fields science (astronomy, math,
etc.)
Differences- Their atomic models were different
The public had different views of their findings
Aristotle
Timeline of ideas
460 BC
384 BC
Democritus was born in Albdera
Aristotle was born in Stagira,
Greece
Democritus’s father dies,
leading him to search for
education and wisdom
Aristotle attends the Platonic
Academy
Democritus theory was more
accurate but was not accepted
like Aristotle (unknown date)
Aristotle discovered his Atomic
Theory (date unknown)
Old Democritus
367/347 BC
Public view of these
philosophies
Aristotle-He was more popular to the people than
Democritus. And for many of years his theory was
accepted more than Democritus.
Democritus-He was not popular from the peoples
point of view even though he came from a wealthy
and noble family. As mentioned before the citizens
called him the mocker.