Outline
Democritus (about 460 BC ~ 370 BC), ancient Greek philosopher, materialism,
founder of the atom, was born in coastal city Abdera. Alias: desert Crete
Nationality: Greece
Birthplace: Abdera, Greece
Date of birth: about 460 BC
Date of death: about 370 BC
Career: philosophers, ethicist, physicist, mathmatician, astronomer, musician
Main achievements: atomic materialism founded atoms
Theoretical shortcomings: the continuation of the stay base "atomic inseparable”
Story description: In a class of university, chemistry teacher is introducing about
Democritus. She shows a video about him. The video has two parts, the first part is
that Democritus discusses theory with Leucippus, his teacher and his friends.
Democritus expanded his teacher’s theory to get another theory: Atoms are
inseparable, which is also called: Atomic materialism. Since they have a different
theory from common science beliefs at that time, they were under a lot of pressure.
Leucippus encouraged Democritus to insist what he believed was true. The second
section is Democritus gave a very successful speech about belief.
Task：Clark: video, outline, Democritus actor.
Shelley: video, script, Plato, director
Vella: script, professor, director, editor of outline, narrator, Plato’s friend
Tony: poster, Leucippus
Costume: sheets and curtain (pretend to be the clothes of Greeks)
Location of 3 scenes: 11B classroom, small garden in campus, the stairs of the concert
hall
script
Narrator: Democritus (ca. 460 – ca. 370 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher
born in Abdera, Greece. He contributed a lot to many fields, including philosophy,
ethics, physics, mathematics, music and astronomy.
T: Excuse me, What was he really famous for?
V: Well, he was an atomist, and his atomic theory had the greatest influence among all
his work. Without him, there won’t be Dalton’s theory, there will be no mordern
science and chemistry
S: Professor Liu, How he could come up with the theory?
V: He studied from Leucippus in Greece, and he expanded his teacher’s theory. As
you know, instead of basing on experiments, the early science was actually created by
philosophers’ understanding of the world.
C: A question,What about awards he owned?
V: Well, there was no documents recorded that he won any award, but even his chief
critic,Plato, praised him for arguing from talented considerations appropriate to
philosophy science. Next, let’s enjoy a video about Democritus.
Part II: Entangled Period/Time
Main Character: Democritus
Support Character: Democritus’s friend & teacher
Part: When Democrutis was confused and wanted to give up:
Mentor of Democritus: Leucippus
Time: when he was back to his hometown: Abdera
Theme: Democritus was confusing to the Atomic Materialism and even wanted
to give up
Age: Young
Democritus [D]: Clark Chen
Leucippus [L]: Tony.W
Plato [P]: Shelley Wei
Plato’s friend [PF]: Vella Liu
Narrator: Vella Liu
[Scene: Back to Abdera, D went to see L]
N: Since the Atomic Philosophy was created by Democritus and his teacher,
Leucippus. Their opinions were opposite to other philosophers’ thoughts, so they
were criticized by other philosophers, especially Plato. Plato wanted to buy all books
written by Democritus and burn them up.
P: What a ridiculous theory, naïve! All things came from the atom? [Say to PF &
audiences angrily and arrogantly] Just wait for me Democritus, I will try my best to
let you fall over.
PF: [nod his head to show agreement]
D: Eh, I stayed up for a week to amend it. I believe everything is composed of
"atoms", they are physically, but not geometrically, indivisible; between atoms lies
empty space; the atoms are always, and will be always, in motion; there are an infinite
number of atoms which differ in shape, and size. Last but not least, the more any
indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is.
D: …… [face expression changes]
L: Perfect! Awesome! Good job child, but (转头)……what’s wrong with you?
D: Mmmm… Mr. Leucippus, I struggled to complete the rest of work.
L: Eh, Are you under a lot of pressure by other philosophers, Plato, I suppose?
D: Yeah.
L: For his high popularity and authority?
D: Yes, you know me, Mr. Leucippus, I have no support, I feel lonely.
L: [Look at Democritus amiably] Listen child, Truth cannot be easily determined.
everything in this world is always changing, so are Plato’s theories. Since we disagree
Plato’s theories, so we should, and have to keep on pointing them out. Believe
yourself, Democritus, you are right. Besides，it is not important that how many friends
you have, it is up to how many of them are sincere to you.
D: [Sturdily] thank you, Mr. Leucippus.
L: [Smiles] You are welcome.
D: Time will prove that we are correct.Mr. Leucippus, I am glad I have such a friend
as you.
[Go away confidently]
[Scenes for how Democritus worked hard on finding the theory]
D: Gentlemen, I am here for my speech for my new researching, which was totally
opposite to what Mr. Plato said, and it is called: the Atomic Materialism.
P: [proud]
PF: huh~Let’s see how many people support him.
D: Atoms is indivisible, which means, they are the smallest particles ever, and they
can’t be divide further.” Today, I’m going to talk about atom’s indivisibility, shape and
size, and its movement.
The atom is indivisible. I and my teacher believe that there are 2 fundamentally
different kinds of realities, atoms and void, and they make up of the whole world.
Atoms are the smallest particles we can imagine. Besides they are indivisible, atoms
are also unchangeable, and indestructible. All the visible objects of the world of
appearance are all about the relocations of these atoms. Macroscopic objects are just
groups of the atoms. Some people may ask what about the growth of objects, how to
use atoms to explain that. Well, I’d like to say that the qualitative changes or growth
are just caused by rearrangements or additions to the new atoms composing of them.
The properties of atoms are complex. Atoms are countless in number, they can’t be
observed, regardless how advanced the technology is. Further, they vary in size and
shape. Just imagine, an atom can be as big as universe, but the other can be too small
to measure. I just mentioned objects are made up of clusters of atoms, but how? Well,
many kinds of atoms have hooks at their surface, and because of irregular shape, they
creates the cohesive relationship when atoms combine together.
Lastly, the movement. The sequence of colliding atoms has no beginning, I can not
prove it to you, you know, but I believe the atomic motion starts naturally. The atomic
motion concerns about the clusters of atoms, they gather together as a result of
circular motion.
(look at audience)I have almost no friends. I do not know how many of you agree
with me, but I do not care. Everyone has their rights to explore the truth, and there is a
very good friend of mine, and he is Mr. Leucippus, he taught me so many things to
make me much more powerful.
Thank you for listening.
[When the speech is over]:（happens at the same time）
[P face distorts]
[L was pleased]
N: The Greeks felt, that Democritus was an optimist, and he was easy to approach. not
like those rigid moral saints such as Plato or Aristotle. And because of this,
Democritus had a very high reputation among the people, he deserved it.