Democritus is a Greek philosopher who lived in about 460-370 BCE. He was also one of the two founders of ancient atomist theory, the theory that explains his understanding of death.
Democritus’ atomist theory was about the world being made of “indivisible” atoms that causes changes in the world when they break apart and regroup. In his version of the theory, atoms can change objects when they are in different shapes, different arrangements, and different positional orientation. Using letters as a representation of different atoms, different shapes are like the letter A and the letter N. Different arrangement would be like how “AN” is different than “NA.” Positional orientation would be like N and Z, where a rotation makes a different letter. Therefore, in this theory, atoms differ in size and shape. (Berryman)
Then Democritus goes on to explain why he thinks the atoms behave in the way they do. He proposed a force of a tendency of the “like and like.” This could be understood as the force that causes similar animals to cluster and pebbles of similar shape and size tend to cluster in a flowing current. But this theory remains controversial in whether Democritus actually meant it or he was just trying to prove orderly effects can be produced from a random force without purpose. (Berryman)
Democritus also denied that atoms had any other properties other than shape and size such as taste, color, or temperature. Instead, he argues that all of those are caused by the basic changes in arrangement. The argument is that because the same object can become a different color, change in taste, and change in temperature without adding or taking away anything, so all of these properties must not be what the atom carried, but what the atoms made when they are clustered in a certain way. (Berryman)
Then there is the problem of an ill person tasting or seeing different than others. He explains this by stating every object has atoms creating every kind of properties in them, but when properties contradict only the one stronger one will be perceived. Illnesses, on the other hand, may make people more sensitive to certain properties and less others, so they would perceive different properties from the same object than normal people. (Berryman)
His theory about living things and souls is also based on the atomist theory. He believed that souls are composed of one specific type of atoms, the fire atoms, and exists in every part of the body. There are two reasons behind this. First, animals often produce heat, and it was understood as the soul that gives the heat, so it makes sense that fire atoms make up the soul. Second, animals can move on their own, while other things can’t. This was also believed to be caused by the soul. As the soul is mobile, and fire is one of the only other mobile things in nature, so the fire atoms are what made souls. In his dedication to this theory, he also believes that thought is also caused by the physical movement of atoms. (Taylor, 78)
His theory on reproduction is equally interesting with his theory on souls. He believed that both parents contribute a seed that all parts of the body contribute to creating, and then the predominant characteristics are inherited. This theory is strikingly similar to the how science discovered the genes to work. He is also one of the first people to claim that the existence of particular species is not eternal. He also held the idea that human beings arose from the earth. (Berryman)
On death, Democritus defined it as the point where the being loses too much of its soul atoms that it ceases psychic functions, or stop thinking. He believes that in the process of one’s life, they are constantly losing soul atoms, therefore the move from life to death is a continuous event instead of an instant event, or a cutoff. There is not a moment where someone died, but that they were dying for a long time already. This also means that the soul does not survive after a person’s death, and that each person has his own unique soul that he has not and will not share with anyone else. Pushing the issue even further, he claims that soul atoms are not just in every part of a living being’s body, but in every part of the world, where objects that are not alive just doesn’t contain enough soul atoms to have psychic functions. This also ties together all his other theories about perception. Now in this theory perceptions are caused by soul atoms in different objects interacting with each other. That is also why some objects such as rocks may seem “less alive” than objects like water or corpses, because they have less soul atoms. (Taylor, 78)
In conclusion, Democritus’ philosophical discussions and view on death are all part of his large atomist theory, making it a very complete and fascinating view of the world.
