Democritus
OriginGreece
Era460 BC
SchoolPre-Socratic
About Democritus
The laughing philosopher who found human affairs comic. Co-founded atomism with Leucippus: reality is atoms and void. Differences between things come only from the shape and arrangement of atoms. Located happiness in cheerfulness rather than wealth. His atomism anticipated modern chemistry by over 2,000 years. Karl Marx wrote his doctoral thesis on him.
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