Democritus the laughing philosopher (460 - 370) BCE Democritus was an ancient Greek philosopher from Abdera, Thrace (now part of modern-day Greece). He first proposed his atomic theory in the 5th century BC. This groundbreaking idea asserted that the universe is composed solely of material substances, which he referred to as atoms. According to Democritus, these atoms have no composition but are indestructible, eternally existing and continually in motion. He hypothesized that atoms differed from each other in size, shape, and position which accounted for the differences between different objects and substances. democritus philosopher Who is Democritus and what did he discover Democritus is a much more definite figure. He was a native of Abdera in Thrace; as for his date, he stated that he was young when Anaxagoras was old, say about 432 B.C., and he is taken to have flourished about 420 B.C. He travelled widely in southern and eastern lands in search of knowledge; he perhaps spent a
A Brief History of Philosophy: From Ancient Political Thought to Modern Philosophies and famous Biographies of Philosophers Who Shaped Our Understanding of the World!