Atomism Greek Atomism Indian Atomism Arab Muslims' Atomism Atoms Corpuscles Back to Atomism
Plato s and Aristotle 4 or 5 elements Every thing on the earth is made of FOUR different elements. Every element has its natural rest place and strives towards that. Earth Water Air Fire The 5 th element Ether Each element is characterized by two properties from the nature Hot or Cold Wet or Dry Earth Hot & Dry Water Air Fire Cold & Wet Hot & Wet Hot & Dry
Ether No weight Eternal (incorruptible) Its natural place is heaven It naturally moves in perfect circles around the earth (Celestial motion) Plato named it roots and Aristotle gave the name root Elements Greek s idea of atomism never went away Even idea of 4 elements survived during Roman era No further work was done until Arabs golden time
Indian Atomism Indian philosophers suggested a type of atomic theory Matter is made up of tiny particle Greek or Indian, who were first? Kanada (Kashyapa) in 6 th or 2 nd century BC proposed Atoms (Purmanu) are attracted to each other and can group together A diatomic particles (dwinuka) has properties of both constituents Triatomic cluster is the smallest visible component of matter Different combinations give different properties to matter 24 different combinations are possible Atoms can be created and destroyed physically or chemically
Jain Theory Whole world except souls are made of atoms Each type of atom has one kind of taste, one smell, one color and two characteristics Atoms are in constant motion Atoms have smooth or rough characteristics that enables them to bind together (Kind of a concept of polar charge) Atoms can combine to give any six aggregates Earth Water Shadow Sense Object Karmic matter Unfit matter
Arabs (Muslims) Atomism Combined both Indian and Greek concept of atomism Very few Greek teaching survived in Roman Empire Atomic theory was resurrected by Arabs Two principle forms of Arab atomism 1. Close to Indian 2. Close to Aristotle Al-Ghazali (1058 1111) was most successful Atoms are the only material things that are eternal, everything else lasts only for an instant and is said to be accidental. Accidental things cannot be the cause of anything except perception Ibn Rushd or Averroes (1126 1198) rejected it and adopted Aristotle s theory
Averroes was most influential in Europe His work was instrumental in Aristotle being absorbed into Christian and Jews scholars Much of Arabs work was translated into Latin and other European languages Aristotle teachings were then adopted by Catholic Church That is how Greek thinking was reintroduced in Western world The route through which the foundation of the accepted scientific and philosophical models were laid down and that were current in west until Renaissance Renaissance is when European thinkers finally began to challenge and check the teaching of ancients
Atoms to Corpuscles 13 th century an al-chemist with strange name Pseudo-Geber set forth the theory of matter based on tiny particles called corpuscles. Geber is perhaps Latin version of Al-Jabr (Ibn Hayyan) All physical matters have an inner and outer layer of Corpuscles All metals are made from Corpuscles of Mercury and Sulphur in different properties --- influenced by Al-Chemy Nicholas of Autrecourt (1298 1369) All matter, space and time were made up of atoms, points and instants All change is the result of rearrangement of atoms Unfortunately, this was offence to church and he has to retract his ideas after being put on trail (1340 46) In 17 th century Robert Boyle (Irish), Pierre Gassendi (French) and Isaac Newton were all in favor of Corpuscles theory
Back to Atomism Atomism was revived by Gassendi by proposing in 1649: Everything that happens does so because of movement and interaction of minute particles following natural laws The properties of matter were produced by shapes of atoms Atoms could join together into molecules They exist in a vast void (so most of the matter is empty) Unfortunately, Descartes opposed it flatly there can not be any void Descartes was much more influential than Gassendi Finally, Robert Boyle brought Atomism back again in 1661 Universe is made up entirely of atoms and clusters of atoms Atoms and clusters are all in perpetual motion All phenomena are result of collision between atoms in motion