Ancient · c. 460–370 BC
Who influenced Democritus?
Influences and legacy
Father of atomism: reality is atoms and void, and even pleasure has a calculus.
Democritus was influenced by Leucippus, and went on to influence Epicurus and Karl Marx. That is 3 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: user:shakko, CC BY-SA 3.0 See the whole map
Who was Democritus?
Democritus of Abdera was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher remembered above all for an atomic theory of the universe. He wrote on a great range of subjects, but none of his works survive; we know them through later references, many of them from Aristotle, who treated him as a serious rival in natural philosophy.
Because he prized cheerfulness, antiquity called him the "laughing philosopher".
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Democritus?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Leucippus fl. 5th c. BC
Who did Democritus influence?
2 thinkers on this map draw directly on Democritus.
The line of teachers behind Democritus
The longest documented line of influence ending at Democritus runs 3 generations back, to Xenophanes.
- Xenophanes
- Parmenides
- Leucippus
- Democritus
Two steps away from Democritus
Indirect influences
- Through Leucippus: Parmenides
The second generation
Contemporaries of Democritus
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Democritus, with no direct line between them.
- Prodicus c. 465–395 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Aspasia c. 470–400 BC
- Philolaus c. 470–385 BC
- Antisthenes c. 446–366 BC
- Gorgias c. 485–380 BC
- Aristippus c. 435–356 BC
Democritus by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 2
- Thinkers upstream
- 3
- Thinkers downstream
- 137
- Wikipedia languages
- 104 — #11 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Legendary
Questions about Democritus
- Who influenced Democritus?
- Leucippus.
- Who did Democritus influence?
- Epicurus and Karl Marx.
- When did Democritus live?
- c. 460–370 BC. The map files Democritus under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Democritus card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Democritus in 104 languages, which makes it a Legendary card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC