Ancient · fl. 5th c. BC
Who influenced Leucippus?
Influences and legacy
With Democritus, the co-founder of atomism — reality as atoms and the void.
Leucippus was influenced by Parmenides, and went on to influence Democritus. That is 2 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Didier Descouens, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Leucippus?
Leucippus is traditionally credited with founding atomism, which he developed with his student Democritus. Answering the Eleatics, who held that all is one and the void does not exist, he divided the world into atoms, indivisible particles of endless shapes in constant motion, and the void between them.
In his deterministic picture everything results from atoms colliding; the cosmos began as a vortex of atoms, and since atoms and void are infinite there must be other worlds. We know him only through Aristotle and Theophrastus, and a single sentence of his writing survives.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Leucippus?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Parmenides c. 515–450 BC
Who did Leucippus influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on Leucippus.
- Democritus c. 460–370 BC
The line of teachers behind Leucippus
The longest documented line of influence ending at Leucippus runs 2 generations back, to Xenophanes.
- Xenophanes
- Parmenides
- Leucippus
Two steps away from Leucippus
Indirect influences
- Through Parmenides: Xenophanes
The second generation
- Through Democritus: Epicurus, Karl Marx
Contemporaries of Leucippus
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Leucippus, with no direct line between them.
- Anaxagoras c. 500–428 BC
- Zeno of Elea c. 495–430 BC
- Empedocles c. 494–434 BC
- Protagoras c. 490–420 BC
- Gorgias c. 485–380 BC
Leucippus by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 2
- Thinkers downstream
- 138
- Wikipedia languages
- 69 — #31 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Questions about Leucippus
- Who influenced Leucippus?
- Parmenides.
- Who did Leucippus influence?
- Democritus.
- When did Leucippus live?
- fl. 5th c. BC. The map files Leucippus under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Leucippus card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Leucippus in 69 languages, which makes it an Epic 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