Positive Quiddity: Democritus

Democritus (Greek: Δημόκριτος, Dēmókritos, meaning "chosen of the people"; c.460 — c.370 BC) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe.

Democritus was born in Abdera, Thrace, around 460 BC, although there are disagreements about the exact year. His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the 19th-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other Greek philosophers; however, their ideas rested on very different bases. Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus is said to have been disliked so much by Plato that the latter wished all of his books burned. He was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science". None of his writings have survived; only fragments are known from his vast body of work.

Ethics and Politics

The ethics and politics of Democritus come to us mostly in the form of maxims. As such, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has gone as far as to say that: "despite the large number of ethical sayings, it is difficult to construct a coherent account of Democritus's ethical views," noting that there is a "difficulty of deciding which fragments are genuinely Democritean".

He says that "Equality is everywhere noble", but he is not encompassing enough to include women or slaves in this sentiment. Poverty in a democracy is better than prosperity under tyrants, for the same reason one is to prefer liberty over slavery. In his, Bertrand Russell writes that Democritus was in love with "what the Greeks called democracy." Democritus said that "the wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world." Democritus wrote that those in power should "take it upon themselves to lend to the poor and to aid them and to favor them, then is there pity and no isolation but companionship and mutual defense and concord among the citizens and other good things too many to catalogue". Money when used with sense leads to generosity and charity, while money used in folly leads to a common expense for the whole society—excessive hoarding of money for one's children is avarice. While making money is not useless, he says, doing so as a result of wrongdoing is the "worst of all things". He is on the whole ambivalent towards wealth, and values it much less than self-sufficiency. He disliked violence but was not a pacifist: he urged cities to be prepared for war, and believed that a society had the right to execute a criminal or enemy so long as this did not violate some law, treaty, or oath.

Goodness, he believed, came more from practice and discipline than from innate human nature. He believed that one should distance oneself from the wicked, stating that such association increases disposition to vice. Anger, while difficult to control, must be mastered in order for one to be rational. Those who take pleasure from the disasters of their neighbors fail to understand that their fortunes are tied to the society in which they live, and they rob themselves of any joy of their own. Democritus believed that happiness was a property of the soul. He advocated a life of contentment with as little grief as possible, which he said could not be achieved through either idleness or preoccupation with worldly pleasures. Contentment would be gained, he said, through moderation and a measured life; to be content one must set one's judgment on the possible and be satisfied with what one has—giving little thought to envy or admiration. Democritus approved of extravagance on occasion, as he held that feasts and celebrations were necessary for joy and relaxation. He considers education to be the noblest of pursuits, but cautioned that learning without sense leads to error.

Twentieth-Century Appraisals

According to Bertrand Russell, the point of view of Leucippus and Democritus "was remarkably like that of modern science, and avoided most of the faults to which Greek speculation was prone."

Karl R. Popper admired Democritus's rationalism, humanism, and love of freedom and writes that Democritus, along with fellow countryman Protagoras, "formulated the doctrine that human institutions of language, custom, and law are not taboos but man-made, not natural but conventional, insisting, at the same time, that we are responsible for them."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus

The Golden Sayings of Democritus

• If any one hearken with understanding to these sayings of mine many a deed worthy of a good man shall he perform and many a foolish deed be spared.

• If one choose the goods of the soul, he chooses the diviner [portion]; if the goods of the body, the merely mortal.

• 'Tis well to restrain the wicked, and in any case not to join him in his wrong-doing.

• 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.

• Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.

• Repentance for one's evil deeds is the safeguard of life.

• He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.

• 'Tis a grievous thing to be subject to an inferior.

• Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.

• Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.

• One should emulate works and deeds of virtue, not arguments about it.

• Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.

• The hopes of the right-minded may be realized, those of fools are impossible.

• Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.

• It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.

• Those who have a well-ordered character lead also a well-ordered life.

• Good means not [merely] not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

• There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.

• Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.

• Making money is not without its value, but nothing is baser than to make it by wrong-doing.

• You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also by his desires.

• False men and shams talk big and do nothing.

• My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.

• The enmity of one's kindred is far more bitter than the enmity of strangers.

• The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.

• No one deserves to live who has not at least one good-man-and-true for a friend.

• Seek after the good, and with much toil shall ye find it; the evil turns up of itself without your seeking it.

• For a man petticoat government is the limit of insolence.

• (Democritus said he would rather discover a single demonstration than win the throne of Persia.)

• Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.

• In the weightiest matters we must go to school to the animals, and learn spinning and weaving from the spider, building from the swallow, singing from the birds,—from the swan and the nightingale, imitating their art.

• An evil and foolish and intemperate and irreligious life should not be called a bad life, but rather, dying long drawn out.

• Fortune is lavish with her favors, but not to be depended on. Nature on the other hand is self-sufficing, and therefore with her feebler but trustworthy [resources] she wins the greater [meed] of hope.

• The right-minded man, ever inclined to righteous and lawful deeds, is joyous day and night, and strong, and free from care. But if a man take no heed of the right, and leave undone the things he ought to do, then will the recollection of no one of all his transgressions bring him any joy, but only anxiety and self-reproaching.

• Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.

• Of all things the worst to teach the young is dalliance, for it is this that is the parent of those pleasures from which wickedness springs.

• A sensible man takes pleasure in what he has instead of pining for what he has not.

• A life without a holiday is like a long journey without an inn to rest at.

• The pleasures that give most joy are the ones that most rarely come.

• Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

• Men in their prayers beg the gods for health, not knowing that this is a thing they have in their own power. Through their incontinence undermining it, they themselves become, because of their passions, the betrayers of their own health.

• Men achieve tranquillity through moderation in pleasure and through the symmetry of life. Want and superfluity are apt to upset them and to cause great perturbations in the soul. The souls that are rent by violent conflicts are neither stable nor tranquil. One should therefore set his mind upon the things that are within his power, and be content with his opportunities, nor let his memory dwell very long on the envied and admired of men, nor idly sit and dream of them. Rather, he should contemplate the lives of those who suffer hardship, and vividly bring to mind their sufferings, so that your own present situation may appear to you important and to be envied, and so that it may no longer be your portion to suffer torture in your soul by your longing for more. For he who admires those who have, and whom other men deem blest of fortune, and who spends all his time idly dreaming of them, will be forced to be always contriving some new device because of his [insatiable] desire, until he ends by doing some desperate deed forbidden by the laws. And therefore one ought not to desire other men's blessings, and one ought not to envy those who have more, but rather, comparing his life with that of those who fare worse, and laying to heart their sufferings, deem himself blest of fortune in that he lives and fares so much better than they. Holding fast to this saying you will pass your life in greater tranquillity and will avert not a few of the plagues of life—envy and jealousy and bitterness of mind.

• All who delight in the pleasures of the belly, exceeding all measure in eating and drinking and love, find that the pleasures are brief and last but a short while—only so long as they are eating and drinking—but the pains that come after are many and endure. The longing for the same things keeps ever returning, and whenever the objects of one's desire are realized forthwith the pleasure vanishes, and one has no further use for them. The pleasure is brief, and once more the need for the same things returns.

• We ought to regard the interests of the state as of far greater moment than all else, in order that they may be administered well; and we ought not to engage in eager rivalry in despite of equity, nor arrogate to ourselves any power contrary to the common welfare. For a state well administered is our greatest safeguard. In this all is summed up: When the state is in a healthy condition all things prosper; when it is corrupt, all things go to ruin.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democritus