Democritus
c. 460 BCE – 360 BCElived
Abdera, Thrace
- Presocratic
Proposed that everything is atoms and empty space, and that colour and sweetness exist only by convention. It took twenty-two centuries for physics to catch up with the guess.
Known for
- atomism
- the void
- cheerfulness as the goal of life
Dates are estimates. A great deal of what this atlas covers is only datable to within a century.