Democritus Response To Zeno's Arguments Against Motion

Democritus claims that the universe is composed of indivisible atoms. Does that in itself constitute a response to Zeno’s arguments against motion?

Democritus is one of the founders of atomism in the ancient world, along with Leucippus (although not much is known of his works). Most of Democritus’ work survived through Aristotle’s reports. Atomists view the world as made out of indivisible atoms, which could (according to Democritus and Leucippus) come in any shape or size. Democritus argued that the universe contains both ‘(what)is’ – atoms and ‘(what)is not’ – the void. The two complement each other. Atoms could not exist without the void because there would be nothing to separate them, void would not exist because it would have nothing

He had written four arguments against motion. First is the Dichotomy, where Zeno argues that movement is impossible because in order to, for example, go from one end of a room to another, you must first arrive the half of the distance, then half of the remaining distance, and so on. Since the distance can always be halved, you are never able to move because it is impossible to complete an infinite number of tasks before reaching your destination and it is not even possible to make the first move due to these tasks. Zeno’s second argument against motion is the Achilles, which follows similar line of thought to the Dichotomy. Here, Achilles is running after a tortoise, who had set off before the man. Zeno says that it is impossible for Achilles to ever reach the tortoise as, before doing so, he first needs to reach the place where it was when he himself set off. However, when he reaches that place, the tortoise is already ahead, so Achilles has to run to the place where the tortoise was when he reached the first place, and so on, indefinitely. Third argument is the Arrow. At any instant, a supposedly moving arrow has to occupy the space equal to its real self. Therefore, the arrow is always at rest as it is still during any given moment in

Zeno’s paradox about divisibility refutes this existence: an object can be divided into smaller parts, until they are nothing. If the parts are nothing, they cannot make up something that has magnitude, because adding things of zero magnitude together will not produce an existing object. Democritus says that atoms can be of any size and shape and still be indivisible, according to the principle of homogeneity the atomists took from the Eleatics. Parmenides said ‘‘(what)is’ is not more at one point than at another’. Similarly, atomists say that there is no logical reason for an atom to be divided at one point than at another, therefore showing why atoms exist and are of any size and still be indivisible (Warren, 2007, p.