Infinite Worlds
Ours may not be the only world: countless cosmoi are forever forming and dissolving across boundless space.
"Infinite worlds" (apeiroi kosmoi) is the atomist idea that infinitely many worlds arise and perish as atoms collide and clump together throughout an endless void. Leucippus and Democritus (5th c. BCE) developed it, and Epicurus and the Roman poet Lucretius (1st c. BCE) gave it famous voice. The thesis directly challenged Aristotle's single, finite, Earth-centered cosmos — and, two millennia later, fed early modern debates over whether there might be other worlds besides our own.
How it traveled
- MetaphysicsChalcis · -322explains
- De caeloChalcis · -322challenges
- Epistula ad HerodotumAthens · -270explains
- De Rerum NaturaRome · -55explains
- de Natura DeorumFormiae · -43explains
- de Finibus Bonorum et MalorumFormiae · -43explains
- LucullusFormiae · -43explains
- De Defectu OraculorumChaeronea · 120explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- Placita Philosophorum—explains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- Refutatio Omnium Haeresium (= Philosophumena)—explains
Key passages(20)
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Epistula ad Pythoclem [attributed] · Epicurus
Refutatio Omnium Haeresium (= Philosophumena) · Hippolytus
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
Placita Philosophorum · Pseudo-Plutarch
Facta et Dicta Memorabilia · Valerius Maximus