The Void
Can there be truly empty space — nothing at all — for atoms to move through? Greek thinkers split sharply over whether the void exists.
The void (kenon) is empty space containing no body at all. Parmenides and the Eleatics (5th c. BCE) argued that "what is not" cannot exist, so there can be no void, and Aristotle denied it too. Against them, the Atomists Leucippus and Democritus (5th c. BCE), and later the Epicureans, insisted the void must exist — for without empty space, atoms would have nowhere to move. This dispute over the reality of empty space ran through Hellenistic physics and flared up again in the early modern debates over the vacuum.
How it traveled
- TimaeusAthens · -360explains
- MetaphysicsChalcis · -322explains
- PhysicaChalcis · -322explains
- De Xenophane, de Zenone, de GorgiaChalcis · -322explains
- De caeloChalcis · -322challenges
- Epistula ad HerodotumAthens · -270explains
- De Rerum NaturaRome · -55explains
- Quaestiones ConvivalesChaeronea · 120explains
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
- Pyrrhoniae HypotyposesAlexandria · 210explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- Guide for the PerplexedCairo · 1190
- Ohr HashemBarcelona · 1399explicit_citation
- Likutei MoharanBreslov (Ukraine) · 1802
- Fragmenta Logica et PhysicaAthensexplains
- PneumaticaAlexandriaexplains
- Placita Philosophorum—explains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- Asclepius (verba Graeca solum)—explains
- Dialogus (sine titulo)—challenges
Key passages(20)
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
De animi cuiuslibet peccatorum dignotione et curatione · Galen
Asclepius (verba Graeca solum) · Hermetica
De Stoicorum repugnantiis · Plutarch
Placita Philosophorum · Pseudo-Plutarch
Placita Philosophorum · Pseudo-Plutarch
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus