Atomism

Atomism , from the Greek (άτομος) “atom” refers to that which cannot be divided and is one of the principles of current chemistry . This is a doctrine that is based on Philosophy , reducing any structure of reality to a mere aggregate of a set of component elements that, in themselves, are indivisible. Strictly speaking, it is characterized by assuming the atoms are also qualitatively identical, the differences between them are only in shape, size, movement , and combination by juxtaposition.

Summary

[ disguise ]

• 1 Philosophical system
• 2 Points of view
• 3 Absolute physical atomism
• 4 Relative physical atomism
• 5 Background and explanation of the atomistic theses
  • 1 Psychological atomism
  • 2 Biological atomism
  • 3 Social atomism
  • 4 Logical atomism
  • 5 Scientific atomism
• 6 Atomist Philosophers
  • 1 Hindu atomists
  • 2 Greco-Roman atomists
  • 3 Medieval atomists
  • 4 Renaissance atomists
  • 5 Atomists of the 17th and 18th centuries
• 7 Sources

Philosophical system

Taken in a broad sense, atomism, rather than a specific and determined theory , is a general way of conceiving the real, a special Weltanschauung, in which primacy is given to the component element over the whole resulting from the composition. The fundamental characteristics of this atomistic spirit are:

1. Ontic primacy of the element over the whole; Constitutively, real beings are reducible to unions of indivisible elements, atoms .
2. Epistemological primacy of the element over the whole; Knowledge of the essence and properties of real beings can only be achieved through knowledge of the essence and properties of the elements that make them up, the atoms.

The aggregation of various atoms does not essentially modify their individual nature , so that the properties of the whole do not essentially differ from the properties of the component elements. Every birth, modification or destruction of a real being is explained by the union, alterations in said union or disintegration of the component atoms. The aggregations and dissociations of atoms occur under certain conditions. laws regulating its movements, laws that have a strictly mechanical nature ; the A. It is, fundamentally, a mechanism . Depending on the type of real structure that atomism attempts to explain and, consequently, according to the nature of the atoms that it designates as the ultimate component elements of that reality, various forms of atomism arise: Cosmological or physical , defender of the fact that real beings are made up of indivisible particles of material nature, by material atoms. It can take two modalities, depending on the extension it gives to the notion of being real:

• a) Absolute physical , for which real being is understood in its most comprehensive sense, as the totality of existing beings, encompassing under it not only the material or corporeal being , but also the spiritual being, the soul , and even God . This type of atomism has also been called metaphysical , due to the character of totality that it gives to the atomistic explanation.
• b) Physicorelative, according to which the atomistic thesis only achieves validity in the field of corporeal beings, but spiritual substance is excluded from its field of application. The atomic theory extends to all material beings in the universe , but not to the soul or God . This modality of atomism is subdivided, in turn, into two others:

1. Homogeneous atomism, since in it all the atoms are qualitatively identical.
2. Heterogeneous atomism, by introducing a certain distinction and qualitative diversity between the various atoms.

Points of view

• Psychological, which considers all psychic life decomposable into a series of ultimate elements, the psychic atoms, from which the various psychic phenomena would be derived, by virtue of subsequent unions following certain associative laws.
• Biological, which attempts to apply atomistic theses to the vital phenomenon , maintaining that the living being is reduced to an aggregate of life atoms , the bioatoms, without their integration into an organism entailing a substantial modification in their nature .
• Socialor sociological, for which society is nothing more than a pure aggregate of individuals, the social atoms. In accordance with the atomistic postulate that “the elements have primacy over the whole”, this form of atomism defends the primacy of the individual over society , which is why it is also called social individualism . As a consequence of social atomism and necessarily related to it, political atomism arises, better known as liberalism , for which, within the citizen-State binomial , priority must always be given to the former over the latter.
• Logical, which aims to reduce all logical structures to aggregates of primary elements called logical atoms.

In reality, atomism, understood in the broad sense indicated above of the atomistic spirit , is applicable to the most diverse fields of knowledge. Thus we can speak of a didactic atomism, in which analytical learning methods are given preference over globalization methods . In general, atomism is called any theory that gives primacy to the component element over the whole and that attempts to explain the latter based on the former (as opposed to totalitarian doctrines, which maintain the absolute primacy of the whole over the component elements).

Absolute physical atomism

It is the typical form of atomism and can be considered the first that, historically, emerged in Western philosophical thought. Its most prominent representatives are Leucippus , Democritus , the Democritean school, Epicurus and the Greco-Roman Epicurean school. In this type of atomism the general characteristics were given that served as a genuine scheme for all the others. Its main notes are:

• Attempt to explain all reality, from the most basic inorganic being to divinity.
• Admission of a single kind of reality, matter .
• Fixation of three primordial and original principles constitutive of all subsequent being: the atom , elementary, material and indivisible particle ; movement , a property intrinsic to the nature of the atom , thanks to which collisions between atoms will be possible, from which aggregations of atoms will be born, which are the corporeal beings of the universe ; vacuum, a necessary condition for the movement of atoms to take place.
• The entire process of constitution of corporeal beings – atomic aggregation ( syncrisis) – and their subsequent destruction – atomic disintegration ( diacrisis ) – is regulated by necessary laws inherent to matter itself, without any purpose, purely mechanical ( automaton ); It is the strictest mechanism .
• Atoms are specifically homogeneous, and their properties are rigorously quantitative: shape ( schema), size ( mégetos ), weight ( baros ), ordering ( taxis ), position ( tropé ). Therefore, in the bodies they constitute there can be nothing qualitative, and the alleged qualities , color , flavor, smell , etc., have no objective value, being reduced to mere affections of the knowing subject; Once again the strictest mechanism makes its appearance .
• Application of these theses to the soul and divinity, which are also material in nature . The soul is made up of atoms, more subtle than those of the other corporeal beings in the universe, but material. The gods, likewise, are made up of atoms. The entire scheme of the universe is reduced to a materialistic and mechanistic atomism. The material atom, its quantitative properties and movement regulated by mechanical laws are a universal panacea that allow all phenomena to be explained simply and adequately.

Relative physical atomism

Scheme of an Atom

It is an attempt to reconcile the previous atomism with religious dogmatics. It has occurred in those thinkers who, followers of a positive religion , have admitted the atom as a constitutive element of material reality, leaving spiritual beings safe.

The differential points between this atomism and the absolute are:

1. Admission of two substances, the material and the spiritual.
2. Restrict atomism to the first of them.
3. Acceptance of the existence of spiritual realities, not made up of atoms, such as the soul and God .
4. Teleologism in corporeal nature . The movement of atoms and their successive aggregations and disintegrations are not governed by chance , but by virtue of laws established in advance by God ; hence an order can be traced in Nature , which introduces a clear restriction to the typical mechanism of any theory based on atoms.
5. The atom loses its character of necessity and eternity , since its creation by divinity is admitted .

Within these theses, common to all philosophers who defend this form of atomism, we can point out some differential characters that split it into two branches , the ”homogeneous” and the ”heterogeneous” . The first establishes the specific unity in the nature of atoms, different only by virtue of accidental properties ( size , shape , weight , etc.); Supporters of this atomism are the medieval Asari mutakallimum, Gassendi and the Gassendists and, in general, the majority of the adherents of relative physical atomism . The second admits between atoms, not only purely accidental differences, but also differences of nature . Among atoms there is diversity in their own specific nature ; Maignan and all those belonging to the Maignanist movement in the 17th and 18th centuries are considered followers of this atomism – with the precedent of Anaxagoras , which is also very debatable .

Background and explanation of the atomistic theses

psychological atomism

He affirms that all psychic life is reduced to pure associations of primary psychic facts. It is an application of physical atomism to the phenomena of the soul , replacing the notion of material atom with that of elemental psychic fact – psychic atom – and that of aggregation with that of association (due to the importance that this concept acquires in psychological atomism it is also has called it psychological associationism).

The associative phenomenon, as a partial regulator of certain psychic facts, especially images , was known by Plato ( Phaedo ) and particularly by Aristotle ( De memoria et reminiscentia ), who formulated the three famous laws of similarity , contrast and contiguity . But it has been the English philosophy of the Modern Age that has elevated association to the fundamental law of all psychic life.

Hobbes, in Leviathan , devotes the entire chapter III to the association of the facts of consciousness ; Locke gives even greater emphasis to the associative phenomenon, attempting to explain, through associations or natural connections of phenomena, normal psychic life and, by virtue of associations due to chance or custom, the facts of abnormal psychic life or psychological aberrations: “Some of Our ideas have a natural association and mutual correspondence, and it is the mission and task of our reason to discover those ideas and keep them together in that union and correspondence that is founded on their peculiar essence.

There is, furthermore, another association of ideas which is due exclusively to chance or custom” (Anessayconcerninghumanunderstanding, II, London 1894 ); but the great systematizer of associationist atomism has been Hume, whose doctrines continued and perfected an uninterrupted current of thinkers among whom David Hartley ( 1705 – 1757 ) stands out, the great disseminator of psychological atomism, defending that association is to psychic life what gravitation to celestial mechanics, that is, the force or principle that allows a simple and adequate explanation of all phenomena, Joseph Priestley ( 1733 – 1804 ), James Mill ( 1773 – 1836 ), John Stuart Mill ( 1806 – 1873 ) , Alexander Bain ( 1818 – 1903 ), Herbert Spencer ( 1820 – 1903 ), Hippolyte Adolphe Taine ( 1828 – 1893 ), Théodule Armand Ribot ( 1839 – 1926 ), Hermann Ebbinghaus ( 1850 – 1909 ) – with these last two authors atomism psychological reached its most precise formulation and its maximum apogee – and James Mark Baldwin ( 1861 – 1934 ). Nowadays, and after the vigorous criticism that Gestalt psychology has made of it, psychological atomism is in clear decline.

The basic theses of this associationist atomism are: Affirm the existence of a primary psychic fact, the psychic atom . This is the sensation understood in the broad meaning that Hume gives to what he calls impression: “all our sensations, passions and emotions in their first appearance in the soul ” ( A treatise of human nature ); Psychological atomism is inextricably linked to empiricism and sensism.

The others, called ideas by Hume, are derived from this primary psychic fact. But these do not have the meaning that has traditionally been given to the term; In atomism, the idea is not a basic element of higher psychic life, essentially different from sensation and of superior dignity. In atomism the idea is a mere residue of sensation, of impression, with a difference of degree and not qualitative. The distinction between idea and sensation is based on two criteria:

1. ) The idea does not require the actual presence of the conceived object for its existence; The sensation cannot occur without the current presence of the object.
2. ) The sensation is a psychic fact characterized by its strength and vivacity, while the idea is weak, faded, a mere colorless copy of the first (oc). It can easily be seen that for atomism the idea is nothing more than a more or less generalized image of the object.

Once the existence of the impression, the primary psychic atom , and the idea, the secondary psychic atom , have been established, the game of association can now come into force. Ideas are associated with each other to give rise to the formation of complex ideas. The associative vis is similar to the Newtonian force of attraction and “produces effects in the world of the mind as extraordinary as in Nature ” (oc).

The association of ideas is not capricious or random , but occurs according to certain laws; Hume reduces the Aristotelian law of contrast to that of similarity, and formulates three associative laws: of similarity ( ressemblance ), of contiguity in space or time (contiguityin time or place) and of cause-effect connection (cause and effect). . Through these three laws regulating association and with ideas as elements that associate, all psychic life can be explained. Associationist atomism leads, logically, to a psychological mechanism.

Formulated by Hume, atomism drifts towards an increasingly mechanistic conception of the psychic, which will be reduced to mere physiological mechanisms. Such is the case of Hartley, for whom the liveliness of sensations is due to the fact that the contact of stimuli from external objects on the senses causes intense nervous vibrations, which are transmitted to the brain ; When these vibrations lose intensity, they transform into small vibrations ( vibratiuncles ), which are what give rise to ideas.

biological atomism

It considers the living organism as an aggregate of primary biological elements, in which the whole is a mere result of the sum of the component parts, ignoring the structural totality of the organism . It is the position of Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis ( 1698 – 1759 ) who, influenced by Leibniz, reduced monads to physical elements endowed with instinct and intelligence , which, driven by said instinct, constitute aggregates, giving rise to various beings. natural. In Maupertuis, biological atomism leads to hylozoism. An analogous theory is that held by Denis Diderot ( 1713 – 1784 ).

Social atomism

He maintains that society is reduced to an aggregation of individuals, the social atoms. Consequently, the social fact is constituted by an accumulation of individual psychic facts. The social and the psychic do not differ essentially, but only accidentally. The primary is the individual , the secondary and derivative is the society ; hence this atomism is also called social individualism . Defenders of this atomism have been the Count of Saint-Simon ( 1760 – 1825 ) and Gabriel Tarde ( 1842 – 1904 ). The opposite of social atomism is social organicism, which considers society as an organic whole with primacy and essence distinct from the individuals that compose it; such is the doctrine of Paul von Lilienfeld ( 1829 – 1903 ), Albert Schaffle ( 1831 – 1903 ) and René Worms ( 1869 – 1926 ). Social individualism usually leads to atomism or political liberalism. Organicism in totalitarianism.

logical atomism

It is an attempt to reduce all logical structures to connections between primary logical entities, the logical atoms. The name logical atomism was created by Bertrand Russell in 1918 : “The reason why I call my doctrine logical atomism is because the atoms I want to arrive at as the last residues of the analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms” ( ThePhilosophyofLogicalAtomism , ” The Monist “, 1918 ; this article is collected in his book LogicandKnowledge ).

The fundamental idea of ​​logical atomism is to construct a universally valid philosophy ; To achieve this, he does not follow the path of mathematics (as Leibniz had attempted with his ” art of combinatorics “), but rather that of logic ; Philosophy is identified with logic , and this with the analysis of language . The mission of philosophy is to purify language, making it an adequate vehicle of science . In this sense Russell says: ” I believe that logic is the fundamental thing in philosophy, and that schools should be characterized by their logic rather than by their metaphysics ” ( LogicalAtomism, in ContemporaryBritishPhilosophy, series I, London 1935 ). Influenced by Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein ( 1889 – 1951 ) perfected logical atomism ; In his first period, whose thoughts are collected in his writing Logisch-philosophischeAbhandlung (” Annalen der Philosophie ” 1921 ), he defended logical atomism (in a second period, reflected in his posthumous work PhilosophischeUntersuchungen, his thinking was partially modified). The fundamental theses of Wittgenstein’s atomism are:

• The mission of philosophizing is to carry out a logical analysis of language in order to refine it as an expressive vehicle.
• A refined and perfect language must be fully adequate in its internal structure and to the structure of reality; The relations between the constituent names of the propositions must be in accordance with the relations between the objects.
• Logical propositions are divided into atomic and molecular. The first, the logical atoms, are those that describe the facts. simple, the atomic facts, the immediate data. The latter are connections and relationships between the former, which describe complex facts. A molecular proposition is nothing more than a plurality of atomic propositions linked by certain logical particles, conjunctive ( and), disjunctive ( or ), conditional ( if ), etc. The truth of a molecular proposition is a function of the truth of the atomic propositions that make it up and their correct connection, from which is derived the fundamentality of the adequate analysis of atomic propositions, on which the correct analysis of language ( logical atomism ).
• A proposition makes sense (Sinn) when it has empirical meaning and is empirically verifiable; Science is a set of propositions with empirical meaning.

Any proposition that does not make sense, that does not have empirical meaning, is meaningless or contradictory. Meaningless propositions (sinnlos) are those of formal logic and mathematics , since their validity is not a function of empirical verification, but depends exclusively on the adequate connection between certain signs. Counterintuitive or absurd propositions (unsinnig) are those of philosophy, as it has been understood historically, especially those of metaphysics. In short, for logical atomism the mission of philosophy is to limit itself to an analysis of language, in order to discern between propositions that make sense from those that lack it. And this analysis is based on the existence of atomic propositions, basic elements from whose correct construction the validity of the molecular propositions will be derived, which, together with the first, must constitute a perfect language as an adequate vehicle of scientific knowledge . Hence, Wittgenstein concludes his Tractatus by saying: “About what cannot be spoken, it is necessary to remain silent”, that is, one must use meaningful language or remain silent, avoiding incurring unsinnig propositions.

scientific atomism

It admits the atom as a constituent element of matter . Scientific hypothesis formulated by Dalton in 1808 to explain the chemical law of multiple properties. Confirmed by Avogadro’s studies in 1811 , atomic theory became one of the pillars of the physical-chemical sciences, devising various explanatory models of the internal constitution of the atom (Thompson, Rutherford, Bohr, Schrödinger, Broglie, Dirac). It is not necessary to point out the profound difference between the atom of physical-philosophical atomism and the atom of scientific atomism. On the other hand, the scope of both theories is very different. The first aspires to have an ontological significance, as the ultimate explanation of what is real; The second is reduced to a scientific hypothesis to account for a series of natural phenomena.

Atomist Philosophers

Group of thinkers who defend philosophical atomism, according to which the ultimate constituent of reality are indivisible corpuscles called atoms. In the defenders of this doctrine, which has been a constant throughout philosophical thought, the following stages can be distinguished: Hindu atomists, Greco-Roman, medieval, Renaissance and atomists of the 17th and 18th centuries . From the 19th century onwards, philosophical atomism entered into complete decline, and scientific atomism emerged in its place, with very different characters and scope.

Hindu atomists

They are mainly the defenders of the Vaisesika, one of the six orthodox philosophical darsanas (systems) of India , whose creation is attributed to Kanada , author of the Vaisesikasutra, the fundamental writing of the school; other thinkers of the same are Prasastapada, Ravana, Sridhara and Sankara Misra. According to the Hindu atomists of the Vaisesika there are nine kinds of substances, five of them perceptible by the senses ( water , earth , fire , air and ether ) and another four not perceptible by them ( space , time , soul and mind or spirit ); The first five are physical substances, made up of elementary particles called anu, which bear an undoubted resemblance to the atoms of Western philosophy; From the combinations of these anu the bodies are formed. Also included in the Hindu atomists are the Jainas, the followers of Jainism, one of the heterodox darsanas. Its foundation is attributed to Vardhamana (better known by the nickname Mahavira, the great man), in the 6th century BC. C. According to Jainism, beings are divided into conscious and unconscious. Within these we must distinguish space, time and matter, which is made up of simple indivisible elements.

Greco-Roman atomists

Two moments must be noted. One formed by Leucippus, Democritus and his disciples, and another due to Epicurus and his followers. Regarding Leucippus we know little, having come to doubt his existence (W. Nestle); He appears to have been born in Miletus or Abdera, living in the first half of the 5th century BC . C. He is attributed the Megasdiacosmos (Great Order of the World), in which there would be a precedent for the atomism of Democritus. As for the disciples of Democritus, the most notable were Metrodorus of Chios, Diogenes of Smyrna, Anaxarchus of Abdera, Bion of Abdera and Nausiphanes of Teos, all of them from the 4th century BC. C. The last one, Nausiphanes, teacher of Epicurus, is the bridge between the group of Democritean atomists and that of the Epicureans.

Medieval atomists

They are characterized by a religious sense that makes them separate their atomism from the Greco-Roman materialism. We must distinguish between Muslim and Christian atomists. In the first are the Asari mutakallimum, during the 10th century , who affirmed that the corporeal world is made up of atoms created by God and that come together to compose beings according to laws set by God . Among the latter, few in number due to the influence of Augustinianism and Aristotelianism, stand out Guillermo de Conches ( 1080 – 1145 ), for whom atoms are created by God from nothing and from whose union the four elements are born, which in turn, when combine, they give rise to corporeal beings; Hugh of Saint Victor (ca. 1096 – 1141 ) who, although he maintains that matter is made up of invisible and indivisible atoms, attempts to link atomism with Aristotelian hylemorphism; Nicholas of Autrecourt (ca. 1300 -ca. 1350 ), the purest medieval atomist, who rejected hylemorphism, defending that to explain the corporeal world, atoms and local movement are enough, from which they will be derived. the aggregations of atoms, which are corporeal beings.

Renaissance atomists

Atomism in the Renaissance is not clearly defined, but is mixed with alchemical theories. Such is the case of Paracelsus ( 1493 – 1541 ) and Gerolamo Cardano ( 1501 – 1576 ).

Atomists of the 17th and 18th centuries

In the 17th century there was a powerful revival of atomism. Highlights include Sébastien Basso (PhilosophiaenaturalisadversusAristotelemlibriXII), Daniel Sennert (Dechymicorumcumaristotelicisetgalenicisconsensuetdissensu), Joannes Chrysostomus Magnenus (Democritusreviviscens), and, in a special way, Gassendi and Maignan.

Pierre Gassendi (born in Champtercier in 1592 ; died in Paris in 1655 ) is the great renewer of atomism. In his writings, especially in De vita, moribus et placitis Epicuri libri octo, Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri and Syntagma philosophicum he exposes an atomism that he tries to reconcile with Christian dogmas . The explanatory principles of reality are atoms, empty space and movement. The first, which are indivisible, invisible and different in weight and size, have been created by God in large numbers, but not infinite. By virtue of their movement they move through the void , where they collide with each other, giving rise to the formation of bodies; But these clashes do not occur thanks to a blind olinamen, but are ordered and directed by God ; hence the admission of divine Providence and teleologism in Nature .

Emmanuel Maignan (born and died in Toulouse , 1601 – 1676 ) defends a radically mechanistic atomism in his Cursusphilosophicus. Detractor of hylemorphism because he does not find any basis in experience, the only way to study physical phenomena, he maintains that bodies are made up of atoms that are heterogeneous in their nature and shape. Both properties, together with the different order of placement that the same atoms can adopt, adequately explain the plurality of different bodies. Starting with Gassendi and Maignan, the atomists are divided into Gassendi and Maignanists, the former defending the specific homogeneity of atoms and the latter their heterogeneity. Among the first we can mention François Bernier (1620-1688), Samuel Sorbière ( 1615 – 1670 ) and Jacques Sallier ( 1615 – 1707 ); among the latter, Jean Saguens (second half of the 17th century). In Spain there were also gassendistas ( Luis Rodríguez de Pedrosa , Isaac Cardoso and Martín Martínez ) and maignanistas ( Diego Mateo Zapata , Juan de Nájera who used the pseudonym Alejandro de Avendaño and Tomás Vicente Tosca ).