Democritus’ assumption

 Justin Vera Philosophy 102 January 29, 2018

Democritus’ assumption

Being based on Democritus’ assumptions it can be inferred that atoms have always existed and will always exist. This raises a problem…what about the creation of new things? According to Dalton's Atomic Theory, Atoms of one element cannot be changed into atoms of a different element by chemical reactions and atoms can neither be created nor destroyed in chemical reactions. Thus in a chemical reaction, only the atoms present in the reactants can end up in the products. No new atoms are created, and no atoms are destroyed. In a chemical reaction, reactants contact each other, bonds between atoms in the reactants are broken, and atoms rearrange and form new bonds to make the products. Combinations of elements form molecules or chemical compounds, for example water, H20, contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen. You cannot create new elements by mixing different compounds. In order to create a new element you have to change the number of protons in a nucleus.

This would also be the case of a basketball team on the court. Be it in the mindset of Democritus, the players have always been there and will forever remain there. They might start off offensively attacking and scoring all the points in the 1st and 2nd quarter. In the 3rd and 4th they choose a defensive tactic that rearranges the stronger blockers at the back and the weaker ones at the front. This would seem as a perfect assumption, alas it is not. There are quite a few holes in his assumptions as most they are only assumptions. There cannot be only these ambiguous forces that seem to never spark “growth” unless it is acted upon. As in the basketball team they did not formulate this on their own they have a coach who starts the rearrangements. So too must the universe have had a mover. Thus it cannot be fathomed that these particles could result in what convention now calls its most complex experiment of rearrangement…man.