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<p>Modern scholars cannot agree how extant fragments of thought attributed to Leucippus
and Democritus integrate (or do not) to form a coherent perspective on the ancient
Greek world. While a certain degree of uncertainty is unavoidable, given the nature
of the evidence available and the fact that Democritus wrote many different works
(including at least one in which he deliberately argued against positions that he
defended elsewhere), this study demonstrates that we know enough to take a more integrative
view of the early atomists (and of Democritus in particular) than is usually taken.
In the case of Democritus, this study shows that it makes good sense to read what
remains of his works (physical, biological, and ethical) under the presumption that
he assumes a single basic outlook on the world, a coherent perspective that informed
every position taken by the atomist philosopher. </p><p> Chapter 1 provides an in-depth
portrait of the historical and philosophical context in which early atomism was born.
As part of this portrait, it offers thumbnail sketches of the doctrines attributed
to a representative catalogue of pre-Socratic philosophers to whom published work
is attributed (Anaximander, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras,
Philolaus). It demonstrates how each philosopher presumes that his theory offers
a universal outlook on human reality, a perspective on the universe which purposely
encompasses (and builds into a single theoretical framework) physics and biology and
practical ethics.</p><p> Chapter 2 introduces the early atomists as respondents to
the pre-Socratic movement before them (a movement which this study refers to as the
Critical Tradition). It presents evidence for an integrated reading of early atomist
fragments, a reading that construes the Leucippus and Democritus as men of their time
(working with and responding to the positions taken by their predecessors in the Critical
Tradition).</p><p> Chapter 3 shows how Democritus' ethics arise naturally from his
physics via an historical process of development. Like his predecessors in the Critical
Tradition and many of his contemporaries, the atomist deliberately imagines nature
(physics) providing the raw material from which culture (ethics) naturally and inevitably
rises. </p><p> Chapter 4 offers an original reading of extant ethical fragments of
Democritus, showing how the atomist uses his unique outlook on the world to develop
a practical approach to living well.</p>
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