Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 1 / In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods

by Plotinus

REFUTATION OF DEMOCRITUS'S ATOMS AS EXPLANATIONS OF MATTER.

(According to Aristotle's account of Democritus),[293] neither could the atoms fulfil the part of matter because they are nothing (as before thought Cicero).[294] Every body is divisible to infinity. (Against the system of the atoms) might further be alleged the continuity and humidity of bodies. Besides nothing can exist without intelligence and soul, which could not be composed of atoms. Nothing with a nature different from the atoms could produce anything with the atoms, because no demiurgic creator could produce something with a matter that lacked continuity. Many other objections against this system have and can be made; but further discussion is unnecessary.