Leucippus was a Greek philosopher of the 5th century BCE. He is credited with founding atomism, with his student Democritus. Leucippus divided the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up all things, and the void, the nothingness between the atoms. Leucippus's ideas were influential in ancient and Renaissance philosophy. They were a precursor to modern atomic theory, but the two are only superficially similar. Leucippus's atoms come in infinitely many forms, all in constant motion, creating a deterministic world created by the collisions of atoms. The soul is viewed as an arrangement of spherical atoms, cycled through the body by respiration and creating thought and sensory input. Little is known of his life, with a few scholars doubting that he existed, attributing his ideas purely to Democritus. Two works are attributed to Leucippus, The Great World System and On Mind, but all of his writing has been lost except for one sentence.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona Territory, stealing more than $28,000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham_Paymaster_robbery
1970:
Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people dead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock_tornado
2010:
Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_Kingdom_government_formation
2022:
Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed civilians in Mondaingbin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Taing_Pin_massacre
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
syrinx: 1. (music) A set of panpipes. 2. (by extension) 3. (archaeology, Egyptology) Chiefly in the plural: a narrow channel cut in rock, especially in Ancient Egyptian burial chambers. 4. (neurology, pathology) Any of several abnormal tube-shaped structures in the body, especially a rare, fluid-filled neuroglial cavity in the brain stem or within the spinal cord. 5. (ornithology, zootomy) The voice organ in birds, located at or near where the trachea and the bronchi join. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syrinx
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn Upon her wings presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh-quilted colours through the air: Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see The dew bespangling herb and tree! Each flower has wept and bow’d toward the east Above an hour since, yet you not drest; Nay! not so much as out of bed? When all the birds have matins said And sung their thankful hymns, ’tis sin, Nay, profanation, to keep in, Whereas a thousand virgins on this day Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May. --Robert Herrick https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick