Note 962 — Chapter IX · LEUKIPPOS OF MILETOS

The Aristotelian criticisms which may have affected Epicurus are such as we find in de Caelo, 275 b 29 sqq. Aristotle there argues that, as Leukippos and Demokritos made the φύσις of the atoms one, they were bound to give them a single motion. That is just what Epicurus did, but Aristotle’s argument implies that Leukippos and Demokritos did not. Though he gave the atoms weight, Epicurus could not accept Aristotle’s view that some bodies are naturally light. The appearance of lightness is due to ἔκθλιψις, the squeezing out of the smaller atoms by the larger.