SOURCE: “Did Democritus Ascribe Weight to Atoms?” in Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 75, No. 3, September, 1997, pp 279-87.

In the following essay, Chalmers attempts to eliminate contradictions concerning the weight of atoms in Democritus's theory by making fine distinctions in particular definitions.

I. Introduction

The problems concerning the question of whether or not Democritus ascribed weight to atoms are twofold. First, if we take their words at face value, it would appear that the ancient Greek commentators on Democritus disagreed on the matter. Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus both made statements that can readily be taken as attributing weight or heaviness to Democritean atoms, as did Simplicius, who had access to a work by Aristotle on Democritus which is now lost. Aetius, by contrast, claimed the contrary. Second, modern commentators are in disagreement concerning how this difficulty is to be resolved.

Kirk, Raven and Schofield [9, p. 141] have identified and...