Important Issues in Atomism - Essay Example

Your full September 17, Atomism Here, we discuss three very important issues in atomism that will become perennial in philosophy. (1) There is a distinction between appearances and reality. Atoms, apparently, are imperceptible objects, but they have, in reality, caused the evolution of the whole universe. The impartial study of the knowledge of matter destroys the false appearance of scientific atomism, thus marking a difference between appearance and reality. There is a different reality of spirit at the back of the appearance of matter. (2) Material reductionism and mechanism are other important issues in atomism.

Pure atomism is known as the mechanism, dating back to Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus, promoting the idea that the universe has been derived from one primitive, homogenous substance. Atomism gives rise to materialistic reductionism, which explains how larger phenomena can be divided into smaller ones, in charge of many events happening in the universe. (3) Another significant phenomenon is determinism, which explains that every event that occurs in the universe is a result of a previous series of events.

However, atomist determinism has many explanatory weaknesses, like the order of the cosmos is not being controlled by an external force, but controls itself. Hence, natural laws have been outlawed. Determinism is against free will because it bounds the occurrence of an event to a prior series of events, and thus, lacks originality. The elimination of an extra outside force controlling the events of the universe, and an inability to define any alternative form of controlling force, led Aristotle to reject atomism.