death_date influenced birth_place birth_date image article_title name
c. 370 bc epicurus santayana karl marx friedrich nietzsche michel onfray pyrrho lucretius aristotle montaigne severino baruch spinoza george abdera , thrace c. 460 bc democritus2.jpg democritus
 democritus
democritus

democritus -lrb- ; `` dēmókritos '' , meaning `` chosen of the people '' ; -rrb- was an influential ancient greek pre-socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe .
democritus was born in abdera , thrace around 460 bc .
his exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor leucippus , as they are often mentioned together in texts .
their speculation on atoms , taken from leucippus , bears a passing and partial resemblance to the nineteenth-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard democritus as more of a scientist than other greek philosophers ; however , their ideas rested on very different bases .
largely ignored in ancient athens , democritus was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher aristotle .
plato is said to have disliked him so much that he wished all his books burned .
many consider democritus to be the `` father of modern science '' .
