Abstract
AbstractThis paper discusses views of vacuum proposed by Greek philosophers in the time span ranging from the 5th century B.C. to the 6th century A.D. The Eleatic Melissus (5th century B.C.) denied the existence of vacuum. The Early Atomist Leucippus, his followers and Epicurus asserted that the full (matter) and the empty (vacuum) are the irreducible elements of the universe. While the Early Atomists emphasized the metaphysical status of vacuum, which they defined as that which is ‘the nothing’ or ‘the non‐existent’, Epicurus was mostly concerned with stating that it was a sort of fluid medium with an ‘intangible nature’, which allowed material objects to move within it by yielding to them. Plato held that a vacuum does not exist, apart from small interstices in matter. Aristotle rejected the existence of both vacuum and the motion of a body in it. Also, the Stoics denied its existence, except outside the cosmos. These philosophical views are compared with the notion of a vacuum relevant to a typical surface science experiment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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