Democritus Research Articles

Truth is in the depths (Democritus of Abdera, 460 BC-370 BC)

Truth is in the depths (Democritus of Abdera, 460 BC-370 BC)

Communicational Behavior among Student-teachers in a Working Team

This research investigates the future teachers’ views regarding the communication that they developed while working in a team that aimed at implementing a certain project. More specifically, views are being recorded on a) the frequency of meetings of team members during the implementation of the project they undertook, b) the framework of oral communication and the manner in which it was concluded c) the emotions that they experienced during their meetings and d) their behavior during the meetings and the discussions with their fellow-students. The tool for this research was the anonymous written questionnaire, which was completed by future teachers of the Department of Primary Education of Democritus University of Thrace after the completion of a team project in ten scheduled weekly meetings. The results demonstrate that the students - during the implementation of the project that they undertook - would meet with the other team members on a regular basis. During those meetings, they would behave responsibly, would act encouragingly towards team members and would seek to promote cooperation. They would discuss based on a very specific and clear set of targets, focused on predetermined subject matter, while their discussions would often be concluded in a friendly atmosphere or at least in consent.

From Democritus to Bertrand Russell and Back

Although Bertrand Russell is probably most famous for his “logi­cal atomism,” it is his ethical thought that this article will attempt to contrast with the ethics of the founder of the ancient atomism: Democritus of Abdera. Russell has himself suggested certain affinity here. More concerned with practice than theory, both philosophers advocate a certain teleological and eudemonistic morality; furthermore, they both adopt the same approaches to various related topics. Yet, what had only been outlined by Democritus was extensively developed by Russell. Hence, it is worth examining whether there is any deeper common ground between the two: can Russell’s clarity throw some light on Democritus’ fragments?

Aerodynamic Analysis of a Quadcopter Drone Propeller with the Use of Computational Fluid Dynamics

In the current work, an analysis for the initial aerodynamic assessment of a small sized quadcopter drone propeller is presented, focusing on the drone aerodynamic characteristics optimization. The objective of the work is to design and construct from scratch a quadcopter drone, in order to participate to the UAS Challenge 2020 student competition (www.imeche.org/events/challenges/uas-challenge). The study of the quadcopter design and construction is carried out by the Democritus Aeronautical Rescue Team (DART), a team that consists of students of the Democritus University of Thrace School of Engineering. The performance analysis which is presented is mainly based on the aerodynamic characterization of an initial selected propeller design, which will be used for the examined quadcopter, with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Three turbulence models were selected for the computations each one based on a different modelling approach. The computations are assessed and conclusions regarding the propeller design are derived. Based on the computations, the optimal propeller shape will be designed, and the results will further help to the refinement of the overall quadcopter aerodynamic layout in the final detailed design stages for the UAS Challenge competition.

On Democritean Rhysmos

In Metaphysics A.4 (985b4-19 [DK67 A6]), Aristotle provides crucial information about fundamental aspects of the chemistry and microphysics of the atomic theory of Leucippus and Democritus of Abdera. Besides the plenum and the void, which he identifies as the elements of the atomic theory, he presents what he himself names as differences. These fundamental differences are named so because they ought to be responsible for the emergence of all other differences in the physical world, and especially the ones that hit our senses. Aristotle provides a list of three differences both in what is recognized as autochthonous terminology from Leucippus and Democritus, and in a translation to terms apparently more intelligible to Aristotelian listeners. Among those differences there is one in particular that is harder to comprehend than the other ones: rhysmos. Aristotle’s translation of rhysmos into schēma has led most interpreters to acknowledge that it referred solely to atoms individually, while the other two differences would refer to relations between atoms. In this paper, I want to propose an interpretation in which rhysmos actually refers to several aspects of the chemistry and microphysics of the atomic theory.

На пути к возрождению метафизики: С.Л. Франк и Э. Корет

На пути к возрождению метафизики: С.Л. Франк и Э. Корет

On Atoms and Empty Space

Physics has ancient beginnings in the Greek period, in the work of Democritus of Abdera, father of atomic theory, and Euclid from Alexandria, generator of the first axiomatic system ever conceived.

Naming the Principles in Democritus: An Epistemological Problem

AbstractIt is well known that Democritus posited two principles of reality,

Democritean Conceptions in Brain Research

: Democritus of Abdera (b. circa 460-457 BCE; d. circa 370-351 BCE) has been called the father of modern science. With his teacher Leucippus, they co-founded the atomic theory. Concerning neuroscience, Democritus accepted Alcmaeon’s premise of the brain being the seat of the mind, and further formulated a triune concept of the human psyche. He contributed ideas to the physiological mechanisms of the senses and perception, and devoted considerable attention to the theory of knowledge, emphasizing subjectivity and the limitation of the human sensory apparatus.

Fertility in the Vlachic population of Greece: a demo-anthropological approach of Metsovo, 1930-1999 with the application of a genealogy based method of analysis

Fertility trends in the Vlachic population of Metsovo (District of Epirus, Department of Ioannina) for years 1930-1999 were studied. Through time, Total Fertility Rates of the population and its spatial/occupational groups diminished from more than 4 children per woman in the 1930s to around 1.2 in 1995-1999. Similar trends were observed for the cohort fertility. The mechanism of this transition is connected with the gradual and voluntary limitation of fertility through the appliance of stopping behaviors and with the parallel decrease of the average age at childbearing. ertility levels in Metsovo maintain over time a dynamic character imposed by the changing local structures, which, in their turn, are part of broader national and hyper-national ones. Konstantinos N. ZAFEIRIS , Lecturer of Demography, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of History and Ethnology, Laboratory of Anthropology, Komotini, Greece. E-mail: kzafiris@he.duth.gr . Katerina HATZISAVVA , Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace. Currently: Center of Greek Language, Thessaloniki, Greece. E-mail: chatzi@komvos.edu.gr . Nikolaos I. XIROTIRIS, Professor of Anthropology (retired). Former Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. E-mail: xirotiris@gmail.com .

Dr. Paul Zarogoulidis: the exploration on pneumothorax and new use of EBUS.

Dr. Paul Zarogoulidis, MD, Ms.C, PhD, finished his medical studies in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He continued his education as a pulmonary fellow in the Pulmonary Department of Democritus University of Thrace, Greece and finished his training as a pulmonary specialist in the Interventional Pulmonary Department, “Ruhrland” Clinic, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His post graduate training includes fellowship with the Medical Oncology Department, Cristie Hospital, Manchester, UK and with the Interventional Pulmonary Department, “Ruhrland” Clinic, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Currently he is a consultant in the Pulmonary Department, “G. Papanikolaou” General Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece. His interests apart from the daily activities of the department include research in the gene therapy field and novel drug, design, development and therapy. He is a member of EABIP, CABIP, WABIP, ASCO, IASLC, ERS, ISAM and ATS.

Review quantum computing since democritus by Scott Aaronson

Review quantum computing since democritus by Scott Aaronson

O atomismo grego e a formação do pensamento físico moderno

Este trabalho faz uma apresentação do atomismo grego, tanto na formulação original de Demócrito e Leucipo quanto na versão de Epicuro, e de suas influências, diretas ou indiretas, na formação do pensamento físico moderno. Fazemos uma exposição resumida das características essenciais dessa doutrina e mostramos como a sua redescoberta, no início da Era Moderna, ofereceu, juntamente com o cartesianismo, uma alternativa à visão de mundo aristotélica, então predominante. Destacamos como essa concepção alternativa, mais adequada ao novo pensamento físico nascente, se difundiu nos meios científicos, obtendo expressão nas obras de Galileu, Boyle e Newton, entre outros. Finalizamos fazendo um breve histórico da teoria cinética dos gases, que, a partir da hipótese atômica, lançou as bases de uma descrição microscópica quantitativa da matéria. Mostramos como essa teoria forneceu os elementos para a explicação do chamado movimento browniano, obtendo o que foi por muitos considerada a primeira confirmação experimental da concepção corpuscular da matéria.

Quantum computing since Democritus

Quantum computing since Democritus

Special issue on neuron–glia interactions

Special issue on neuron–glia interactions

Mi-Kyoung Lee: Epistemology after Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle and Democritus.

Mi-Kyoung Lee: Epistemology after Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle and Democritus. Oxford: Oxford UP 2005. XII, 291 S.

Lukian z Samosat na temat krwawych rytuałów: diatryba O ofiarach

This paper analyses the diatribe On sacrifices (De sacrificiis), written by famous Greek satirist of Roman imperial period, Lucian of Samosata (ca.120 – ca.190 A.C.), called Blasphemer or Atheist by Suda Lexicon, and traces its philosophical and literary sources. Lucian criticizes all forms of traditional Greek religion, in particular animal sacrifices (thysiai). He campaigns against traditional piety, that is, superstition, mentioning two pre-Socratic philosophers: Heraclitus of Ephesus and Democritus of Abdera. The satirical representation of Greek gods in On sacrifices bases on the Iliad of Homer, the desciption of the Eastern cults is anachronic (based on Herodotus), without any references to contemporary religious phenomena. The Lucian’s detailed description of religious animal slaughter (chapters 12-13), though it shows a great sensitivity and emotional involvement, is unclear, because there is no sign to recognize which he means: an usual Greek animal sacrifices or the holocausts. This emotional description is influenced by Homer’s poems and by two important moralizing writings: On piety (De pietate) by Theophrastus (fragments preserved in Porphyrius’ De ahstinentia, II) and On the eating the meat (De esu carnium, 1–II) by Plutarchus of Chaeronea.

Human nature between necessity and freedom

Fragment DK 68 B 33, ascribed to Democritus of Abdera, states, “Nature and education are almost similar ( he physis kai he didache paraplesion esti ). For in fact education transforms human being ( he didache metarhysmoi ton anthropon ), and this transformation produces nature ( metarhysmousa de physiopoiei ).” The image of education as an activity that produces nature offered by the philosopher echoes his view of a world ruled at the same time by necessity and freedom. Necessary are the atoms and the void, the atoms’ movement in the void or the atomic compounds. The subsistence of the void in the compound bodies explains the residue of indetermination that minimizes atomistic determinism. The same structure and the same processes are repeated in the makrokosmos and the mikrokosmoi . This is a universe in permanent rearrangement ( palin diakosmesis ). Human beings are under the same rule: the atomic figures that configure their souls give them an even greater propensity toward transformation. In this article we examine some testimonies and fragments gathered by H. Diels in his book, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker that enable us to understand how Democritus saw human nature vis-a-vis freedom and necessity. Key words: Democritus, human nature, freedom, necessity.

Review: Epistemology After Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle and Democritus

Review: Epistemology After Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle and Democritus

Democritus and Democracy

Democritus and Democracy