Author:
Jaap Mansfeld
Jaap Mansfeld
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Abstract
The evidence that according to Democritus atoms cannot touch each other or come into contact is found in Philoponus’ Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics and On Generation and Corruption. But he did not and presumably could not access Democritus’ works, and depending on his exegetical context reports that the atoms touch each other as well as that they do not touch each other. This information offers insufficient grounds for the belief that according to Democritus atoms never touched each other.