more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
They say that one argument for void is that otherwise local motion (that is, locomotion and growth) would not exist: for there would not seem to be motion if there were no void, for what is full is incapable of receiving anything.
Gist of Idea
Growth and movement would not exist if there were no void to receive them
Source
Democritus (fragments/reports [c.431 BCE], A019), quoted by Aristotle - Physics 213b03
Book Ref
Democritus: 'Early Greek Phil VII: Democritus', ed/tr. Laks,A/Most,G [Harvard Loeb 2016], p.101
A Reaction
The modern concept of a 'field' seems to have removed the possibility of a genuine 'void'.
| 13217 | The void can't exist, and without the void there can't be movement or separation [Parmenides, by Aristotle] |
| 5100 | The void is not required for change, because a plenum can alter in quality [Aristotle on Melissus] |
| 24059 | Democritus is wrong: in a void we wouldn't see a distant ant in exact detail [Aristotle on Democritus] |
| 5101 | Movement is impossible in a void, because nothing can decide the direction of movement [Aristotle on Democritus] |
| 20905 | Growth and movement would not exist if there were no void to receive them [Democritus] |
| 20918 | Void is a kind of place, so it can't explain place [Aristotle] |
| 14043 | The void cannot interact, but just gives the possibility of motion [Epicurus] |
| 20822 | There is no void in the cosmos, but indefinite void outside it [Zeno of Citium, by Ps-Plutarch] |