Is nature continuous or discrete? How the atomist error was born | Aeon Ideas

News Flash for Philosophers: It is NOT true that “The modern idea that nature is discrete originated in Ancient Greek atomism”.

On the contrary, (to the very limited extent that it is a thing at all) it originates as a hypothesis to “explain” the observed simple rational proportions of reagents in chemical reactions – which subsequently also explained first the various observed thermodynamic properties of apparently continuous bulk matter, and then the very specific power law governing Brownian motion, and then countless other observations of all kinds of material interactions. Up to a point. At which point it was modified to include a continuous aspect (via quantum probability distributions) at every level right down to to the most elementary components of the (as yet) most complete “discrete” models.

So any inconsistency with some Philosophy professor’s reading of Democritus, Epicurus, or Lucretius is not a “misreading” at all. And perhaps the suggestion that it is, should be the last Nail in the coffin of academic “Philosophy” as a respectable enterprise.

 

Source: Is nature continuous or discrete? How the atomist error was born | Aeon Ideas

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