Atomism
E408368
Atomism is an ancient philosophical doctrine, associated especially with Democritus, which holds that all reality is composed of indivisible, imperishable atoms moving in the void.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Atomism canonical | 3 |
| Atomists | 1 |
| Democritean atomism | 1 |
| Democritean atomism (through Epicurus) | 1 |
| Democritean school | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4038259 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Atomism Context triple: [Democritus, philosophicalSchool, Atomism]
-
A.
logical atomism
Logical atomism is a philosophical view, chiefly associated with Bertrand Russell and early Ludwig Wittgenstein, which holds that the world consists of logically independent atomic facts that can be represented by a logically ideal language.
-
B.
Epicureanism
Epicureanism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Epicurus that teaches that the highest good is a life of modest pleasure, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
-
C.
Spinozism
Spinozism is the philosophical system of Baruch Spinoza, characterized by a strict monism in which God and Nature are identified as a single infinite substance governed by rational, necessary laws.
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D.
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is the philosophical tradition based on the works and methods of Aristotle, emphasizing empirical observation, formal logic, and systematic inquiry into nature, ethics, and metaphysics.
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E.
the swerve of atoms (clinamen)
The swerve of atoms (clinamen) is an Epicurean philosophical concept positing a spontaneous, unpredictable deviation in the motion of atoms to account for free will and the origin of events in an otherwise deterministic universe.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Atomism Target entity description: Atomism is an ancient philosophical doctrine, associated especially with Democritus, which holds that all reality is composed of indivisible, imperishable atoms moving in the void.
-
A.
logical atomism
Logical atomism is a philosophical view, chiefly associated with Bertrand Russell and early Ludwig Wittgenstein, which holds that the world consists of logically independent atomic facts that can be represented by a logically ideal language.
-
B.
Epicureanism
Epicureanism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Epicurus that teaches that the highest good is a life of modest pleasure, tranquility, and freedom from fear through rational understanding of the world.
-
C.
Spinozism
Spinozism is the philosophical system of Baruch Spinoza, characterized by a strict monism in which God and Nature are identified as a single infinite substance governed by rational, necessary laws.
-
D.
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is the philosophical tradition based on the works and methods of Aristotle, emphasizing empirical observation, formal logic, and systematic inquiry into nature, ethics, and metaphysics.
-
E.
the swerve of atoms (clinamen)
The swerve of atoms (clinamen) is an Epicurean philosophical concept positing a spontaneous, unpredictable deviation in the motion of atoms to account for free will and the origin of events in an otherwise deterministic universe.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ancient Greek philosophy concept
ⓘ
metaphysical theory ⓘ philosophical doctrine ⓘ theory of matter ⓘ |
| affirms |
infinite divisibility of space but not of atoms
ⓘ
reality of empty space ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Democritus
ⓘ
Epicurus ⓘ Leucippus ⓘ Lucretius ⓘ |
| category |
metaphysics
ⓘ
philosophy of nature ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ |
| denies |
existence of qualitative forms independent of matter
ⓘ
teleological final causes in nature ⓘ |
| developedIn |
Greek Antiquity
ⓘ
surface form:
ancient Greece
|
| earliestProponent | Leucippus ⓘ |
| hasConcept |
atoms
ⓘ
mechanistic causation ⓘ necessity ⓘ void ⓘ |
| hasCoreClaim |
all reality is composed of atoms and void
ⓘ
atoms are imperishable ⓘ atoms are indivisible ⓘ atoms move in the void ⓘ change results from rearrangement of atoms ⓘ nothing comes from nothing and nothing is annihilated, only atoms rearrange ⓘ qualitative differences in things arise from quantitative and configurational differences in atoms ⓘ the void is necessary for motion ⓘ |
| holdsViewOn |
the universe is infinite
ⓘ
there are infinitely many atoms ⓘ there are infinitely many worlds ⓘ |
| influenced |
Epicureanism
ⓘ
Hellenistic philosophy ⓘ early modern mechanical philosophy ⓘ modern atomic theory in physics and chemistry ⓘ scientific materialism ⓘ |
| majorProponent |
Democritus
ⓘ
Epicurus ⓘ Lucretius ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
Aristotelianism
ⓘ
surface form:
Aristotelian hylomorphism
Platonism ⓘ teleological explanations of nature ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
materialism
ⓘ
mechanism ⓘ reductionism ⓘ |
| textualSource | De rerum natura ⓘ |
| textualSourceAuthor | Lucretius ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 5th century BCE ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Atomism Description of subject: Atomism is an ancient philosophical doctrine, associated especially with Democritus, which holds that all reality is composed of indivisible, imperishable atoms moving in the void.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Democritean atomism
this entity surface form:
Democritean atomism (through Epicurus)
this entity surface form:
Democritean school