# Leucippus — The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers character guide

> Leucippus in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** he of Leucippus

**First appearance:** 0086-leucippus

## Snapshot

The shadowy founder of atomism, whose theory of indivisible particles and void set the stage for his far more famous pupil Democritus.

## Who they are

Leucippus stands at the head of the atomist tradition, the thinker who first proposed that reality consists of atoms and empty space, though he left so little trace that even his existence was doubted. His legacy passes almost entirely through Democritus, the wealthy Abderan who sought him out as a teacher and spent his inheritance traveling to Egypt, Persia, and India in pursuit of wisdom. The tension between the master's obscurity and the pupil's restless, globe-trotting brilliance gives the early atomic school its strange double character: a doctrine born in shadow, carried into the light by a man who despised glory so thoroughly he walked through Athens unrecognized.

## In the story

### [Leucippus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/leucippus)

Native of Velia, Abdera, or Melos; pupil of Zeno; first to posit atoms as principles.

### [Democritus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/democritus)

Teacher of Democritus; his work 'The Great World' is sometimes attributed to Leucippus.

## Links

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