Book Title: Microcosmology Atom in Jain Philosophy and Modern Science
Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
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Microcosmology : Atom ATOM IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY
The idea of the smallest indivisible ultimate building blocks of matter first came up in connection with elaboration of the concepts of Matter, Being and Becoming which characterised the first epoch of Greek philosophy. The fundamental question was 'what is the material cause of all things ?' Simultaneously, there was a demand that this question be answered in conformity with reason, without resort to myths, mysticism or superstition.
Greek philosophy and science which were not originally separate were born together at the beginning of the sixth century B.C., with the first of the Milesian philosopher, Thales. He took his view primarily from meteorological considerations and held that "WATER is the material cause of all things."
Of all things we know, WATER can take the most diverse shapes; it can take the form of ice and snow, it can change itself into vapour and can form clouds. it seems to turn into earth where the rivers form their delta, and it can spring from the earth. And to add to all this, water is the condition - a must - for life to exist. If there was such a fundamental substance at all, it was natural to think it to be of water as out of this all others are formed.
Anaximander, second philosopher of the Milesian school and a pupil of Thales, did not accept water or any other known substance. According to him the primary substance was infinite, eternal and ageless and it encompassed the whole world. This primary substance, according to him, was transformed into various substances with which we are familiar and these were transformable into each other.
Anaximenes, the last of the Milesian triad (500 B.C.) taught that AIR was the primary substance. "The soul is air, fire is rarefied air; when condensed, air becomes first water, then earth and finally stone." Thus he introduced the idea that the process of condensation and rarefication caused the change in the primary substance. The condensation of water vapour into clouds was an obvious example and of course the difference between water vapour and air was not known at that time.
