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Matter
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is not one. On the contrary there are an infinite number of them and they are invisible owing to the smallness of their bulk. They are in perpetual motion and by their coming together, they effect coming into being and by their separation, passing away". The essentials of the Greek atomic theory were thus three viz:-(1) There are an infinite number of smallest possible matter-stuff, called atoms which are absolutely hard and impenetrable, each occupying a definite space; (2) Gross bodies are made up of these atoms, which being in perpetual motion come in contact with and impinge themselves on one another; (3) All qualitative differences in gross bodies are explained by the differences in the arrangement, size, form and situation of their constituent atoms; in other words, all qualitative differences in the material things are reduced to quantitative ones in the atoms.
BOSCOVITCH'S THEORY OF ATOMS
As in the case of elements, the Greek theory of atoms has undergone considerable modifications in the hands of the modern scientists, so much so, that it has changed beyond recognition, if not altogether given up. Even those modern thinkers who adhere to the Democritian theory of spacefilling atom reject the doctrine of its indivisibility and contend that an atom comprises within it matter which is ideally infinitely divisible but the parts of which have in fact never been nor can be separated from each other. Others have questioned the space-filling character of the atoms. Leucippus, as we have said above "thought that he had a theory which was in harmony with sense-perception”. But does sense-perception tell us that matter is an extended substance, filling a definite position of space? I hold a book in my hand and try to press it. What I actually feel then is not that the book is an extended substance but is that I am pressing and acting upon the book which in its turn is equally pressing and reacting upon my hand. In other words, what 'I' perceive then is only a pressure and pressure is only a force. Our ideas of extension are
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