Leucippus of Miletus

Leucippus of Miletus (fifth century bc) is generally credited with introducing the concept of atoms, but we know little more about... 

In contrast to Eleatic School (Parmerrides and Empedocles), Leucippus of Miletus (-500- BCE) and his pupil, Democritus of Abdera (460-370 BCE) introduced the void as being necessary for the motion of corprrscrrles or atoms. Atoms are indivisible, solid, full, and compact with various shapes. They also were in motion and have weight (20). 

The idea that the elements were uniform and indivisible bodies (as opposed to an undifferentiated mass) can be traced to Leucippus of Miletus, who lived around 420 b.c.e. While the details of Leucippus s life are fragmentary, he was probably the first true atomist, arguing that there were only two aspects of the universe matter and the void. Matter was made of atoms, which were individually imperceptible, but solid and came in a finite number of shapes. By combining the basic shapes, all common matter could be constructed. Atoms also had the property of motion. This was a necessary aspect of atoms, since the void, being nothing, could not move, so the ability to move had to be inherent or part of the nature of matter. 

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