Thinking objects, Plato

Although Aristotle developed a powerful matter theory, he was, like Plato, not an atomist. He argued that there were too many logical problems with the idea of indivisible, imperceptible objects that nonetheless had fixed existence. While Platonic and then later Aristotelian philosophy came to dominate Western thinking about the material world, the atomist thought of Democritus did not disappear completely. The philosophical school founded by Epicurus of Samos (341-270 b.c.e.) based its theory of matter on atoms. Our best record of Epicurean atomism comes from the Roman poet Lucretius (95—55 b.c.e.), who wrote a poem entitled De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). Lucretius says ... 

It is true that Condorcet s view is an ancient one - clearly defended, for instance, throughout Plato s Dialogues. He was what is these days called a moral realist , who assumed that there are objective moral truths and he further believed that, as people become more enlightened, the probability will increase that what most think is the right thing to do will indeed be the right thing to do (an assumption basic for his famed jury theorem ). Thus, he asks in the Esquisse ... 

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