http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/1994/10/03#atomism <P>Greek --- Democritus, the Epicureans. It developed independently in India --- was there any contact in Hellenistic times, or perhaps earlier? Strabo mentions one Moschus, a Phoenician "who lived before the Trojan War," as the first atomist --- is there any substance to this? Atomism in medieval Islam. European revival with the Renaissance. Boltzmann and <a href="stat-mech.html">statistical mechanics</a>. <a href="reductionism.html">Reductionism</a> and <a href="emergent-properties.html">emergent properties</a>. <ul>To read: <li>William R. Newman, <cite>Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution</cite> <li>David Furley, <cite>The Greek Cosmologists</cite>, vol. I: <cite>The Formation of the Atomic Theory and Its Earliest Critics</cite> </ul>