This topic explains how Democritus's ancient atomic theory laid the philosophical groundwork for what Alfred North Whitehead and Wolfgang Smith identify as a fundamental error in modern science: the bifurcation of nature. Democritus initiated this split by proposing that true reality consists only of quantitative atoms and void, while the qualitative world we experience—colors, tastes, and sounds—is merely a "conventional" subjective effect. This original division was later formalized by René Descartes into res extensa (measurable matter) and res cogitans (subjective mind), effectively banishing sensory experience from the domain of objective science. Whitehead critiques this as the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness," where an abstract scientific model is mistaken for the full, concrete reality, while Smith distinguishes between the primary "corporeal" world of lived experience and the secondary, abstract "physical" world of scientific measurement, arguing that Democritus inverted their true relationship, leading to scientism.
2. The Bifurcation of Nature.mp4
2. Democritus, Reductionism, and Atoms The Origins of the Cartesian Bifurcation Error of Science.mp3
This topic connects a foundational idea in ancient philosophy to a profound 20th-century critique of modern science. To understand how Democritus's theory fits into the ideas of Alfred North Whitehead and Wolfgang Smith, we need to see it as the philosophical seed or blueprint for the very error they diagnose. Democritus's atomism isn't just an ancient precursor to modern physics; it is the original formulation of the reductionist worldview that, once systematized by Descartes, became the "bifurcation of nature."
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the connection.
The Foundation: Democritus's Reductionist Atomic Theory
Democritus (c. 460–370 BCE) proposed a radical theory to explain the nature of reality: