void

…accept the existence of the void (empty space) as a real entity in which the atoms can move and rearrange themselves. By accepting the void and by admitting a plurality of beings, even an infinite number of them, Democritus seemed to abandon—even more than Empedocles did—the unity of being. Nevertheless,…

…as the existence of the void and the indivisibility of the atoms, as noted above.

…does in a way exist—as empty space. There are, then, two fundamental principles of the physical world, empty space and filled space—the latter consisting of atoms that, in contrast to those of modern physics, are real atoms; that is, they are absolutely indivisible because nothing can penetrate to split them.…

…negation of every form of kenon (“void”): the Being is an absolute plenum just because every lack in its plentifulness would amount to a presence of some Not-Being.

…asserted that space, or the Void, had an equal right with reality, or Being, to be considered existent. He conceived of the Void as a vacuum, an infinite space in which moved an infinite number of atoms that made up Being (i.e., the physical world). These atoms are eternal and…

…for his doctrine of the void (asserting that all substances contain void and that differences in the weight of substances are caused by differences in the extension of the void), which served as the theoretical base for the Hellenistic construction of air and steam engines as described in Hero of…