Abstract

Athens after being defeated by Sparta in the Attic War is now under the despotic rule of the Thirty Tyrants. Socrates is on his way to see Theaetetus, the geometer, in search of news about his nephew Adeimantus and he meets Philodemos by chance in the Athenian agora who had that day heard Democritus and Leucippus both lecture on their atomic hypothesis. They both go to the house of Theaetetus which lies just outside of the city walls to discuss the meaning of atoms, of being and what is to be understood by the word fundamental.

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