The atom in the history of human thought

The idea of the atom--the ultimate essence of physical reality, indivisible and eternal--has been the focus of a quest that has engaged humanity for 2,500 years. That quest is captured in The Atom in the History of Human Thought.

Here is a panoramic intellectual history that begins in ancient Greece, ranges across the entire span of Western philosophy and science, and ends with the first direct visual proof of the atom's existence, just ten years ago. Bernard Pullman deftly captures the richness and depth of this remarkable debate, giving us not only the ideas of philosophers, church leaders, and scientists, but also the historical and social context from which these thoughts evolved. We have marvelous accounts of the work of such thinkers as Plato and Aristotle, Aquinas and Maimonides, Galileo and Descartes, Newton and Einstein--indeed, virtually every major philosopher of Western civilization, with excursions into the Hindu and Arab world--all presented against the backdrop of history. But perhaps most fascinating is the gradual shift in the book from a philosophical and religious perspective to a scientific perspective, especially in the 19th century, as science begins to dominate how humanity understands the world. Thus a book that begins with pre-Socratic philosophers such as Democritus and Empedocles ends with nuclear physicists such as Werner Heisenberg and Richard Feynman, and with a very different world view.

Ably translated by Axel Reisinger, this is a vibrant look at humanity's search to understand the ultimate nature of physical reality, a quest that has spanned the entire course of Western civilization.

A history of things we cannot see from the time of the Greeks to the present. Pullman (quantum chemistry, the Sorbonne) covers the contributions of all the major players: Democritus, Empedocles, Plato, Aquinas, Maimonides, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Heisenberg, and Feynman. The historical and social contexts from which various ideas about the atom evolved are presented. The shift from a philosophical and religious perspective to a scientific one in the 19th century is given particular attention.
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The concept of the atom is very near scientific bedrock, touching first causes, fundamental principles, our conception of the nature of reality. This book is a translation from the French of a history of atomic thought and theory, from ancient Greece to the present day. Pullman grounds his coverage of scientific theory always in the religious and philosophical context of the times, covering the whole period of Western civilization, including in passing the major scientific philosophies of the Muslim world and India. The transition of atomism from a philosophical position to an experimental science, in the mid-19th century, is well handled, and the coverage is nicely rounded out by a treatment of the first visual proof of atoms' material existence by direct microscopic imaging of individual atoms, about ten years ago.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [355]-392) and index.

Bernard Pullman was Professor of Quantum Chemistry at the Sorbonne and Director of the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique. He died in 1996. Axel Reisinger is a Senior Principal Physicist at Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company. He lives in Amherst, New Hampshire.

Preface

Part I. The Birth of Atomic Theory

1. The Backdrop: The Greek Miracles

2. The Foreground: "Arche", the Primordial Substance

3. The Atomists' Entry onto the Stage

4. A Very Particular Atomist: Plato

5. The Antiatomists

6. Principles and Primordial Substances

7. Hindu Atomism

Part II. A Few Scattered Revivals during a Prolonged Suspension (first to fifteenth century)

8. Early Medieval Christianity vis-a-vis the Atoms

9. The Medieval Christian Atomists

10. Medieval Jewish Thought vis-a-vis the Atoms

11. Arab Atomism

Part III. From the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment

12. The Resurgence of the Atomic Theory: Christian Atomism

13. The Christian Antiatomists

14. Boscovitch, or Punctual Atomism

15. Berkeley, or Atoms Dismissed

16. Kant, an Atomist Turned Antiatomist

17. The Rank and File of Atomists

Part IV. The Advent of Scientific Atomism: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

18. A Brief Overview

19. The Nineteenth Century: In Search of the Invisible and Indivisible Atom

20. The Twentieth Century: From an Invisible and Indivisible Atom to one that is Divisible and Visible

Provisional Epilogue

Notes

Index