“In rebus naturae non est nisi motus localis”. Demócrito, Anaxágoras y el atomismo del siglo XIV

Abstract

The interest for Democritean atomism among theologists and artistae seems to have reached its peak during the first half of the XIV century. During that time, the disputes about the composition of the continuum multiply and the conceptual tools to address the issue, derived from the reading of Aristotle’s libri naturals, are fine-tuned. Paradoxically, those who oppose the Aristotelian solution to the problem find in the same pages a possibility for rebuttal: both in Paris as well as Oxford, authors like Henry of Harclay or Nicolas Bonet start to develop a model of indivisibilism inspired by Aristotle’s exposition of Democritus’s philosophy, that in its different variants (finitist or infinitist, physical or mathematical) allows to explain not only the current dissatisfaction with Aristotle’s natural philosophy but also the liberty and originality with which the medieval philosophers used the doctrines of the antiqui. In this context, the figure of Nicholas of Autrecourt stands out. He combined the Democritean model with elements attributed to Anaxagoras to postulate a rather particular variant of metaphysical atomism: no longer mathematical or purely physical but a comprehensive explanation of everything created.