An outline of Democritus’ Ethic

As the direct words said by Democritus himself of Ethic is rare, it is really hard to identify his ethical thoughts. What I do, is based on the reading of other philosophers’ comment about him and propose my own comprehensions.

Aphorism38 and 53-61 are directly talking about Democritus’ ethics. I may separate them into two parts, one is about what the meaning of life and what he thought people should do themselves, another part is related to the community and how people treat each other.

        

Something about the first part:

The goal of life, according to Democritus, is the cheerfulness, he also called it “well-being”. It is a state in which the soul continues “calmly and stably”.

(68A1) Cheerfulness arises in people through moderation of enjoyment and due proportion in life. Deficiencies and excesses tend to change suddenly and give rise to large movements in the soul. Souls that undergo motions involving large intervals are neither steady nor cheerful.

Democritus thought people should live in a self-controlled life. We can’t let our emotions and feelings occupy our “soul” to break the “peace state”.The interesting thing in this part is the explanation of brave: “Brave is not only he who master the enemy, but also he who masters pleasures. Some are lords of cities but slaves of women”. Democritus’ view of self-control reminds me about Kant. Maybe I could use Kant as a relation to this part.

About the second part, how people treat each other:

The only aphorism I thought that related to this topic is 38(68B164). It indicated that we have the tendency to get together and live in a community.

My understanding is that in the relative “micro world”, atoms build us. Atoms move owing to the void. And the “macro world”, we are the “atoms” of our community, and we tend to “delete” or “shrink” the “void” between us.

(That is my basic view about that. I thought I need to read more materials and have a better understanding.)

That is now what I learned about Democritus’ Ethic.