Laughing Matters: On Democritus
In his On Medical Experience, Galen notes a central aporia in Democritus' thought: insofar as sensory qualities are held to be merely conventional and without reality, they offer no sure path for the derivation of the theory of atoms and void that ostensibly explains the emergence of these very qualities. This is not necessarily a flaw in Democritus' thought; rather it reflects the movement of dissemblance that the atomist depicts as integral to perception and thinking writ large. The theory of atoms and void cannot ground itself, but rather emerges as a kind of mockery, the semblance of theory passing for a theory of semblances. It is perhaps worthy only of the laughter that one ascribes to Democritus, and yet this laughter is itself a figure for the nonsensical convulsions of atoms transgressing the void.