Investigation and Review of the Arguments Presented by Islamic Philosophers for Invalidation of Atomism

The discussion on the reality of matter is one of the important discussions in philosophy, on which many views have been presented. One of the most important views with a longstanding background is the atomism school attributed to the Greek philosopher, Democritus. In this view, the matter is composed of thousands of tiny separate particles which get together to make bigger bodies. These tiny particles, though capable of being divided in illusion or by reason, are not able to be divided in external world. This view is opposite to the views of most Muslim philosophers who consider the matter not composed of separate particles, but a substance composed of the prime matter and the physical form. They consider it something extended and essentially connected that can be divided anyway endlessly. Since many of the arguments for proving the prime matter depend on the nullification of Democritus’ theory and proving the separated divisibility in matters, Muslim philosophers have presented various arguments against that theory. In the present article, we have investigated and reviewed five arguments among the abovementioned arguments, finally considering all of them as falsified