Atomism in Physics, Atomism in Chemistry

The principle of atomismmay be traced back to Democritus, and it has been the foundation of thinking in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In the 17th Century, Boyle who had inherited the theory of atomism from atomist philosophers of Greece, made uses of this theory. In the 18th Century, Lavasie accepted atomism as an empirical hypothesis, and took the “element” as a “principle”. In this century, Dalton discusses based on the Lavazie’s developed conception of chemical element. In the present article, the author has tried to discuss views of Boyle and Dalton, and finally find distinction between atomism in Chemistry and Physics.