Editing Ancient Greek philosophy (section)

=== Pluralism and atomism ===
The power of Parmenides' logic was such that some subsequent philosophers abandoned the [[monism]] of the Milesians, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, where one thing was the ''arche''. In place of this, they adopted [[pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]], such as [[Empedocles]] and [[Anaxagoras]].<ref>Burnet, ''Greek Philosophy'', 69.</ref> There were, they said, multiple elements which were not reducible to one another and these were set in motion by love and strife (as in Empedocles) or by Mind (as in Anaxagoras). Agreeing with Parmenides that there is no coming into being or passing away, genesis or decay, they said that things appear to come into being and pass away because the elements out of which they are composed assemble or disassemble while themselves being unchanging.<ref>Burnet, ''Greek Philosophy'', 70.</ref>

[[Leucippus]] also proposed an ontological pluralism with a cosmogony based on two main elements: the vacuum and atoms. These, by means of their inherent movement, are crossing the void and creating the real material bodies. His theories were not well known by the time of [[Plato]], however, and they were ultimately incorporated into the work of his student, [[Democritus]].<ref>Burnet, ''Greek Philosophy'', 94.</ref>