The atomistic denial of ghosts: from Democritus to Lucretius

Abstract

This chapter discusses the atomistic premises against the existence of ghosts. According to the traditional Graeco-Roman religion and other philosophical doctrines, such as the Pythagorean, the Platonic, and the Stoic, ghosts do exist and serve as medium between the living world and the afterlife. Against this widespread belief, the first Atomists, Leucippus and Democritus, and their followers, Epicurus and Lucretius, argued that ghosts are not the dead who return from beyond, but physical and material emissions (simulacra) of people which persisted in the outside world and sometimes inside the mind, having been previously printed on it. This interpretation fits into the broader context of their philosophical system, which aims at delivering men from fear of the gods, of death and of the afterlife, with the eudemonistic purpose of achieving emotional peace.