ABSTRACT
There is an air of conscious paradox about this title, which I do not by any means disavow. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that, as my exposition develops, the aura of paradox may to a large extent dissipate. Atoms and atomism are so intimately connected in the popular mind with the mechanistic, materialist, and atheistical world-view of Plato’s great bugbear Democritus that it is well to remind ourselves, from time to time, that there is nothing inherently mechanistic, materialist, or atheistical about an atom-in the sense of a (logically or actually) minimum unit of matter. It is not the theory of atomism as such, but rather the denial of purposiveness or divine guidance in the universe that goes with it, that attracts the wrath of Plato.
