The word “atomism” is like the old original Atari game console. Warning: this is going to be a far-fetched analogy, one that dates me too. You see, during my initial cursory study of the word, I noticed there existed a few derivative concepts — psychological atomism, for example, and logical atomism and social atomism as well. That’s when my mind’s eye conjured up an image of an old Atari game console with a mess of game cartridges all about. The idea here is that a variety of different subjects can be plugged into the concept of atomism.
So, let’s first take a look at the game console itself. “Atomism” comes from the Greek word “ἄτομος” (“átomos”) which means indivisible. The ancient Greek philosophers Leucippus and his student Democritus offered atomism as a concept to explain the material world. They claimed the world is composed of tiny discrete units called atoms. Of course, back then they didn’t have scientific instruments to prove such claims, so this original concept is referred to as philosophical atomism as opposed to scientific atomism. In it’s most general sense, atomism is the idea that something (anything) can ultimately be reduced to its basic indivisible unit. Therefore, theoretically any given subject matter can be placed in front of “atomism” to form a topic, theme, or idea — as long as analysis of the subject entails reducing it to its unit of essence. You may wonder if atomism and reductionism are the same. Well, they’re similar in that they both aim to reduce. The difference is the reduction in atomism yields a final basic indivisible unit, whereas reductionism results in merely simplifying a subject but not necessarily down to its basic unit.
In keeping with my far-flung analogy, let’s look at some of the individual game cartridges (i.e., varieties of atomism). “Social atomism” is thrown around a lot these days. It’s a theory from the field of sociology that claims the basic unit of society is the individual. This social theory suggests that individuals are driven by self-interest and self-sufficiency and secretly or overtly subscribe to the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Those critical of capitalism sometimes refer to the average western individual as the “atomized individual” who suffers from loneliness and isolation, a condition which is believed to have resulted from late-stage capitalism.
Other game cartridges include Bertrand Russell’s logical atomism, which holds that knowledge consists of logical atoms (facts) that cannot be reduced to smaller units. This, by the way, is similar to linguistic atomism where the smallest unit of meaning is a morpheme. There’s also moral atomism which claims that the value of moral acts is determined by the atomistic unit of an act itself and not by other factors such as character. Psychological atomism suggests that mental states of mind can be broken down to their basic units, such as sensations and feelings. This idea, incidentally, is vigorously opposed by those who follow more holistic approaches to theories of mind.
As you can see, there’s a myriad of different atomisms, just as there were (are?) a great assortment of Atari game cartridges. As I reflect back on my Atari-game-playing days, I realize I wasted a lot of time. I realize now that contemplating the possibilities and varieties of atomisms would have been much more rewarding than playing Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or (my favorite one) Breakout. Do you know what the basic indivisible unit of misery is — regret. ∎
Sources:
Bard, a large language model from Google AI, “moral atomism,” https://bard.google.com/ (accessed August 18, 2023).
Bard, a large language model from Google AI, “psychological atomism,” https://bard.google.com/ (accessed August 18, 2023).
Chalmers, A, The Scientist’s Atom and the Philosopher’s Stone, Springer.com, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2362-9_1 (accessed August 19, 2023).
Wikipedia contributors, “Atomism (social),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atomism_(social)&oldid=1109626176 (accessed August 18, 2023).
Wikipedia contributors, “Atomic theory,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atomic_theory&oldid=1170295911 (accessed August 18, 2023).
Wikipedia contributors, “Logical atomism,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Logical_atomism&oldid=1166188437 (accessed August 18, 2023).
Wiktionary contributors, “atom,” Wiktionary, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=atom&oldid=75403761 (accessed August 18, 2023).
Wiktionary contributors, “atomism,” Wiktionary, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=atomism&oldid=75406155 (accessed August 18, 2023).
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