The theory that all matter is composed of invisible, irreducible units; generally, any theory that see complex structures or grouping as constituted of elementary components. Holistic theories, in contrast, see the whole as more than the sum of its parts.
这种理论认为万物都是由不可见的最小单元所构成；通常 ，任何一种将复杂结构或集合视为由基本的部件所构成的理论都可以算是原子论。与之相反，整体论则认为整体大于部分之和。
Deriving from the notion that all matter is formed formed from basic elements, atomism offered a solution to the problems of motion and change that vexed the ancients: how to reconcile being with becoming. In the west, the theory that matter is not continuous but is composed of innumerable tiny particles—eternal, changeless, impenetrable, identical, self-moving, and indivisible—was first clearly stated in the fifth century B.C.E. by the Greek philosophier Democritus, who also coined the term atom, meaning “uncuttable.” Democritus further postulated that atoms exist and interact in empty space and that change occurs in the world through these interactions. The relative accuracy of this hypothesis is nothing less than astouding, considering that at the time it was pure conjecture and counterintuitive—indeed, Plato and Aristotle condemned it was nonsense. Coincidentally and almost simultaneously, a very similar atomic theory was posed in Indian Jainist philosophy; later Vaiseshika shcool of Hinduism also taught an atomistic theory of physics.
得益于“万物都由基本元素所构成”这一思想，原子论解决了一个困扰着古代人的关于运动与变化的问题：如何协调存在与产生的关系。在西方，希腊哲学家德谟克利特在公元前五世纪最先清晰地表述了这种理论：物质是不连续的,而是由无数永恒的、不变的、不可入的、相同的、自己运动的及不可分的小颗粒所组成。他创造了术语“原子”，意思是“不可分割的”。德谟克利特进一步假设：原子存在并且在空间中相互作用，世界上的变化就是通过这些相互作用发生的。考虑到在那个时代这个理论纯粹是种猜测并且不依靠直觉，那么该假设的相对准确性简直是令人惊骇——实际上柏拉图和亚里士多德斥其为毫无意义。巧合的是，一种非常相似的原子理论几乎同时出现在印度耆那教哲学中；后来，在印度教的吠世史迦学派的学校中也在教授一种原子论的物理。
In the first century B.C.E., the Roman epicurean Lucretius outlined an atomistic philosophy in his peom On the Nature of Things, which attritubuted the world’s vairety to what he saw as atoms’ inherent and unpridictable liveness. The rediscovery of this poem in the 15th century contributed to the eventual reemergence of atomic theory to chanllenge the prevailing Aristotelianism fo the Middle Ages, which conceived of the universe as filled with substance and rejected the idea of moving particles in a void.
在公元前一世纪 ，罗马伊壁鸠鲁学派学者卢克莱修在他的《物性论》一诗中概述了一种原子论哲学，他将世界的变化归结为他所观察到的原子内在的、不可预测的活性。公元十五世纪该诗的重新发现推动了原子理论的最终崛起，原子理论对中世纪所流行的亚里士多德主义形成了冲击，亚里士多德主义认为宇宙中充满了物质并且否定了在太空中有运动微粒的观点。
Descartes and Newton held atomistic, or “corpuscular,” theories of matter, but it was the English chemist John Dalton who revived the term “atom” and proposed that every elementary chemical is composed of identical atoms of a type unique to that element, and that what differentiates atoms is their weight. The ancient conception of atoms as the irreducible, indestructible basis of matter held firm until the atom was “split” in the 1940s, and quantum physics has recently demolished the notion that reality is fundamentally solid.
笛卡尔和牛顿对于物质也持原子理论或“微粒”说，但是则是由英国化学家约翰·道尔顿重新启用了“原子”这个术语并且提出每一中基本的化合物都是由原子组成，相同的原子都属于一种独特的元素，原子间的不同之处是他们的重量。关于原子是物质最小的、不可破坏的基础的古老概念在1940年代原子被“分割”后才被打破，而其后量子物理又摧毁了“实在性在根本上是可靠的”这一观念。
Atomsitic policital and social theories, such as Hobbes’s and Mill’s, view society as composed of autonomous individuals motivated primarily by competitive self-interest. Mental atomism is the theory, most influentially stated by John Locke, that human consciousness is an aggregate of discrete experiences—simple perceptions that combine, like atoms, to produce complex thought. The theory of logical atomism, considered and later abandoned by both Wittgenstein and Russell, employs the same anology, holding that sentences or propositions are “molecular”, that is, constructed from “atomic facts,” or fundamental units of meaning.
如霍布斯或密尔的原子政治学或原子社会学理论，认为社会是由自主的个体所组成，而个体为竞争性的个人利益所驱动。约翰·洛克广泛地论述了精神原子论，该理论认为人类的意识是个别经验之总和——简单的感知像原子一样结合而产生了复杂的思想。由维特根斯坦和罗素提出而后又被抛弃的逻辑原子论也使用了相同的类比，认为句子或命题是“分子”，因此由“原子事实”或者意义的基本单元所构成。
————————有些许困难的分割线————————
- 有些句子我好像可以读懂英文，例如“how to reconcile being with becoming”，含义应该是“如何找出产生与存在之间的联系”，但是如果这样翻译则不忠于原文，而reconcile在字典中只有“协调”、“调整”的意思。对于这种情况，我没有办法。
- 定语很难翻译，这个辞条中有些定语从句我无法分离成一个句子。
- 辞条最后关于其他原子论我都没什么了解，尤其是“mental atomism”，我不确定前人是否用过“精神原子论”这个词 。
需要看些翻译方法的书。
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