Epicureanism

Time is infinite, relational, and discrete — constituted by the successive motions of atoms through the void rather than existing as an independent substance. Epicurus posited minima temporis (smallest units of time) corresponding to the minimum intervals of atomic motion, making this one of the earliest discrete-time theories in Western philosophy. Time is linear and non-directional: there is no cosmic beginning, no eschatological end, no teleological purpose; atoms have been moving through infinite void for infinite time and will continue to do so forever, forming and dissolving worlds without purpose or design. Freedom is non-deterministic: the clinamen introduces genuine indeterminacy into atomic motion, breaking the Democritean chain of strict necessity.

Space is infinite, substantival, and flat — the void (kenon) is a real, independently existing expanse through which atoms move. Unlike Aristotelian space, which is finite and bounded by the outermost celestial sphere, Epicurean space extends infinitely in all directions with no boundary, no center, and no privileged location. Space is flat: atoms move in straight lines (modified only by the clinamen and collisions), and there is no curvature or warping of the void. Locality is local: atoms interact only through direct physical contact and collision; there is no action at a distance.

Matter is infinite, substantival, and conserved — the atoms are eternal, indestructible, and uncreated. They have always existed and will always exist; no power can create them from nothing or destroy them into nothing. "Nothing comes from nothing" is the foundational principle. Matter is local: atoms occupy determinate positions in the void and interact only through direct physical collision. The infinite number of atoms moving through infinite void produces an infinite number of worlds — some like ours, some radically different — each arising through the chance collisions of atoms rather than through design.

The human observer is an entirely material being — a temporary arrangement of atoms that perceives the world through eidola (thin films of atoms shed by objects and received by the sense organs). Each person occupies a single moment and a single place; there is no preexistence, no reincarnation, and no afterlife. Knowledge is immediate, derived from the direct impact of eidola on the senses; sensation is always true (it is judgment that introduces error). Knowledge retainment is immediate: death dissolves the atomic compound of the soul, and all memory, personality, and consciousness cease absolutely — "where death is, I am not; where I am, death is not." The observer is radically embodied: there is no separable soul, no disembodied intellect, no survival beyond the dissolution of the body’s atoms. Agency is active: the clinamen (atomic swerve) breaks the deterministic chain and makes genuine choice possible; the philosopher actively cultivates ataraxia through rational reflection on the nature of things. Multiple observers share a common material world and can form communities of friendship (the Garden), but each person’s consciousness is private and mortal.

Energy is infinite and substantival — identical with the kinetic power of atoms in motion through the void. Atoms have always existed and have always been in motion; there was no first moment of creation and no external source of energy. Conservation holds absolutely: "nothing comes from nothing" (nil ex nihilo) and nothing is destroyed into nothing; the total matter-energy content of the cosmos is constant and eternal. Dispersibility is irreversible: atoms scatter and recombine, but the dissolution of any particular compound (including the human body and soul) is permanent and irreversible; there is no cosmic force that reassembles what has been dispersed.

Information is emergent and non-conserved — it arises from the temporary arrangements of atoms and ceases when those arrangements dissolve. There is no cosmic memory, no Akashic record, no divine omniscience preserving the history of events. When a person dies, their memories, knowledge, and personality are genuinely destroyed. Information is discrete because reality is atomic: knowledge consists of discrete sensory impressions (eidola) received from discrete material objects, and the atoms themselves are indivisible units. The framework places this as non-conserved at both scales: at the cosmic scale atomic configurations come and go without a preserving record, and at the personal-identity scale 'death is nothing to us' precisely because no pattern of the self survives the dispersal of its atoms.