Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who holds to or expounds the atomic philosophy or the atomic theory.
  • Same as atomistic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who holds to the atomic philosophy or theory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An adherent of atomism; one who believes matter is composed of elementary indivisible particles.
  • noun An adherent of the atomic theory.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From atom + -ist.

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Examples

  • Yet in keeping with his epistemological modesty, Newton allows the possibility, mentioned earlier, that the atomist presumption may turn out to be incorrect: “If it were established by even a single experiment that in the breaking of a hard and solid body, any undivided particle underwent division, we should conclude by the force of this third rule not only that divided parts are separable but also that undivided parts can be divided indefinitely.”

    Locke's Philosophy of Science Kochiras, Hylarie 2009

  • Since Locke's sympathies are clearly with the atomist version, the term

    Locke's Philosophy of Science Kochiras, Hylarie 2009

  • Although Anaxagoras is not considered an atomist, he taught something that was amazingly prescient.

    A Third Choice (ID Hypothesis) 2007

  • Although Rule 3 of the Principia allows the possibility that the least parts of matter could turn out to be divisible, his atomist sympathies are evident throughout his writings.

    Locke's Philosophy of Science Kochiras, Hylarie 2009

  • The idea makes an early appearance in the mathematics of the Greek atomist philosopher Democritus c.

    Continuity and Infinitesimals Bell, John L. 2009

  • I'm puzzled where Arnold gets the idea that I'm an "atomist."

    EconLog: August 2007 Archives 2007

  • It presents a logical atomist picture of reality and language...

    Wittgenstein and Kepler Tusar N Mohapatra 2009

  • In a sense that is consistent with empiricism, Obama is an atomist (metonymist) and an organicist (synecdochean).

    An Ideology of Audacity 2009

  • It presents a logical atomist picture of reality and language...

    Archive 2009-03-01 Tusar N Mohapatra 2009

  • Plenist and atomist versions of the corpuscular hypothesis may be distinguished.

    Locke's Philosophy of Science Kochiras, Hylarie 2009

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