Criticism of Democritus’s ideas is implicit in several of Plato’s texts, as in his critique of “physicists,” for example. In a passage in his Phaedo, Plato has Socrates articulate a reproach to all “physicists,” which will have a lasting resonance. He complains that when “physicists” had explained that Earth was round, he rebelled because he wanted to know what “good” it was for Earth to be round; how its roundness would benefit it.
