Clinamen

As Clinamen (Greek: slight deviation ) Epicurus and Lucretius denote the element of chance in the context of determinism.

It is based on this, the idea that the world of tiny particles ( atoms ), which are in a perpetual fall through empty space. In this case, they remained separate, there would not be the smallest movement deviations by which it comes to clusters and to the phenomena of the sensible world.

In the words of Lucretius ' De Rerum Natura:

(Book 2, V. 217-224, Translator Karl Buechner )

Clinamen the term used Lucretius little later, after he has cited as evidence the ability of people to engage in the lawful course of things, that this process can not be completely determined:

(V. 289-293 )