元素這個詞，在現在意義上已經不僅僅指我們日常感受到的水氣火土，而是可以解釋爲很小的粒子組成的物質。而這個認知的是Leucippus和他的學生Democritus區別開來的。這顯然還不足以開啓一門化學課堂。隨後Plato和Aristotle將數學的觀點結合，同時也引入了學院。
Democritus‘s view of the world was purely mechanical- even the mind ，he argued, was made of atoms;
The area was named after Academus, a legendary Athenian hero-hence the term academy, which has since come to mean an institution of learning.