 The conventional division into ‘ancient and modern’ was developed in a European context that does not necessarily reflect the history of other cultures. Without intending to overstate the value or generality of this division, we might regard three major bodies of thought as inheriting ideas from the ‘ancient’ traditions discussed above: atomism in Islamic kalām thought; the revival of atomism in the European Renaissance and after; and the continued interest in atomist theories in Indian philosophy through the early modern period.