Empedocles challenged the practice of animal sacrifice and killing animals for food. He developed a distinctive doctrine ofreincarnation. He is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to have recorded his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than is the case for any other pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.
The exact dates of Empedocles' birth and death are unknown, and ancient accounts of his life conflict on the exact details. However, they agree that he was born in the early 5th century BC in the Greek city ofAkragas inMagna Graecia, present-daySicily.[1] Modern scholars believe the accuracy of the accounts that he came from a rich and noble family and that his grandfather, also named Empedocles, had won a victory in the horse race at Olympia in the 71stOlympiad (496–495 BC).[a] Little else can be determined with accuracy.[1]
Primary sources of information on the life of Empedocles come from theHellenistic period, several centuries after his own death and long after any reliable evidence about his life would have perished.[2] Modern scholarship generally believes that these biographical details, includingAristotle's assertion that he was the "father ofrhetoric",[b] his chronologically impossible tutelage underPythagoras, and his employment as a doctor and miracle worker, were fabricated from interpretations of Empedocles' poetry, as was common practice for the biographies written during this time.[2]
The Death of Empedocles bySalvator Rosa (1615–1673), depicting the legendary alleged suicide of Empedocles jumping intoMount Etna inSicily
According toAristotle, Empedocles died at the age of 60 (c. 430 BC), but other writers have him living as long as 109 years.[c] Likewise, myths survive about his death: a tradition traced toHeraclides Ponticus posits that some force removed him from Earth somehow, while another tradition had him die in the flames of Sicily’sMount Etna.[d]Diogenes Laërtius records the legend that Empedocles threw himself into Mount Etna so people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god;[e] the volcano, however, threw back one of his bronze sandals, revealing the deceit. Another legend maintains that he jumped into the volcano to prove to his disciples that he was immortal: he believed he would come back as a god after being consumed by the fire. InIcaro-Menippus [it], a comedic dialogue written by the second-century satiristLucian of Samosata, Empedocles's final fate is re-imagined. Rather than being incinerated in Mount Etna, one of its eruptions carries him up into the heavens. Although singed by the ordeal, Empedocles survives and continues his life on the Moon, surviving on dew.
Burnet states that, although Empedocles likely did not die in Sicily, both general versions of the story (one in which he kills himself, the other in which he discovers he’s the first man to survive leaving Earth) could be easily accepted by ancient writers, as there was no local tradition to contradict them.[3]
Based on the surviving fragments of his work, modern scholars generally believe that Empedocles was directly responding toParmenides' doctrine ofmonism and was likely acquainted with the work ofAnaxagoras, although it is unlikely he was aware of either the laterEleatics or the doctrines of theAtomists.[5] Many later accounts of his life claim that Empedocles studied with thePythagoreans on the basis of his doctrine of reincarnation, although he may have instead learned this from a local tradition rather than directly from thePythagoreans.[5]
However, as the Modern Greek philosopherHelle Lambridis has argued, while Empedocles seems to have borrowed from the Eleatic tradition (with Parmenides at its centre) as well as from the Heraclitean and Pythagorean schools of thought, his own philosophy is very different from all these three influences. The work of Empedocles, Lambridis suggests, must be seen in relation to the work of the Greeks as a whole that borrowed elements from Egypt, Babylon and other Eastern cultures to produce a totally different philosophy.[6]
Empedocles' theory four elements (fire, air, water and earth), woodcut from a 1472 edition of Lucretius'De rerum natura
Empedocles established four ultimateelements which make all the structures in the world—fire,air,water,earth.[7][h] Empedocles called these four elements "roots",[8] which he also identified with the mythical names ofZeus,Hera,Nestis, andAidoneus[i] (e.g., "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears").[9] Empedocles never used the term "element" (στοιχεῖον,stoicheion), which seems to have been first used byPlato.[j][better source needed] According to the different proportions in which these four indestructible and unchangeable elements are combined with each other the difference of the structure is produced.[7] It is in the aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising, that Empedocles, like the atomists, found the real process which corresponds to what is popularly termed growth, increase or decrease. One interpreter describes his philosophy as asserting that "Nothing new comes or can come into being; the only change that can occur is a change in the juxtaposition of element with element."[7] This theory of the four elements became the standarddogma for the next two thousand years.
The four elements, however, are simple, eternal, and unalterable, and as change is the consequence of their mixture and separation, it was also necessary to suppose the existence of moving powers that bring about mixture and separation. The four elements are both eternally brought into union and parted from one another by two divine powers,Love andStrife (Philotes andNeikos).[7] Love (φιλότης) is responsible for the attraction of different forms of what we now callmatter, and Strife (νεῖκος) is the cause of their separation.[k] If the four elements make up the universe, then Love and Strife explain their variation and harmony. Love and Strife are attractive and repulsive forces, respectively, which are plainly observable in human behavior, but also pervade the universe. The two forces wax and wane in their dominance, but neither force ever wholly escapes the imposition of the other.
Empedocles' cosmic cycle is based on the conflict between love and strife.
As the best and original state, there was a time when the pure elements and the two powers co-existed in a condition of rest and inertness in the form of a sphere.[7] The elements existed together in their purity, without mixture and separation, and the uniting power of Love predominated in the sphere: the separating power of Strife guarded the extreme edges of the sphere.[l] Since that time, strife gained more sway[7] and the bond which kept the pure elementary substances together in thesphere was dissolved. The elements became the world of phenomena we see today, full of contrasts and oppositions, operated on by both Love and Strife.[7] Empedocles assumed a cyclical universe whereby the elements return and prepare the formation of the sphere for the next period of the universe.
Empedocles attempted to explain the separation of elements, the formation of earth and sea, of Sun and Moon, of atmosphere.[7] He also dealt with the first origin of plants and animals, and with thephysiology of humans.[7] As the elements entered into combinations, there appeared strange results—heads without necks, arms without shoulders.[7][m] Then as these fragmentary structures met, there were seen horned heads on human bodies, bodies of oxen with human heads, and figures ofdouble sex.[7][n] But most of these products of natural forces disappeared as suddenly as they arose; only in those rare cases where the parts were found to be adapted to each other did the complex structures last.[7] Thus the organic universe sprang from spontaneous aggregations that suited each other as if this had been intended.[7] Soon various influences reduced creatures of double sex to a male and a female, and the world was replenished with organic life.[7]
LikePythagoras, Empedocles believed in thetransmigration of the soul ormetempsychosis, that souls can be reincarnated between humans, animals and even plants.[o] According to him, all humans, or maybe only a selected few among them,[10] were originally long-liveddaimons who dwelt in a state of bliss until committing an unspecified crime, possibly bloodshed or perjury.[10][11] As a consequence, they fell to Earth, where they would be forced to spend 30,000 cycles of metempsychosis through different bodies before being able to return to the sphere ofdivinity.[10][11] One's behavior during his lifetime would also determine his next incarnation.[10] Wise people, who have learned the secret of life, are closer to the divine,[7][p] while their souls similarly are closer to the freedom from the cycle of reincarnations, after which they are able to rest in happiness for eternity.[q] This cycle of mortal incarnation seems to have been inspired by the godApollo's punishment as a servant toAdmetus.[11]
A display of two 5th century BCE clepsydras, or "water clocks" from the Ancient Agora Museum in Athens
Empedocles was avegetarian[r][12] and advocated vegetarianism, since the bodies of animals are also dwelling places of punished souls.[s] For Empedocles, all living things were on the same spiritual plane; plants and animals are links in a chain where humans are a link too.[7]
Empedocles is credited with the first comprehensive theory of light and vision. HistorianWill Durant noted that "Empedocles suggested that light takes time to pass from one point to another."[13][14] He put forward the idea that we see objects because light streams out of our eyes and touches them. While flawed, this became the fundamental basis on which later Greek philosophers and mathematicians likeEuclid would construct some of the most important theories of light, vision, and optics.[15][better source needed]
Knowledge is explained by the principle that elements in the things outside us are perceived by the corresponding elements in ourselves.[t] Like is known by like. The whole body is full ofpores and hencerespiration takes place over the whole frame. In the organs of sense these pores are specially adapted to receive the effluences which are continually rising from bodies around us; thusperception occurs.[u] In vision, certain particles go forth from the eye to meet similar particles given forth from the object, and the resultant contact constitutes vision.[v] Perception is not merely a passive reflection of external objects.[16][better source needed]
Empedocles also attempted to explain the phenomenon ofrespiration by means of an elaborate analogy with theclepsydra, an ancient device for conveying liquids from one vessel to another.[w][17] This fragment has sometimes been connected to a passage[x] inAristotle'sPhysics where Aristotle refers to people who twisted wineskins and captured air in clepsydras to demonstrate thatvoid does not exist. The fragment certainly implies that Empedocles knew about thecorporeality of air, but he says nothing whatever about the void, and there is no evidence that Empedocles performed any experiment with clepsydras.[17]
The Strasbourg Empedocles papyrus contained over 50 lines from Empedocles' workOn Nature that were not published until 1999.[18]
According to Diogenes Laertius,[y] Empedocles wrote two poems, "On Nature" and "On Purifications", which together comprised 5000 lines. However, only some 550 lines of his poetry survive, quoted in fragments by later ancient sources.
In old editions of Empedocles, about 450 lines were ascribed to "On Nature" which outlined his philosophical system, and explains not only the nature and history of the universe, including his theory of the fourclassical elements, but also theories on causation, perception, and thought, as well as explanations of terrestrial phenomena and biological processes. The other 100 lines were typically ascribed to his "Purifications", which was taken to be a poem about ritual purification, or the poem that contained all his religious and ethical thought, which early editors supposed that it was a poem that offered a mythical account of the world which may, nevertheless, have been part of Empedocles' philosophical system.
A late 20th century discovery has changed this situation. The Strasbourg papyrus[18][z] contains a large section of "On Nature", including many lines formerly attributed to "On Purifications".[19] This has raised considerable debate[20][21] about whether the surviving fragments of his teaching should be attributed to two separate poems, with different subject matter; whether they may all derive from one poem with two titles;[22] or whether one title refers to part of the whole poem.
^Durant, Will.The Story of Civilization, Volume 2:The Life of Greece (New York; Simon & Schuster) 1939, p. 339.
^Empedocles (and with him all others who used the same forms of expression) was wrong in speaking of light as 'travelling' or being at a given moment between the earth and its envelope, its movement being unobservable by us; that view is contrary both to the clear evidence of argument and to the observed facts; if the distance traversed were short, the movement might have been unobservable, but where the distance is from extreme East to extreme West, the draught upon our powers of belief is too great. Aristotle,On the soul 418b
Gottlieb, Anthony (2000).The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance. London: Allen Lane.ISBN0-7139-9143-7.
Kirk, G. S.;Raven, J.E.; Schofield, M. (1983).The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-25444-2.
